What a beautifully written piece! Thank you, Mr. Lewis-Kraus.
8
So much of movie making, including the making of documentaries, maintaining a distance between the individuals being filmed and the documentary's creator. Even when the intention is to show the individuals sympathetically, there is the observer, slightly outside of the frame, with a particular view- and ultimately, control.
But this cycle of intermittent contact over time and personal experience has narrowed - arguably eliminated - that distance between Apted and the "children" from 1964 -- who clearly become people in a relationship with him. AS we age and comprehend our shared fragility, we can find a different common ground.
It doesn't negate his emphasis on the impacts of "class" -- which has a massive impact to day in "classless" America as well. Jackie, for instance, is both a strong woman, and one who was denied choices in life because of her background. She isn't less because of this, but she could have had more.
2
Awesome work. Freud said it best, "Child is father to the man."
Thank you; I barely read the Times nowadays (despite my subscription) but this was perfectly lovely.
2
Gracious, I loved the series and felt I got to know each in a glimpse. Was certainly gutted Lynn had died. What a fleeting time but for her I hope it was abundant with love.
3
Incredible series. Can't wait to see this episode. Time to go back and binge watch. I thought the quote referred to came from the Jesuits, "Give us a boy till he is 7 and he is our for life"
2
This is a fabulous piece of writing; thankyou so much
5
An article such as this is why I subscribe to the NYTimes. I appreciate the quality of the writing. The depth of the reporting.
I read the Times because I am not a 30 second video kind of person. Youtube is an appetizer where The New York Times is the main dish.
This article, this subject, strikes close to home, as I am within the age group of the participants. I have yet to see the films, and I am not sure I will. The subject matter, while provocative, is depressing to me on a personal level. To look back in a retrospective fashion of my own life, is to acknowledge one's shortcomings, failures and resignation. The times when I had settled for less while hoping for more. The times when a choice was made for expediency rather than what was not so obviously, best. The times when I chose the path of least resistance rather than the prudent choice. As I age I find that the words don't come so easily, either written or spoken. I fear that with the diminishing communication skills I will be unable to tell my loved ones the impact they've had on my life, my happiness. My hopes and my, new, fears. To tell them of my accomplishments, the ones that aren't so obvious to even my closest friends and family. The ones that make me proud, the failures that make me weep.
When you're 7, 14 and 21, life stretches out before you. A fascinating adventure awaiting your arrival. When you're 28, reality starts picking at your bones. At 63, the vultures have descended and the story has been written.
12
Once a slider always a slider!
1
7-up et. al is so much more than a documentary, and unique. I need to catch up on the latest.
I must comment, the writing in this times magazine piece is
just exquisite. Thank you Michael Apted, and thank you Gieon Lewis-Kraus
5
I somehow missed “Seven Up!” and its sequels. I’ll be sure to track them all down. I wonder what the impact of knowing you’d be closely questioned every seven years would have on how you live your life? The subjects must have a certain fame from this, and rare is the circle where notoriety has no impact, no pushing some away, no drawing others in. The film maker satisfied his left with the series: “I might have 10 more years of sadness of not doing what I want, but there’s something beautiful about that — about having my life in that beautiful box.” 10 more years of sadness at not doing what I want; that’s a fine description of being infirm.
1
One of the most important films, and the most incredible and wonderful uses of film, ever done.
Thank you for a careful and caring look at its origins and history. Amazing how little was once planned, how easily it could have gone astray, or never happened. And now amazing that it's probably the end.
4
A superb essay about a remarkable documentary project that spanned 56 years of the lives of the people who were its subjects. Michael Apted started out thinking it was going to be about the rigidities of the British class system. And at one level it was certainly about that. But it ended up being so very much broader and deeper and richer than that. By turns it captured the rebellious certitude of youth, the uncertain wisdom of age, Apted's complicated relationship with the folks he revisits every 7 years, and, most of all, humanity's refusal to be boxed in -- the funny, tragic, lovely and infuriating ways we assert who we are, and refuse to follow a script.
5
At age 8 in kindergarten I fell in love with the beautiful 8-year-old girl sitting in the desk in front of me. Her name was Peggy. but all the boys called her "Piggy" because she wore pigtails. From that time on I have been madly in love with pretty women, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
I will miss Suzy. I was drawn to her self-understanding and my sense that she knew clearly what she valued in life, and that included her privacy. In 56-up she said she wouldn't return, and I only wish there'd been something that could have changed her mind.
7
Dan Winters' portrait of Michael Apted is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks to the NYT for supporting really top notch photography.
9
It takes a lifetime to live down the specter of being seven.
4
Barbara Hillary at 79 reachEd the south pole. In fact she reached the north and the south poles.
I might state she was an Afro American woman, certainly a great woman and died at 88.
3
I'm sorry but I can't feel anything other than revolted by this.
At the beginning it's an adult exploiting children. At the end it's a rich and famous man exploiting the poor and obscure. At the beginning it's rationalized with politics. At the end, with Art.
Never does he consider the possibility that real, living people (as opposed to fictional characters) have a right to privacy in their lives, regardless of whatever bargains they may have struck with the privileged. Mr Apted, meet Mr. Zuckerberg.
7
I can only echo the other laudatory comments about the UP Series. It is extraordinary.
I think I picked it up somewhere around '35', and immediately sought out the previous episodes in the series, eventually buying the box set. I eagerly await the next installment every seven years, including the one time I caught Michael Apted and Tony for a special screening at Film Forum.
The Up Series is a brilliant mix of the political and the personal, where the political is personal, and the personal inextricably political. It would be a shame if 63 Up is the last installment, but we must be grateful for this seminal body of work.
3
“ To spend time with a child is to dwell under the terms of an uneasy truce between the possibility of the present and the inevitability of the future. Our deepest hope for the children we love is that they will enjoy the liberties of an open-ended destiny, that their desires will be given the free play they deserve, that the circumstances of their birth and upbringing will be felt as opportunities rather than encumbrances; our greatest fear is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control. At the same time, we can’t help poring over their faces and gestures for any signals of eventuality — the trace hints and betrayals of what will emerge in time as their character, their plot, their fate. And what we project forward for the children in our midst can rarely be disentangled from what we project backward for ourselves.”
This may be the best paragraph of newspaper writing I’ve seen in a decade.
36
I had just copied and pasted this exact passage into my notebook. Couldn’t agree more.
1
Thank you so much for bringing much deserved attention to this series. These films have been incredibly meaningful to me. They may be the most profoundly moving and powerful documentaries I have ever seen.
Every 7 years, I look forward to the next installment with a combination of keen anticipation and dread (especially now that the participants are getting older). I am a couple of years older than the group, and their stories touch me deeply.
THANK YOU, Michael Apted.
10
I’ve seen all of the “Up!”s, and I have, of course, grown older along with them (I’m 71). I empathized with and worried about Neil, and liked Tony and Nick and, well, most of the others (I had less interest in the three upper-class boys/men). It was interesting and endearing to see the similarities in expression and body language in all of them as adolescents, and learn what they became as adults. I wish there’d have been an equal (or close) number of females to males. It’s a wonderful documentary series. I look forward to seeing these familiar strangers now that they’ve reached early old age. I’ll miss them after this but will from time to time revisit their variations. Many thanks to Michael Apted for this informative, original, and moving film series.
4
BBC TV interview with Dame Barbara Cartland, 1976:
Interviewer: "Do you believe that British class barriers have broken down?"
Cartland: "Of course they have, or I wouldn't be sitting here speaking with someone like you."
14
am not embarrassed or ashamed to say that reading this really choked me up....several of the 'ups' are alternately exhilarating & excruciating.....the backstories matter as much - or more - than anything that appears [edited] onscreen....this essay/overview is very well done, in no small part because its author avoids the self-indulgence that typically taints such reviews....my thanks
8
I don't think this should be the end. 70, 77, 84, 91 and 98 are all significant ages, and to consign the last thirty years to the bin seems silly. And with better medicine, 107 up, anyone? I'll only be 100 then, so look forward to that keenly, after my morning marathon.
14
Thinking back to what/who I was at 7. Yes, it's who I am now. At 7, decades before I ever thought about becoming a writer (of travel, yet) I was taking friends on 'tours' of the rooftops of Miami Beach and at 9, concocting imaginary travels to exotic places. And here I am today, writer/photographer specializing on people/culture exotic destinations. Sorry I haven't seen the actual series.
2
What great writing. Thanks so much.
4
Maybe we all need to be one of the 14. We have Dear Abby, Ann Landers, Dear Ammie, Ask Amy but no one followed us through life. For myself, my lost my mother 30 years ago, and she was the person who kept the closest track of my life. Apted as done these people a great service, no psychiatrist has ever done anyone better.
5
Regardless of the length of the essay, it truly contains very little new thought. As to the title question, isn't it sophomoric? Of course who we are at conception determines who we are forever. In fact, a brief review of a basic genetics textbook reveals who we are is determined way before conception.
1
@wdcAlaska
You express a very reductionist view of biology that is regarded as passe by most biologists. Environment does play a role.
