42 Up

Brit Michael Apted began this film with "Seven Up!", in 1964, in black and white, followed in color every seven years by "7 Plus Seven(1970)", "21(1977)", "28 Up(1985)", "35 UP(1991)", and now in 1998, "42 Up." It follows several "randomly" selected boys and girls into manhood and womanhood. I found Neil most fascinating, he was a bright 7-year-old who wanted to be a "carriage driver", dropped out of college, worked at odd jobs, at 28 was homeless in Scotland, at 35 homeless in the Shetland Islands, obviously somewhat mentally unstable. Living off the British government payments, with no job. By age 42 he is in London, representing Hackney as the elected Liberal Democrat representative. He actually has a purpose now, does good for those he represents, still has no job. But he looks forward to each day now, something he had difficulty doing in past years.

The beauty of this film is its unique look at us, humanity, and how we grow up, dealing with "life." This was truly an inspired project Apted undertook, beginning about 40 years ago. I would not have understood this as a casual viewer, but the every seven year "engagement" is stressful for the participants, as if they don't want to disappoint the viewing audience. Several actually opted out and were only discussed, because they no longer wanted the pressure of participating.

I hope I am around to see "49 Up"!! The year 2005 is right around the corner (update December 2004).