Educational Media Reviews Online

The latest installment of the series originally begun in 1964 as 7 Up, sets out to revisit for the fifth time the lives of 11 of its 14 original subjects. Filmed every seven years from the time when they were 7 years old, the subjects of Michael Apted's documentaries have grown up and developed in front of his cameras. Many of them now consider Apted and his periodic visits as inexorable parts of their lives. Although it is part of a series, 42 Up is carefully designed to work independently.

To watch this remarkable film is to come to understand the immensity of its importance as a social, cultural, and psychological document. Initially, the documentary was to be "a glimpse of Britain's future" based on the Jesuit maxim, "Give me a child until he is 7, and I will show you the man." It has long since become an astonishing phenomenon, both as non-fiction film and as supporting data for human development. In fact, Nick, the farmer's son who became a university professor says half-jokingly, "My ambition as a scientist, is to be more famous as a scientist than for being in this film." Most of the participants are very comfortable speaking with Apted on-camera, relating to him as they would to a relative who visits every seven years. The comfort level extends to their commitment to reveal themselves, their thoughts, their dreams, and their regrets.

Apted's original subject selection was visionary: the children were from different economic backgrounds, social classes, and in one instance, races. For the past 35 years audiences have been able to reflect upon whether or not their diverse origins have dictated the course of their lives. As the participants are now in mid-life, they are asked to discuss love and success, and how both have affected their own lives. Michael Apted's clever juxtaposition of footage from childhood to the present reacquaints viewers with the child and points out the paths of development to reach their present state. In some cases the editing is eerily uncanny in support of the Jesuit maxim. For example, Tony, the East End boy who at first wanted to be a jockey, but who predicted that he would be driving a cab, now at the age of 42, has been driving a cab for several years on the night shift, while his wife drives it during the day. Similarly, Apted shows Nick walking about the farm as a young boy and again in the same location, visiting from Wisconsin and his post as full professor in electrical engineering. Our ability to jump back and forth in time, to condense it, to synthesize it through these actual lives, to compare development and progress, to assess societal change through the individual change in the subjects, is made possible by the sensitivity and care with which Apted has dealt with his subjects all these years.

The three little girls from East London have remained friends and their lives have been similar in that all have married, had children and divorced. All have regrets about their youth. Of the three little boys from boarding school only one elected to continue participating in the film. His two sons will also be attending boarding school. Paul who grew up in a children's home and moved to Australia claims to have had confidence problems throughout his life. Yet the film accentuates how questions of social class have increasingly become less important with the passage of time. Symon, a bi-racial child who was brought up in a children's home is rebuilding his life and has stopped thinking about color issues. Bruce, a boy first encountered in a privileged boarding school and then at Oxford, ended up teaching in northern Bangladesh but returned to England to teach in an East End of London girls' school. Suzy, another child from a privileged background has been married for 20 years and now has built a career in bereavement counseling. Finally, Neil, the smart and sweet little boy who just couldn't relax, ended up as a squatter at 21 and believed there would not be any stability in his life. At 35 he was living in solitude in the Shetland Islands but at 42, understanding that his emotional health is precarious but improving, he has become a liberal democrat member of a local council.

Apted, whose fiction films include Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, Nell, and the recent, The World is Not Enough, has produced one of the most important contemporary cultural documents. It is not only highly significant as a sociological, anthropological and psychological document; it is also excellent filmmaking. The segmented structure allows for reconstructing the lives while the inspired pacing permits reflection. It is possible to watch social change in the last third of the 20th century evolve through the lives of these participants. This video is a must-have for any library and is awarded the highest possible recommendation for Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, and Psychology.