13
It's embarrassing to admit, but I still don't know the answer to the question posed in the headline. I'm 63. Can someone please enlighten me about the answer?
4
Mr. Lewis-Kraus:
The paragraph that begins "To spend time with a child..." is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've ever read.
7
Yes this is a remarkable project. I commend all who were involved. I have a concern about the bias somewhat alluded to and not detailed. That is how the value of a human being has something to do with what that person does rather than who she/ he becomes. This achievement bias opens too many doors to Eugenics. That merciless attitude is way too present in many so called developed or 1st world countries. We need to be on alert.
1
I wish we were informed of the reason why Mr. Apted dropped the 'death of Princess Diana' exchange of opinion. Now I'm curious. This was an excellent article.
Yes, who you are at 7 is who you are as an adult. That is largely because we grow up in a vacuum, despite the best efforts of parents and teachers. No one really knows who you are- not even you. Until much later. Having your older self to warn and guide you is a sci-fi plot, and it only works if your younger self trusts and believes.
It all worked out, but not as well as it might have.
2
Mr. Lewis-Kraus, your review itself is deeply touching and craft-fully written. For Mr. Apted and the cohort of youngsters who abided, a profound gratitude to you.
It seems that Mr. Apted had a "political" notion in beginning the series, but the travail of time humbled everyone and every thing into what we call the "human condition," something which no "class" escapes. We spend much of our lives flailing at politics, economics, religion, us-them, a whole array of childish game theory. But, in the end, everyone is leveled equally. Some people are taken suddenly, some have the privilege of planning out a goodbye.
If only we had the humility at the beginning that we achieved though enormous suffering at the end.
11
First discovered these children in 1978 in college. I’m the exact same age. Once discovered, have followed with fascination. Resonates so personally, I was moved to tears on the first read. Second read prompted this response. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Michael Apted. Thank you Gideon Lewis-Kraus. Not sure where my life fits in here, but it’s there somewhere between the seven year gaps.
14
As so many other commenters note, the Seven-up folks seem like beloved, far away family members. How can I feel such love and concern for each of these individuals who've had such different lives from mine! There it is, you know, the thing Michael Apted and the Seven-uppers have done so well is to remind us of (or introduce us to) our own compassion. Deep thanks to all of them.
15
Tremendous series. A brilliant use of the medium.
I think I saw the first one before the second one was out and have eagerly kept up afterwards. I am looking forward to this installment, and disappointed this will be the last.
5
This was a wonderful piece of writing and the videos reminded all of us about the ups and down of life.
I hope their is another 7 years of this project, it was meaningful and every time we watch it more and more is revealed about the characters who are just like us.
7
A friend once said to me, "You can’t escape your paradigm." Many aspects of the Apted project, and indeed, this essay, confirm that. The class system in every society is inviolable and absolute.
6
Having followed this since the 80s, on a cold headed level, the series revealed exactly what it expected to find.
4
@Cindy Exactly. Cold-headed me found the outcomes depressingly expected.
What a wonderful story of the lives of 13 people and coincidentally, the life of Michael Apted.
I’ve not seen the series, yet. I will be searching for them to watch.
Wonderful story NYTimes!
7
The brain and mind are lumped together as just the mind when these are two separate entities. The brain projects the emotional personality while the mind projects the professional personality. By the time the child is 7 years old, the emotional personality is more or less set and it will mostly remain the same until old age. Professional education and life experiences will keep changing the person and even the emotional part will keep getting refined with experience.
3
Like many commenters, I'm also 63. This is a particularly interesting question for our cohort because so many societal personality constraints have changed or disappeared since we were 7.
Some of these would have distorted our personalities then and others into and through adulthood.
A simple physical example: the clothes 63-year olds wear now are simpler and more comfortable than kids' clothes in 1963 (let alone what the people as old as we are now wore!) A lifetime of girdles, sock garters, etc. obviously affects us differently from jeans and tees.
Another physical example, at least in the UK: some of those kids still had to use outside latrines at the back of their yards. Imagine that personality constraint becoming a non-issue instead of being applied into and through adulthood!
Societal attitudes about sexuality, gender roles, diversity, marriage, child and spousal physical abuse, family size, class mobility and other factors that mold and affect our personalities have changed to a degree that would have been hard to imagine in 1963.
11
As someone who was drawn to the collaborative arts after my first experience working on a grade-school play, I can absolutely imagine the deep, fierce emotions Michael, the children, and all the long-term participants in this project must be feeling. We find ourselves thrown together in these efforts of great intensity, sometimes also of great merit, sometimes not, but always a kinship develops.
This project is unique, a monumental, enduring document of a time and the handful of people who lived it together. I had the honor of working with Michael once many years ago, and even then, the aura of this project surrounded him. What an experience it must have been and how gut-wrenching it must be now, as it is ending.
14
"Seven Up!" is one of the most delicious, tantalizing, emotionally satisfying and entertaining documentary series of all time. So excited for "63." I feel like I've grown up with it myself, and each time it comes around it's a blast to get re-acquainted with my ever-changing "siblings."
9
These stories mirror my own 63 years, with all the ups and downs that every person experiences. Because of this series, I became a documentary professional and spent my career telling stories of everyday people that inspired solely because of their humanity. Thank you Michael Apted and fellow travelers for taking us with you on this journey called life. I am eternally grateful.
332
I am the same age as the “children” in the Up series. By following their lives, it seemed a reflection of what my friends and I were going through in our own lives. The awkwardness of 21, striving at 28 and 35, settling in at 56. Divorce, children, job changes, financial struggles. The participants feel like far off relatives, who I track every 7 years (and worry about in between). I look forward to a reunion with them again in “63.”
In 7 years, I’m hoping for a long article by this writer checking in with them again. This article captured the complicated, messy, uniqueness of this project. Bless all the participants.
410
@Megan Pursell Great idea for this journalist to follow up in 7 years given that it's unlikely another film will be made.
27
This series has been the most meaningful cinematic experience of my life. It is the Chekhovian masterpiece of documentary film. Apted and the fourteen subjects and all of the artists who have worked on the project are heroic to so many. Our deepest gratitude.
364
@Craig Lucas I could not agree more.
2
This is the most elegant and insightful essay I have read in a long time. We all of us live with our individual temperaments and family histories as a foundation, but life has carved its contours, too.
464
I have enjoyed watching this documentary series but believe William Blake, whose birthday we celebrated this past week, had a go at this theme in his Auguries of Innocence, over 200 years ago:
...The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
Dance before dead Englands Hearse
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night...
13
This is a beautifully crafted and very moving essay about an amazing and singular project in the history of cinema. Thank you New York Times for continuing to bring such wonderful journalism to us. I remember well seeing “28 Up” at a little theater in Greenwich Village in 1985 and have seen the subsequent films since then as they have been released. As the DVDs of the series became available I was able to catch up with the first three films. It is sad to think of this as the final film in the series. But I rather feel as Jackie does that this project is so intimately connected to its first and only director that, should “63 Up” be the last film that Michael Apted is able to do, the series should rightly come to an end with this film.
21
Michael Apted did not direct the first episode.
Im the same age as the "subjects", so the series had a special meaning for me.
Even at 21 UP I was suddenly struck with the notion that the gravitational pull of the "experiment" had in fact distorted the subjects lives. It was if they all had to artificially "make good" or show growth and progress.
This distorted the whole series and even though I did see 56 up, I found the whole enterprise to be a contrivance.
The people that dropped out in 21 UP and 28 UP did themselves a favor, they actually lived their lives rather than lived their lives for the "Project"
Ultimately 7UP was a great idea, but not reality, I would sooner chop off a limb than to submit to such an invasion of my existence.
7
@folderoy Here is my problem with the series- if you begin with an ideological stance (class division) you miss the specifics of a life lived. The ideology should be apparent from the subjects story. It should not be the lens through which the story is constructed
@folderoy Well yeah, make good or else crash spectacularly, one or the other. Real live is mostly trundling along in quiet desperation.
4
Such an easy question. If the highs and the lows of your life don't cause a fundamental realignment then the seven year old in you survives. There have been countless war veterans forever changed by their service. Spectacular success does the same thing. I was diagnosed bipolar in my late twenties. It's all before and after. If you have had an experience that changed your course, age 7 is pretty much irrelevant. If not, age seven is life-shaping. Next question?
20
This is an interesting entertaining program, but a terrible sociological or a psychological study. It simply tells you if a 7 year old has the same personality when they grow up, but does not predict the trajectory of adult life from where the kids were at 7 or 14 or 21.
It does not require a genius to know class matters, and that 21 to 35 years can make or break a person as he or she enters and manages adulthood.
The study does not come to any intelligent trustworthy, or valid, conclusion.
Mr.Apted appears arrogant and very unscientific.
It is not a study. It is just a documentary. It could have been a fabulous longitudinal study. Why did they not include more sociologists or psychologists?
9
@ExhaustedFightingForJusticeEveryDay
Because, as you said, it is "just" a documentary. It's not trying to be a scientific study.
