#16 - 7 Up! and 7 Plus 7

7 Up! (1964)

directed by

Paul Almond

7 Plus 7 (1970)

directed by

Michael Apted

Jackie, Lynn, and Sue

We didn't need to watch this to know we're keeping it, but we needed to watch it because we haven't seen it in years.

If you don't know about the Up series, it began as an attempt to show how class in England locked people in place. The first installment looked at a group of 7 years olds from poor, middle-class, and upper class. It's a lot of fun listening to a bunch of little kids answer all sorts of questions; do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend, what do you think of poor/rich people, what do you think of colored people?

According to Apted, it was he who was intent on making a film about class. He was a researcher for the first film, and took the series over with the second one. He would go on to make 8 movies, reaching 63 Up, before he passed away last year.

7 Plus 7 returns to the kids, now 14, with more pointed questions. What's really fascinating is how sharp so many of the kids are. There's no denying, the rich kids (some of whom were learning Latin at 7), aren't merely knowledgable; they've been taught to reason. They can seem a little pompous, but they're self-assured and thoughtful. The thing is, while the working-class kids may not be as educated, they're thoughtful and have an understanding how the world works that seems alien to kids I meet today.

In both films, it's the two boys from an orphanage that are the saddest. They're there because their parents can't care for them. They don't even know what university is when asked if they might attend one.

The Up series may not have been done with scientific rigor, but it's one of the most impressive and successful long-form documentaries ever made. With great empathy and depth, it followed 14 people (with only a single one dropping out completely) over 56 years of their lives, watching them struggle with life, family, careers, and more.

We'll watch the others as we come back around to documentaries every few weeks. I'll talk more about certain participants later. For now, I just want everyone who hasn't watched these movies to go out and find them. I cannot recommend these enough.

Verdict: keeping, keeping, keeping

Bruce