5
I would like those who participated in the making of these films, the men and women who opened their lives up to strangers, to know how much I like all of them, every one. Something that's fascinated me is that while the differences in class background, life experiences, assets and liabilities of all kinds become more dramatic over time, at the same time they also blur and become less relevant as the individual personalities imprint on my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you -- all of you! You have reinforced my belief that every human life is a story worth telling.
24
63 is still fairly young. I hope someone continues the project.
9
While fascinating, gossipy, and almost impossible to ignore, these human beings were robbed of their privacy when they were too young to give knowing consent or understand what it meant to be subject to such scrutiny.
5
What an amazing portrait of Apted by photographer Dan Winters. Bravo!
6
I've been watching this series since the early 1980s and still find it engaging.
5
I've read some of the comments & I apologise if anyone else has said the same.
The one thing even the author missed was the relationship between Bruce & Neil.
When Neil was at his lowest Bruce, who even as a small child wanted to help people, shared his home & saw Neil on a path to something better than just survival.
I doubt their paths would've crossed except for this series.
"He who saves a life, saves the world".
37
Dear Ms. Ehrlich,
I hadn’t remembered that Bruce had helped Neil in that very kind and important way until reading it in your excellent comment. I’m so glad you highlighted that point. It also makes me wonder about the ways that others of the original fourteen might have similarly helped one another over the decades in ways that did not make it into their interviews with Michael Apted and hence are known only amongst themselves.
Stay well.
Allen
13
I’ve followed this series since I first saw “28 Up” in LA in the 80s. I have nothing but affection for each of these individuals, and a particular warmth for the relationship between Bruce and Neil, which was an extraordinary highlight. This series goes way beyond its original intent. How each individual weathers the storms of life....including Mr. Apted, who lost his son.
4
I've heard of but haven't seen this unique documentary, although "documentary" seems like a very dry word to apply to a chronicle of lives.
As I was reading this article I couldn't help thinking of Virginia Woolf's "The Waves". "The Waves" deals with life, not individual lives really but just living, life as a phenomenon. Who am I? Why am I?
The "Up" series sounds similar and maybe I should start watching it. Better late than never.
7
I didn't appreciate until reading this article how sad this whole venture had been that I too had watched at times.
Regardless of the nostalgia of the many comments here it should not be forgotten that at its core this whole project was exploitive as many if not all of the kids undoubtedly knew or grew to know over the years. As even Apted admits, its premise about a 7 year old child inhabiting the person they would be was at best facile, at worst a platitude as Apted notes at the end.
So what exactly was all this? The answer is not so much in the program itself but what it says about us, the ones who were watching these innocents placed on a petri dish to be periodically probed and observed as part of commercial programming. In the end it fed our voyeurism which has become today the heart of much of the programming on TV and the internet.
4
I am not sure why all this is such a revelation; any parent with a kid knows this to be true: you can say at 7 (often much earlier) who your kid is and how he/she/it will turn out as an adult.
2
Beautiful reminder of how we are all the sane family.
2
Prone to insomnia, I often turn to the Times in the wee hours to lull me back to sleep. Tonight was an utter failure. Beyond the compelling subject matter, the superb writing of Gideon Lewis-Kraus (supplemented by Dan Winter’s photographic contribution) has kept me captivated and awake for the last hour. It is 4:30 A.M. and I am no nearer sleep than I was when I began to read this article. But I have no regrets.
17
Wonderful article on a touching series of films.
3
Dear Gideon,
I very much enjoyed your article. One thing struck me though as being a tell tale sign of you being an American. When you describe how the children in the article were chosen and filmed in the early days of the program you write “... for those to the manner born ...”. It may well be manners that make a difference in demographic strata but in Britain the expression is ‘to the manor born’ in reference to stately manors or mansions. I thoroughly enjoy this kind of layered misnomer that illustrates what a live thing language is.
Thanks, Arnd
9
Check the replies below. The original is “manner” and it’s from Hamlet.
9
@Tim Miller Yes, well, Shakespeare was a lousy speller. And so was everyone else in his day, at least when it came to the vernacular and not languages where it was felt to matter, such as Latin or French.
2
I haven’t even read the article, just the headline. But as for me, at 7, I was a weird kid, doing goofy things, completely obsessed with rock n’ roll thanks to my older siblings and the Beatles breaking onto the world scene that same year. Today at 63, I wear my weirdness as a badge (my wife, two girls and son-in-law have a nickname for me that “celebrates” that weirdness) and my six guitars, which my wife jealously refers to collectively as “she” hang on a wall in a room of my loft, above all my gear and amps, ready to amplify that weirdness to anyone within a square block range.
So, to answer the question posed by the headline, I happily reply, YES!!!!
1
I think the Academy of Motion Picture 'Arts and Sciences" needs to recognise Michael Apted for his contribution to film.
17
I think it’s harder to be who you were meant to be when you’re born a girl.
25
The documentary series sounds fascinating!
I look forward to reading a coherent article about it.
Wordsworth made it clear: The child is the father of the man.
3
fascinating story!
2
The great thing about this series is that if you watch each installment you learn not only about, and are touched by, each of the lives depicted, but you gain perspective about the arc of all human lives, certainly including your own.
There is no other film, and not even that much literature, that can match the "Up" series in that regard.
My deepest gratitude to Mr. Apted and his staff, and very much most of all to the series participants over all these years, for having the grace and fortitude to keep going with the program and for sharing such meaningful bits of their lives all along the way.
If "63" is the last, so be it. I'll be 63 myself in a few months and know too well that nothing lasts forever. I wish Mr. Apted and my "Up" series virtual friends the very best with whatever life brings going forward.
14
I weep to think that this is the last of the series.. I've cared about hese Brits since I "met" them in the Little Art Theater in Yellow Springs, Ohio about 36 years ago. The only way I can imagine living with the loss is by strengthening my connections with my own flesh-and-blood loved ones, in my own life. They are here, to be helped, loved, and listened to.
5
My mother and I love the 7 UP series. I called her the other night to tell her it was out, but before I could say it she told me! I was a little sad at the realization that this will be the last in the series. Only fitting; I don't want to see anyone but Michael Apted interview the "children" either!
6
I discovered "Seven Up!" in the 1980's and bought the videos to watch with my mother, a long-time first grade teacher. She loved the series and loaned the videos to her fellow teachers.
Economic circumstances and personal problems can be limiting for some students, but these teachers found hope in watching the "Up" students meet life challenges. The series is a great tutorial on the UK class system and on education vs personal initiative in the US and elsewhere.
6
I didn't come here to be moved to tears and can't tell if I should be resentful or grateful.
Let's go with grateful. Thanks for this.
10
Reminds me of an idea I ran into years ago, I believe in a novel, which I try to pass along to every fifteen year old I know. The ideas is, at age 15, one writes down their thoughts, where and who they are, what they like, what they intend/hope to do, and where they think they will be in another 15 years. Then you put your written thoughts away for 15 years without looking at them, take them out at age thirty and do the same thing, then again at age 45, 60 and 75 if one makes it that far. These are usually important stages in one's life, and it is very interesting to see where you were 15 years ago.
5
This was indeed a compelling article meant to be read over a long, very slow coffee, but I still can't believe there are more than 400 people that actually read the whole article. I don't mean to be shallow, but it was extremely long and never really made a stab at answering the question that started it all....
But I suppose that is a mark of the maturity of both the observer and the observed. As one of the participants said, "Things never go as planned." and another commenting on how our basic natures remain unchanged, "I don’t think it’s a particularly brilliant observation, frankly."
As with most things in life, the thing to be learned is not what we thought it was and the answer to our questions is often that there are other questions that prove to be more impactful than the one we started with and can only reveal themselves with time.
6
I have never watched any of the Up series, but every seven years I read about them and am depressed by the implications of class status on children. I don't watch them because I would find it crushing. At seven I was extremely socially and economically deprived; I managed to work my way through an education (a dime store education: junior college, state college and law school, partially veteran funded) because I was naive and deluded by 1930's and 40's movies and did not understand the odds. I've learned on social media that most of my cohort remain where they started, belying my expectations (naive, again). Numerous recent articles attest to the continued (and increased) unlikelihood of people improving their lot ("that's your lot in life," Donovan sang 50 years ago). Upward mobility is largely an illusion. And life at the bottom wears you out. So does working your way out of it.
8
Hear! Hear! Those who have the benefit of an economically stable family life do not easily understand the struggles that those of us whose growing years consisted of economic deprivation. Along with that deprivation, many of us lived through family tension, dysfunction, violence, dissolution.
That any of us transcended those roots has nothing to do with pulling up our bootstraps. The majority of my cohorts remained in various states of poverty & its attending economical & emotional devastation. Most of us who have succeeded in escaping, continue to be saddled with the limitations of our social class beginnings.
6
@ARTICULATUS STREICHEM Absolutely! And so the question is: why, oh why do the poor continue to procreate, and at such tremendous rates?
(Full disclosure: I am the one and have refrained from the other.)
1
I just reread this… slowly, deliberately.
Wanting to let it roll over me with the cadence of the series itself, the pace of life itself.
I wanted it to never end.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, this is as brilliant and thoughtful and affecting as the sweep of the Up series. It will be a required accompaniment to fully appreciate what this amazing filmed record has accomplished.
"Apted paced the terrain of recollection…"
Beautiful.
Universal.
One line that perhaps symbolizes the entire rational of Up.
Do yourself a favor- Reread from that point on. I don't think I ever taken in words and intimate portrait so startling.
I can only wonder about the 7 year old who grew to be a writer of such great facility and aching sensitivity.
16
I followed along with the series since it’s U.S. release and have loved every installment. Beautiful and brutal, it shows what it is to be alive and struggle with the gift we’ve been given.
6
Mr. Apted's series made me feel less alone in the world, and I feel immense and profound gratitude to the subjects for letting the beauty and reality of their lives be shared with distant and different human beings. Political aims aside, the interviews and films seem like a spiritual acts of communion - perhaps with a lot of sacrifice along the way. Thank you to all.
For those who have not seen the series, viewing the films, say once a week or so, would be a good way to watch; as Mr. Lewis-Kraus points out, bingewatching could induce existential vertigo.
10
Saw the film last night, along with a Q&A session with Mr. Apted. We were surprised that they did a Q&A, because, sadly, the director's cognitive decline was apparent. I had started reading this article before we saw the film, but had not gotten to the part addressing this, so I was completely surprised. The film was very moving, as always, though I think it had more impact on me in the first few installments because of the novelty of seeing these people grow up before our eyes. Now they are growing old. It would have been nice to round it off at 70, but this one seems like a fitting endpoint, too.
8
I understand that people who have followed this study for many years find the article valuable. As one who was not aware of the study, I found that the content of the article did not answer the question posed in the title of the article. For me, it was very disappointing.
1
@Stephen Stinedurf
The point is....watch the documentary series. Then come back to the article and you won't care about the headline and the conclusion, or lack of it. You'll be interested in finding out a little more about the process and the lives of the people involved in bringing this wonderful series to the screen.
7
I recall seeing some of it many years ago and I also recall it made me uncomfortable that the film was encroaching on the privacy of seven year olds.
Children shouldn’t have to explain themselves to ambitious documentary film makers.
Nor resign themselves to the fact that “researchers” from the show are going to hunt them down every seven years, even if they don’t wish to be found.
I’ll skip the reality tv/movie finale.
2
An exploitative vanity project by pseudoscience filmmakers. Reminds me of the Lords family that was exploited by reality t.v. pioneers years ago. And today’s current documentary iteration “Three Identical Strangers “ of triplets separated at birth, reunited by chance, exploited by everyone and devastated by fame.
1
@Linda Levey :
Be that as it may, this genuinely sociological study, which is unvarnished and makes no effort to manipulate the viewer, is a titanic improvement over the utterly inane tripe that passes "real life" that is "Keeping up with the Kardashians".
The latter continues to instill in me grave doubts that humans are an intelligent species . . .
Seven Up has a factionalized alter-ego in “The Radiant Way,” the title of a (real) series of primers for elementary school students, and of a TV documentary made by the (fictional) Charles Headeland, husband of one of the three heroines of Margaret Drabble’s novel, “The Radiant Way,” an epic about the chattering classes in Thatcherite Britain. I can’t recommend the book too highly, especially for Americans who are sufficiently switched on to the UK class-system to love the “Up” series and this lovely tribute to it and to Apted.
2
This is a wonderfully written article. I really cAptures the series and the human participants
I shall miss all my friends. Good bye indomitable Lynn. Rest well.
4
A triumph of movie making revealing the most elusive subject - our progression, evolution and challenges as human beings.
It is unmatched.
I hope another 20 year old with ambition and an uncanny human touch begins the project anew.
The 7 year olds of 2020 will face issues we can't imagine as they travel life's road toward 63 in 2076.
I have a feeling people in this century will need a record of how they do.
19
This is a fantastic series, offering an amazing insight into class, opportunity, and outcomes in the UK. It's also one of the main reasons I left the UK in 1995 at 22. I can even conduct my own anecdotal research from my boarding school days in the 1980s. Many upper class people who were not very bright went to the "right schools" and had the family connections and have done amazingly well - commonly known as the "old school tie" issue. Others with brains but without the "correct" background and accent have done less well than they should have. It's a shame the UK is still so class ridden.
26
@Ronnie Lane I agree. No one needs those old chains.
1
@Ronnie Lane It is still very much like that. In fact, it is getting worse, or in any case the disparities are becoming more nakedly and are cheered by victims and perpetrators alike. The UK is gearing up to be a tax haven surrounded by slums.
Singapore in the mist.
Mexico City in the rain.
1
Thank you Gideon Lewis-Kraus, I liked this review very much. Beautifully written and a lovely read.
20
Love this series. Like most here, I started with 28 Up in the 1980s. A few years later, while working as a waiter at a well known (and loved) restaurant in Madison, Wis., I found Nick sitting in my section, along with his first wife. They were both lovely, and I waited on them several more times during my tenure at that restaurant. I never mentioned the Up series. Since then, I've always had a special fondness for Nick. Adorable at 7, amazingly awkwark at 14, handsome and confident at 21, and always so intelligent, witty, and insightful. So sad to learn of his health issues. Wishing him all the best and a much hoped for recovery. From the comments here, it is obvious that he has many fans pulling for him.
23
Remember my first viewing ,was of the original "7 UP"at the Watts street location of Film Forum.
We all need to support venues like FF, as they support and show quality documentaries.
14
I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Apted speak about the series in Chapel Hill sometime in the 80s. I am roughly the age of the program's participants and I could relate to them as contemporaries. I remember how charming and engaging Michael was. Vigorous, youthful and handsome. Since that time I have had a strong affection for the series and its continuation although I have not actually watched any of the programs since that evening in Chapel Hill. This article is for me an example of the underlying premise of the whole decades-long enterprise that we always carry the earlier versions of ourselves close at hand.
3
"get em by seven, got em for life", old Catholic clerical saying.
10
What magniloquence.
I was a jerk at 7. Hmmm.
16
The bigger the brain, the more to screw up. Lucky us.
1
This is an interesting entertaining program, but a terrible sociological or a psychological study. It simply tells you if a 7 year old has the same personality when they grow up, but does not predict the trajectory of adult life from where the kids were at 7 or 14 or 21.
It does not require a genius to know class matters, and that 21 to 35 years can make or break a person as he or she enters and manages adulthood.
The study does not come to any intelligent trustworthy, or valid, conclusion.
Mr.Apted appears arrogant and very unscientific.
It is not a study. It is just a documentary. It could have been a fabulous longitudinal study. Why did they not include more sociologists or psychologists?
9
It is what it is. If you prefer what you describe then perhaps you should create it. I mean that seriously, and respectfully.
3
@Rob
I concur. Why do people expect people to film, write, create or whatever something different than what was intended? Quite annoying. As the article explains, originally there was no intention of a follow up. I notice this same complaint by readers with some of the regular column writers, who are probably allowed to write what they feel like writing.
I am a writer myself, so I am often confounded by this expectation. If I build a cottage and a passerby asks me why did I not build a mansion what am I supposed to say?
The series is remarkable and this article is inspiring and moving. I am finally getting back to my own writing after losing my husband last year. A trip out of the country helped me to return to it a bit, and this piece I am sure will inspire me more.
4
The nature vs nurture question was answered a long time ago. Nature wins... by a HUGE margin. So, the question is better put: "Does who you are at 0 and your ancestors determine... ?" Answer: Yes, unless you fight really, really hard against it.
7
I don’t think one can assert that nature / nurture is ever answered. That’s the beauty of it. What I see more often is how few people really consciously change themselves over time. Even the things they dislike. How they give up their dreams so easily.
But then there are always these tremendous exceptions of people who absolutely will not be denied willing themselves into greater being.
16
Genetics-and-environment is the prevailing theory in developmental psychology. See Three Identical Strangers for evidence of the powerful interaction between these contributing factors.
1
Don’t dismiss the 3rd determinant of one’s fate: free will.
1
As meritocrats took over our institutions, it’s been said that zip codes determine your future. The type, level and quality of education; the type healthcare access; types of jobs - predicated by schooling - shape people’s lives. There’s little hope for advancement. Offshoring of manufacturing has impacted negatively in the U.K. and US. Even the mortality age has been lowering. More people die from drug addiction than at the height of the AIDS crisis; the suicide rate is high. Yet, Boris Johnson, the boorish, Eaton/ Oxford educated clown is set to drive Brexit through the abyss of destruction and further crash people’s futures to his own ambition and vanity. And like his predecessor Neville Chamberlain, also with posh credentials, Johnson is set to become today’s Putin appeaser. He’s refusing to release the report about interference in the Brexit referendum. To a large extent birthplace is destiny as illustrated in the lives of the 7-Up” crowd. Their lives mostly seem to have taken, a predictable path, which is sad. The real sociological study should be on the institutional barriers for advancement.
16
I have held a special warmth in my heart for Neil - since his disclosure of mental illness at 21, his misfortunes and isolation at 28 and watching the lovely camaraderie with fellow 'subject' Bruce who is a true friend to him. His story is poignant and a stark reminder of how all of us are susceptible to sadness. I watch in hope of Neil finding his truth and renewing his love for humanity every 7 years.
21
This is an interesting entertaining program, but a terrible sociological or a psychological study. It simply tells you if a 7 year old has the same personality when they grow up, but does not predict the trajectory of adult life from where the kids were at 7 or 14 or 21.
It does not require a genius to know class matters, and that 21 to 35 years can make or break a person as he or she enters and manages adulthood.
The study does not come to any intelligent trustworthy, or valid, conclusion.
Mr.Apted appears arrogant and very unscientific.
It is not a study. It is just a documentary. It could have been a fabulous longitudinal study.
1
@ExhaustedFightingForJusticeEveryDay Not sure why you would think this a scientific study. It's been a television documentary from day one. Michael Apted is a filmmaker, not a scientist. You might want to check out his bio -- he's directed films like "Coal Miner's Daughter" but has published no scientific papers.
9
You inadvertently did not explain the significance of the East Ender Tony's cab job as many here would assume that it would be same as an Uber driver. Tony in fact passed "The Knowledge" - The London cab exam that can take over three years of study to prepare for and is recognized as the most difficult geographical recall exams on the planet. In many ways much more difficult than any exams passed by the Oxbridge participants.
29
At the time the episode was made, there was no Uber, and everyone knew that driving a cab in London required a prodigious memorization of every street and the quickest route.
11
@Marie I've lived both places. The assumption that all Americans knew about this is I believe an overstatement, Bet you five quid that if you walked down an American street maybe one in ten know anything about the exam.
6
@Milliband I agree with you: maybe one in ten would have heard of "The Knowledge." My community college students have probably never heard of it. The only reason I know of it is because I read an rather lengthy article about in a Vanity Fair issue from at least four or five years ago (maybe more). It was a fascinating article, enlightening and, to my suburban New Jersey self, amazing.
3
I was a lively fun-loving kid at seven who loved to read and had lots of friends to play with. Fast forward to 65 and I am a sad, embittered person after some very bad work experiences in which I was treated very badly, stifling my career. I am afraid of people and spend most of my time in my house. I am not anything like the girl I was at seven. Life can throw you some curves.
15
@Joe :
Pleases, for your own sake: don't succumb to being a shut-in! The outside world still is a place of myiad delights and daily miracles, if only you allow yourself to be engaged and open to beauty.
Volunteer-- at a soup kitchen, or school, or a homeless shelter. You deserve to share in the joy of others. Yes it's out there. All it takes to get started is a smile and an open mind.
In 1948 as a kid around 7 years of age I slugged my neighbor's son Joe Dimaggio Jr. in the nose fighting over a pull chain from a
kitchen light fixture producing a nose bleed on the kid ,since age 7... truly I have never hit a Pro Baseball players son again, so no ! age 7 actions do not mean much.
5
To the headline: Yes.
One is nearly always and exactly the same person in the 'third quarter' as they started out as in the first.
Exceptions are those people who suffer deep and irreversible trauma(s) in their life, and they change profoundly as a result.
But if one is more or less sailing through with the 'normal' amount of 'stuff' that a typical Western lifestyle imparts ... I say they are essentially the same.
1
I distinctly recall skipping across the court of the federal housing project I called home. My neighbor, the old grandfatherly curmudgeon who daily sat on a chair on his porch surveying his kingdom of clapboard duplexes while yelling at us kids who got too close or noisy was ripe for my announcement. I jumped up to grab the top railing of his porch and swung left to right while exclaiming...”Guess what, Mr. Holloway, I’m seven years old today!” ‘Get off my porch,” he yelled. I had already figured he was no threat to me but oblivious how that level of courage would take me to adventures I could never perceive.
16
This is perhaps the most moving piece I have ever read in the times.
13
Doesn’t Michael Apted deserve a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 2020 for the shepherding of this monumental documentary series that can never be replicated in film history?
25
Perhaps this has already been noted, but one is born to the manor, not to the manner.
8
@Ronald Murff
Actually, 'to the manner' is referred to in Hamlet. The British tv show title "To the Manor Born" was a play on this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Manor_Born
6
@Ronald Murff I noticed that, too.
It threw me off, too, but I googled it. It’s a Shakespeare quote, from Hamlet. “To the Manor Born” is the title of a TV show.
3
I wrote in a very brief “essay” when I was six years old (first grade) that I wanted to be a doctor. That never wavered, and I have been an MD (Harvard) for 34 years now. I am 63 years old.
9
"Despite Granada’s populist grandstanding, Apted recalls, the company’s trainee program drew exclusively from Oxford and Cambridge. "
Some things never change
7
This is a brilliant piece of writing right here.
19
This is long form journalism at its best! Thank you, Gideon Lewis-Kraus and the NYT. A full-circle account of an ambitious but bias-laden study of a well intentioned effort to document class denomination and its ramifications.
19
Perhaps it is just me, but I felt/feel Gideon Lewis-Kraus
intruded into the story far too much.
Could you have not ust let the "7 U", now the "63 Up",
and Michael Apted speak for themselves ?
1
-“Give me a child until he is 7, and I will give you the man.” (paraphrasing psychologist J.B. Watson)
the article states one can view which are to 'the manner born'. um . . .
2
"The sooner you understand who you are, the sooner you understand what you can do. It's taken me virtually 60 years to understand who I am." --- Symon.
8
At a Q&A years ago (was it for 56 UP?)- I asked Mr. Apted if he believed people could really give 'informed consent' to his project. He said something like:"Of course not." He also implied that the starting hypothesis that class would determine future happiness did not end up true.
Personality, psychological nuance determined quality of life more than just socio-economics.
Watching a lifetime condensed in a film surely makes us all pause on this fleeting time we have...
5
Thank you so much, 7 Up participants.
How I love this series. I can't wait to see 63 up. I was born in 1960, so I am definitely the age of the "cast."
It's a fascinating documentary and well done to Apsted, but thank you first and foremost to the people who were not of age to consent to being in 7 or 14 up, but did so anyway and continued to 63 up. Your willingness to go through this every seven years has given me some hope that there are other people, probably most, who have had similar problems, who are ageing as I am, and it is very reassuring to watch them debate the meaning of life and marriage and kids and jobs and know they dealt with the same things.
Like every fan, I wish Nick the best of health. I regard him as a brother.
14
Thank you for a superb, mesmerizing article that touches both our intellects and hearts! Having lived in the USA for the last 35 years of my life I had never heard of this extraordinary project. Thus, to my chagrin, I have not seen the films. At 7 years old, living in Colombia, I was hailed as an intelligent little girl who spoke French and Spanish, and could recite poems in French. Like Jackie and other women in the film project, I interrupted my university studies and married young (at 19). I had five children by the time I was 28. After my marriage ended, however, and after raising my children, I went back to school and completed an MA and a PhD in the USA. As Paco, the Ecuadorian scientist and lawyer commented, this country gives you the opportunity to work for and fulfill your dreams. Therefore, I was able to develop a second career as a professor and a scholar at an Ivy League University in the USA for the last 24 years, a career that I loved. I recently retired and can now look back on my life and ponder at my circumstances as a 7 year old. Would I be able to determine how those very circumstances and/or events surrounding my life influenced my development as a human being? That’s a big question! Again, thank you for a beautifully written and moving article!
18
This is my age group, I've been watching this show since the late 70s. I grew up in colonial countries (Hong Kong, NZ, Australia) so the experiences of these children are so familiar, in a way that they wouldn't be to an American. I've waited after every episode for the next, hoped that those who pulled out would return ... to know that this will be the last one, 63 Up in my 63rd year, is a little like the end of my own life. Thank you to all the players.
15
I started with 28 Up, in a large theatre in Berkeley, and usually remember to find it every 7 years. But I moved 7 years ago and missed the last episode. I still think about these people and what they are doing. So unfortunately I had to skip over much of this article to avoid the spoilers. I will find 56 Up online and wait awhile before watching this latest episode. I agree with the many comments that this is not something you should sit down and binge watch. It is too powerful, and you need to learn your own life lessons between these films.
13
I've seen every episode of this series. I first saw it back in the 80s in England and was hooked from the first show. My favorite has always been Tony, the epitome of Essex Man. Much like myself, Tony has been a ducker and diver for a good portion of his life, a product of Maggie Thatcher's re-branded England. I'm glad to see him in 63 Up doing so well. I hope to see a 70 Up one day.
11
I'm 88 now; came from London to the US at 27. I've watched every episode as it came out and was hooked from the first one. I share the sadness as I learn of ill health and disappointments. I wish you were strong enough to continue the series because there are always surprises and joys in the seventies and eighties and we can joke about our frailties and foibles. Short-term memory fails but the long ago remains vivid and precious.
42
Many of us watched the 'Seven Up' series with shock and awe. I always felt profoundly disturbed by the ethics of it but couldn't resist watching them to make sure they were getting on OK. Inevitably, they often weren't getting on OK. After a personal tragedy in my own life, I had to look away for a while. This article in NY Times Magazine this week, is very long but helps put the 'adventure' into context. I still have the same reservations about the ethical dilemma but I felt relieved when I had finished reading it.
12
I have been watching the Up series since immigrating to the U.S. in the 1980s. It has struck me that Nick was the only one in the group who managed to break through caste—leaving a one-room, rural school in the U.K. to become a professor at Wisconsin. I’ve made a similar move, from a poor city in a poor country to become a scientist and lawyer in Washington, DC. I don’t know if my own move would have been possible today, but back in the 1980s, I could not imagine any other country in the world that would have rewarded my hard work and ambitions, regardless of my origins. Thank you, Apted, for the series. Thank you, United States of America, for the “liberties of an open-ended destiny.”
68
I'm so sorry to learn that Lynn has died. I still recall a line she spoke --was it in "21 Up"?--and quote her to myself at certain moments. She was speaking about having gotten married at, I think, 19, a momentous decision that forecloses other possibilities. "And you think, Christ, what have I done?!"
25
What a superb piece of writing -- thank you.
As a Brit who's exactly one year younger than the series, I missed out on the 1964 original but watched 14 Up in awe. Ever since then, the 7-yearly "Up" events have become major cultural events, for me and for the nation. Everything I could say has already been said in these wonderfully sensitive comments I've been reading. Thank you all so much.
We saw 63 Up earlier in the year, and as always, I sobbed through every episode -- through the prisms of both joy and grief. Of course, the power of the series lies in the fact that while we watch these unfolding lives with great fascination, they force us to reflect on our own existence, and to understand and accept that beneath the veneer of class and wealth, we have much more in common than we have differences. The series brings home this very fundamental truth, and this is its priceless contribution.
35
As a 65 yr old, this series has captivated me for the past 15-20 yrs. Whether your perspective is sociological, psychological, economical, existential, or what have you, it is beguiling and enthralling. I am in awe of each of the children. I realize that, in terms of privacy, they have given up so much; but, I wish them to know that, in terms of humanity, they have given us so much. Thank you Children. And Michael Apsted for continuing on.
36
At this point, maybe it does not make sense to try to cram the life stories of all these different people into one documentary. Maybe it would be interesting to make a documentary about each individual who has participated over the years: "Growing up with Jackie" might be one 90-minute documentary. "Growing up with Neil" might be another. True, you would not be able to compare and contrast all the different people all in one program, but you could delve deeper into who the individuals were at different points in their lives, and compare each individual to their younger selves.
9
In 7 years, if Apted is able, I'd love to see a final program in which the remaining 'children' interview him. Seems like there should be more to this chronicle.
24
Absolutely fascinating and a brilliant concept to begin with. Somehow, born, raised and living in NYC for 50 years, I missed this show entirely...not sure how that happened...but thrilled to catch up with it now...would love to see a retrospective of all episodes, in a movie house...please. Many thanks for bringing it to me via the NYT!
14
Definitely in a movie house!
3
@susan paul
Just read in another of your Comments, that the entire series can be found on BritBox....I will find it, watch it that way...Many thanks!
1
I am of the same age as these aging humans. This is the most fascinating and noble film project ever recorded. I am drawin to it like that moth to the flame, but for me, it is is brutally painful, jarring and emotional, striking deep into my soul. For I see in them echoes of my own lost trails, but most distressing of all, is I see all the inspiring paths of these lives and it forces me to look back at my own 63 years with the regret of the roads not taken. However, there is that indestructible thread that binds us together. We all persevere and endure and carry on with life, such as it is. ... I have watched these films for 42 years, first renting 21 and Up from a small video store in Lexington, Massachusetts and that store vanished forever before the Millennium. I will watch this new Old one again, gripping onto every moment, and only hope that just one twist is added to the integrity of this project. I would like to see direct connections with the director. I want to see Michael's face. I want to see him. I want to watch them watching him as has he questions these lifelong friends and foes of his camera in that calm and emotionally neutral referee's voice of truth that speaks to all the faces we have grown old with together. Live long and...
23
in my case, yes. I was 7. I decided my life's course. I'm 59 now. And I've been standing on stages doing magic since age 14.
5
I grew up alongside 7-Up and I can't believe my luck in finding an article in the NYT about it! I missed the last episode and was gutted after following their lives over the years. This article charting their lives is one I will treasure.
What a groundbreaking series by World in Action. Right from the off it caught your attention. Growing up in London these were as good as my school friends. We wore the same clothes and spoke with the same accents. A fascinating and memorable series and one you never forget.
21
I'm 63, I saw the first one in the UK when I was 7, it was mesmerizing then and continues to be today, every 7 years it pops on to my radar again, like old friends...I was so envious that they all got to play at an adventure playground...and watching their lives unveil in time with my own is quite extraordinary...excellent series
15
“To spend time with a child is to dwell under the terms of an uneasy truce between the possibility of the present and the inevitability of the future. Our deepest hope for the children we love is that they will enjoy the liberties of an open-ended destiny, that their desires will be given the free play they deserve, that the circumstances of their birth and upbringing will be felt as opportunities rather than encumbrances; our greatest fear is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control. At the same time, we can’t help poring over their faces and gestures for any signals of eventuality — the trace hints and betrayals of what will emerge in time as their character, their plot, their fate. And what we project forward for the children in our midst can rarely be disentangled from what we project backward for ourselves.”
Just. So. eloquent.
39
my first time was 35 and up.
thought it was mesmerizing.
the changes in some of their attitudes over the years were astounding.
tony was the kid i enjoyed watched the most.
11
@brupic
watching, not watched.
going to fire my editor if this keeps up.
3
Answering a question from several people - you can stream every episode now on Britbox, and I learned at the screening I went to that archivists have produced prints of best-possible quality.
You can also see some episodes on YouTube but the Britbox ones are probably nicer to watch.
Every episode is edited to include material reaching all the way back, so you'll never dip into one without being filled in somewhat or reminded about each child. But -- any other devotee will encourage you to start at the beginning, it is such an extraordinary experience to see these lives unfold.
This will always be my favorite movie.
19
I've been watching the movies since they first appeared in the U.S. in the 1980s. They are emotional and profound, and I find myself feeling a strong connection to these individuals that will never know who I am.
This is a wonderful and beautifully-written profile which captures the heart of the series and the melancholy of the human condition.
30
i'm thinking, answering the title, that perhaps past generations may have been predictable.. but not so much anymore.. the patterns we all used to read to determine self etc.. have completely changed and continue changing quite rapidly..
3
Thank you for this interesting article. I have seen several of these episodes and found them reasonably interesting. But they become a bit redundant as they go along, with each one attempting to quickly recap what has gone before. The praise of the series seems a bit overblown. Yes there are divides in society. Yes it matters which side of the tracks you grow up on. Yes, some of your life-long traits will be evident even in your youth. Yes we grow old. Yes we suffer. Duh!
3
@Dan Frazier Your comment is the saddest one written here.
13
Delightful article. Saw the series in college decades ago and it rocked my world. Have seen it several times since. What a rich vein this is. Never left my top 10 list. It shows you quite clearly how people like the current POTUS happen.
13
I admit I never heard of this project , and almost quit reading this long article. At some point it start to draw me in more and more . I started to relate to my own life , friends and acquaintances over the years , the changes , the circumstances of people's lives
I totally related
Life is fragile and short , it is never too late
9
Ironic that the "objectivity" of interviews, the norm when he started, is now replaced by recognition of their subjectivity.
So Apted missed out on documenting his own simultaneously, for history.
As Nick, the wisest of them said, its legacy is everyman.
3
For me, the success of the series in one of its stated goals - "To show what Britain will be like in the year 2000" - is achieved not through its depiction of class, but in its anticipation our loss of privacy. Like Suzy, Jackie, Neil, and the rest, we are public figures now, unwitting celebrities whose lives may be picked apart by others who see only a fraction of us - whether these slices are from edited snippets in film, foolish posts in social media, or our tracks through a digital landscape.
10
We are genetic creatures. Everything about us begins with genetics. This can all be modified, of course, to a certain extent, but there are very obvious limitations. We can change the color of our hair externally, but it will always grow out the color genetics determined it to be at each age of our life. The same goes for personality traits. There are people who are born with a proclivity to murder and people who could never bring themselves to fire a gun. Environment is nothing more than putting glasses on genetics. I'm 62 now and I'm exactly who I was at 3. Just ask my Mom.
8
Jackie, in ‘49’, paraphrased Kant’s ‘what can I know, what shall I do, what can I hope for?’, which applies to just about everything in life, large and small. She was right.
6
A beautifully written piece. Thank you.
12
This article on the documentary Seven Up is almost worthy of its subject matter, people who generously showed up in our lives every seven years. Seven Up, something that started out with a few interesting goals, accidentally became life as patterns and bits of lives came on the screen.
From the first program you got an emotional tug under the glittering surface of the this is about class overlay. The grip and urgency of the early programs and lives mellowed and hurdled on. It was a seven yearly, “ Oh yea this is that program again I wonder how everyone is?” And you reflected on your own life. And then about your own children as they saw the program and said, “I’m Nick.” And you thought he’s close to the mark.
Just by way of background, on the class angle, I landed clueless and alone in London from Ireland. Among other things I became a London taxi driver, came to the USA, got educated and became a lawyer. So on the surface I had a few commonalities with some who shared that part of their lives with us. I saw patterns, chaos and time passing.
But bottom line, if we have things and people like this article (just one or two soaring sentences over the top) and those in and who made Seven Up possible, life’s a blast.
8
Have seen all of Apted's splendid episodes of 7-UP! I care deeply about the characters and can't wait to see 63-UP! Sadly, I think this will be his last one. Thank you Michael Apted for your commitment to to this fascinating project over the past 56 years.
18
There are two rivalling ideas in acupuncture: to treat the natal/birth energy of who you are, essentially, how you started out; or to treat you as you are now. We are a blend of both. Who we are now, our experience, can easily overwhelm our self and cause instability, imbalance and illness, but re-connecting to our self can be done (and without narcissism).
4
The greatest sociology study ever, period.
10
What a wonderful idea and project Apted had. I love documentaries and this looks like one of the all-time best of them. Is there any way to watch "Up"? I think it may be on BritBox? If you know how I can view it in the U.S., please let me know.
1
@Theresa you can watch all of them now on Britbox. Some are also on YouTube, but as I learned at the screening I just went to, the films or videos have all been fixed up in quality by archivists recently for Britbox so that's probably the nicest way to watch.
5
@Theresa Except for the newest yes on bribox. A lot of libraries have them on dvd.
1
@Theresa You can buy the previous episodes on Amazon as a boxed set.
1
I have been following this series since the beginning, they were shown I believe on PBS, but have not seen the last two and do not know where I could outside the UK.
It would be a public service for the whole series to be made freely available on the web, maybe through a philantropic organisation?
4
@AG They (7-56) are being shown on BritBox, and you can order them from Amazon in Canada--individual installments or all together. 63 just came out.
1
My aunt taught 3rd-grade at a public school and said she could tell by then who would be the doctors and who would be the criminals.
3
@Sammy no, no-one can predict the future/yet another authority figure bearing false witness against an innocent & creating prejudice unfairly
2
I've loved this series since I first saw it in the 1980s. I'm just a year younger that "the children." There's a roughly similar documentary from USSR/Russia, "Anna 6 - 18" ("Анна: от 6 до 18") made by a cinematographer who had to cache film from his day-job in secret. He filmed his daughter every year, and asked her the same questions each time: What makes you happy, what makes you scared, what makes you proud, what makes you angry..." She found it every bit as intrusive as the subjects of the "Up" series. We may get a lot out of the series, but it took a lot out of them.
5
I have not seen this series, but based upon this article I will make a point to see it
I think many/most people when they reach their third act in some way reflect upon their lives.
The following sentiment expressed by Kierkegaard sums it up best for me
Life is lived forward and understood backwards
This seems to be one of the takeaways from this body of work.
It appears to be a remarkable look at people over a significant amount of time.
I was once told that there are 3 things that determine a person’s life
1) Who their parents are
2) Who they marry
and
3) ? Can’t remember #3 would love it if someone can jog my memory!
I have found that the 2 I remember do play a significant roll in the life you ultimately lead
4
Utterly unique in the history of cinema.
Goes without saying but I had to say it again because it didn’t have to turn out this way. If this project was in the wrong hands, it wouldn’t have happened. Bravo.
7
@unreceivedogma
There was an American version that began in the 90's--Age 7 in America (1991), 14 Up in America (1998), 21 Up in America (2005?) I think they were called. I do not know the reasons the film makers gave up, but it would have been great if the series continued.
1
Most viewers find Neil’s life arc to be the most remarkable. It’s impossible to compare apples to apples but I have considerable doubts that an American version of Neil would have made it in one piece from 21Up to 35Up. He got what seemed to be a somewhat pleasant taxpayer provided home in the Shetland Islands to see him through periods of unemployment. Obviously, as a British Subject he never had to worry like an American that he was one medical problem away from bankruptcy. I think he surprised most viewers by weathering his stormy 20s and early 30s to become a productive, in fact leading member of society. I doubt that an American Neil would’ve done so well in such a harsh, Puritanical unforgiving, violent society.
38
@Taveuni Waka Not a terribly important point, but Neil was not a "British Subject". A British subject is a member of a class of British nationality largely granted under limited circumstances to people connected with Ireland or British India born before 1949. He was a British citizen. But otherwise your comment is spot on.
1
A rare instance where I have enjoyed the comments as much as the NYT article itself. At no point in my life have I seen a greater need for self-reflection as we do in the present.
22
You should see this in the theater with the rest of the devotees. We cheer and cry and feel somehow they are part of us. Roger Ebert asked Apted what would happen when he has to come and tell us one of these people have died. We will then mourn since we’ve seen them since they were little children and heard their little and big dreams.
9
I did this yesterday, in NYC. It was the highlight of my Thanksgiving - such a communal moment.
1
With a tear in my eye I say thank you for this and thank you, Mr. Apted.
6
I miss Lynn her love of books and reaching out through story books to children. 63 Up with her family and colleagues shows Jackie’s pique with Michael Apted was accurate and grounded in the reality he had not grasped the breadth of the women’s lives.
It also drove me round the bend he only asked the male participants questions about the bigger world. Probably he learned as much about people from revisiting the same folk over and over as anyone can.
6
I think this series goes to show all of our lives happen a certain way, even if not following a script and that many of us are camera shy to face up to the part we play- why, could be lot's of things- I think a few of the resentful stars of Apted's documentary would not want to see their book read until it is done and buried; but we all must read ourselves and our stories, if not aloud, then to a few trusted souls.
Life is not a conveyor belt that endeth only in the grave and for most of us, the evolution of our life will not be televized
1
This series is the video equivalent of Titian's painting titled, "The Three Ages of Man".
3
Great article. This is why we read the NY Times.
10
The world is everything that is the case and a rather brief case is our life
shy, shy, sad, anxious, focused, focused, sad, hopeful, is that all there is?, sad.
1
I think who you are AT BIRTH determines who you are at 63 not who you are at 7. Nature not nurture. Just what I believe.
2
This article could have been condensed by 75% without losing anything.
5
@Kai Just my opinion, but I wished it had been longer.
7
This is a wonderful story, but on a side note: Am I the only reader who finds motion pictures placed next to the text unnerving? Ads or in this case photos that flash as part of the story... I am constantly distracted from the text and force to re-read. Finally I resort to post-it notes to cover the motion pictures.
Is there a way to avoid this problem?
8
Exquisitely-wrought story. The elegiacal quality reflects the terrible beauty of time remembered. Perhaps the sound-track, if there were to be one, would resemble Bill Evans' conception of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jMymWD8bcE
3
Why can't the author just report instead of talking about nothing the whole time. 5 Ws.
2
I've been watching these documentaries since a friend had 28 Up on a videocassette and am obsessed. I'm so glad Michael Apted has been able to carry on this long. Thank you for sharing so much backstory. Up geeks like me love it!
2
I wonder how different an American version of this would be?
Pick any American city, pick 14 kids from the various neighborhoods and I would expect the same story
1
@Paul
Sure. That's its value. Its truths are universal.
4
I think they could have started at birth instead of age 7, for that matter.
2
My favorite moments are the change in Suzy from lost at 21 to poised and at ease with herself at 28, then, at 42, the way Bruce's friendship brings Neil back from the margin.
After 49 Up, I sent a note of thanks to Nick, care of his university. He replied warmly, noting the anxiety that starts to build six years out knowing the next public reckoning approaches. Bravery indeed on all their parts.
Anyone interested in the participants' reflections at 49 on being part of the project can find them at www.imdb.com/title/tt0473434/faq?ref_=tturv_sa_2
6
I have been fascinated by the “Up Series” since I saw the second episode in the mid-1970s when I was a graduate student at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. Gideon Lewis-Krause’s astutely observed and beautifully written article brought me to deeper levels of understanding of the people being filmed and those doing the filming. It reminded me that life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
2
While Michael Apted thought he was doing a documentary about “class” in England, it turned out to be about something else: the lives of people, chaos and the luck of the draw.
The accidental birth status, it’s all in the gene pool. environmental factors and other considered factors all faded away in our emotional reaction to these generous Seven Up children. No answers were found as marveled at these people’s lives every seven years. Apted’s other work faded as fashions and politics changed and people grew older and saw themselves and their children in the Seven UPs
This article, while soaring in its appreciation, is a fitting tribute to something a rare achievement.
Thanks to everyone but especially to the Seven Ups for giving us this, what must have been more than you bargained for, slice of your lives. I hope the other part of your lives are happy as life can be in sickness and in health.
7
I was born in November of 1956, so this series has a real resonance for me. I never became anybody important, influential or rich and I'm completely OK about it. I've had my share of the ups and downs of life but I'm happy to say that nothing super-duper terrible has ever happened to me. I've lived my life on my terms and I still love life.
15
This documentary series has affected me deeply, perhaps more than any other film and as much as any piece of art, period. I was so fortunate to stumble upon it years ago.
Sincere gratitude, and good wishes, to all of those behind, and especially in front, of the cameras.
May our lives be long, full of love, and meaningful.
12
A beautiful series. Where can we see the individual films that comprise the series?
5
BritBox.com
I love this series. I somehow stumbled across it more than 25 years ago on public television and have been a fan ever since. I got to see one in a movie theater. I feel so sad that it is ending. I am a year older than the participants. I don't know anyone who enjoys it as much as I do so I am grateful for this community of fans.
11
I was a film major at Wisconsin in the mid ‘70’s when I heard of this documentary and was able to see bits of it. When it became widely available in the ‘80’s, I followed it eagerly. While a large time commitment, it is utterly fascinating, and well worth anyone’s time to watch. What I find most interesting, is that so many of the participants agreed to continue over the years.
10
I began watching this series with "28 Up" when it was first shown here in the 80s and I've been all in since the first 5 minutes I saw. Every 7 years, I feel like I'm attending a reunion of people I've known personally, and their ups and downs have moved me to an extraordinary degree.
To call this the greatest non-fiction film series of all time is no exaggeration. Anyone interested in real (as opposed to cartoon) human lives and feelings should watch it -- starting at least in the middle chapters, if not from the beginning, to really get to know the people and their lives.
But I agree with the writer that the best way to experience these films has always been viewing them as they're released every 7 years. I'm only a few years younger than the participants, and watching each new installment of the series has always led me to assess the progress of my own life, flowing parallel to theirs.
As this article notes, contrary to its original mission to reveal the binding effects of social class, the power of this series has come from its revelations about the struggles and joys we all share as we grow up, grow an adult life -- and then begin to grow old. The decision to stop filming makes sense, but I'm sad that I'll no longer get to see people who have come to feel like old friends.
631
@Nelle Engoron I agree that seeing them every 7 years as designed was the best way to experience this work. If you just see the later years you miss a lot of the footage that has been edited out and in my opinion you miss a lot of the details about the children at their most vulnerable. I am also a few years younger and I feel like I know them all. Certain of their phrases have been part of my and my friends' conversations for decades.
40
Yes, and what I loved about this article is that it brought in Mr. Apted as another member of the documentary who we've explicitly or implicitly gotten to know over 50 years.
Sweet but heartbreaking to begin to say goodbye.
92
@Nelle Engoron I agree that 7 years is the best way to see them. I must admit though, that before each new release we binge-watch all the preceding ones!
12
Simply the best sociological documentary every made.
Spaced out over more than 50 years, it has adroitly covered class differences and the effect of expectations on children, growing older and the slow dissipation of hopes and dreams, and the decline of a once prosperous welfare state, to name just a few.
This newest installment has been eagerly awaited.
491
It was never prosperous when it was a welfare state.
9
@TJ "You've never had it so good..." British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan 1957.
TJ - I believe you need a history lesson or two.
50
There you go - quoting Harold Macmillan on the wonders of socialism and socialism's golden era in Britain really put me in my place and proves your point so decisively! Happy Thanksgiving
6
"Our deepest hope for the children we love is that they will enjoy the liberties of an open-ended destiny, that their desires will be given the free play they deserve, that the circumstances of their birth and upbringing will be felt as opportunities rather than encumbrances; our greatest fear is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control. ...And what we project forward for the children in our midst can rarely be disentangled from what we project backward for ourselves."
These observations are the heart of the matter. A well-written comprehensive article.
631
Funny that you should have picked this particular passage. I did, too - exactly - and sent it to my wife, ex-wife, and two adult sons. You are right: it goes right to the heart of the matter. And it touched and resonated with me deeply, as much as I suspect a viewing of the film will, too.
29
@Jesse I couldn't help reading that in light of the article on Venenzuelan schoolkids on pg. 1 today.
2
I am currently 63 and I have a letter of review written by my nursery school teacher when I was 7 as I was preparing to go to kindergarten in the fall. I am the exact same person today! " Plays equally well with girls and boys - enjoys performing in front of the class - is physically active despite his being overweight- has respect for authority- is good natured and a punster". I was always me!
689
You sound great, may you always be you!
88
@Jimmy Burgoff This is utterly adorable and you sound awesome!
66
@Jimmy Burgoff I really did laugh out loud reading this. You've obviously always been fantastic. May you never change.
51
Nick,
I hope you're reading this, and that you know millions of us are hoping for your recovery. We've been in your corner since "I don't like to talk about that."
You once regretted that you were "better known for this show than for anything I've accomplished in life," but that's not true. We knew OF you because of the show, but we KNEW you because of your own words, your own expressions, your own clearly revealed humanity.
Best wishes to the rest of you as well. Long lives to you all and thanks for sharing so much.
1025
@Green Tea
Thank you, Nick, for sharing your life with us, and I too am hoping for a recovery. You have become dear to so many of us.
59
@Green Tea Yes, Nick- we do care and wish for you a positive outcome. Thanks for taking part in the Up series.
9
I know what I'll be doing this Thanksgiving. I'll be rushing out to see this movie. If you have not seen this series you are missing out on something quite remarkable. We've been watching along every 7 years (since 35 Up). We streamed the older movies. I'm so excited for 63 Up. Michael Apted - thank you.
554
I would just add that this article made me cry.
The whole Up series has always reminded me in tone of the Shel Silverstein book "The Giving Tree." Which also has brought me to tears a time or two or many.
64
Nicholas Hitchon was my electrical engineering professor at Wisconsin. He was unconventional and a brilliant teacher. I didn’t realize it then, but he taught us to think, by doing projects, like writing programs to simulate ion implantation distribution, or researching facts for certain topics, rather than to simply work out problem sets. It saddens me to hear of his throat cancer. I wish him well.
43
Brilliant, thought provoking and deeply engaging. Everyone's live matters. Many thanks.
12
Brilliant writing. The first sentence could be the start of an engrossing novel. The cadence and pacing of that sentence is masterful.
13
This was a wonderful article. The author really did the director and his life's work justice.
And I certainly hope Apted continues to ignore studio notes. His judgement about the series is worth more than that of every Hollywood executive combined.
Michael: Whether you're up to another installment in 7 years' time or not (I'll keep my fingers crossed), I wish you all the best in the future. I'll be forever grateful for what you've given us with this masterpiece of filmmaking.
37
I very much liked the series, being from a Liverpool manual WC background who - mostly through circumstance - has become a middle class (in US terms, upper middle class) intellectual. Like Apted, I am a socialist. I mention this because these films could have been made in the US, but it was politically unlikely. Discussion of class differences are suppressed in the USA.
Class begins as an economic category but is festooned with cultural symbolisation. As Trump shows, the US is as class bound as the UK - but of course part of the programming people receive is to deny its applicability. In terms of inequality it is worse in the USA... and because of the Tories, like Johnson, it is getting worse in the UK.
31
Yes, the inequality is getting worse. It is heartbreaking that a government can be so cruel to it's own citizens.
1
@G Rayns
You are right about inequality in the U.S. growing under Trump. But I don't think rising to the top in the business world is so dependent upon going to the "right" schools.
Out of curiosity I checked the top ten CEOs of the S&P 500 companies to see where they attended college/university. Only one went to an "Ivy League" or its prestige equivalent school.
An exclusive University diploma may give one a "leg up" on success, but is no guarantee of a place at the very top.
There is a long list of things that can add up to one's "destiny" : Intelligence, temperament, parental competence or lack thereof, access to education etc.
The problem of wealth distribution cannot be met without actually creating wealth, which socialism seems to fail at.
I suspect the Nordic countries, with highly competitive
private sectors with generous social benefits do a much better job on the "fairness" front than we do in the U.S.
2
The fact that his method for selection was to ask teachers for names of children unlikely to be camera shy makes the thesis rather suspect. It is the kids who were camera shy who would be the ones who would probably most surprise you because they would be more likely to have to stretch themselves to fully develop into who they would become.
24
When he made 7 Up he was trying to make an entertaining, one-off TV program for a fledgling commercial network. The reveal of the art and deeper themes became apparent, even to Apted, after the first episode was in the can.
8
Except it was originally a one-off.
5
A wonderfully written article about a heart rending series. I grew up in England and left when I was 27. Make no mistake about it, the class system is as alive and well today as it was at the beginning of this series. If you listened to the words of Dr. Fiona Hill at the recent impeachment hearings, her place of birth (Durham), her family and “Northern” accent would have severely limited her opportunities in the UK, whereas in the US she was unhindered. The UK is still governed mostly by Oxbridge graduates who don’t have a clue about the rest of the population.
40
I think you underestimate the class character of the USA. I think it is just as real, merely less obvious. Ultimately class is an economic relational quality caused by capitalism. By the way, my father was a bricklayer from Liverpool who started work aged 13. His son (me) has a PhD and is a professor.
30
@Maureen Kevany In the US, if you have a Black accent, a southern accent (outside the South), or a Mexican accent, your opportunities are limited. That's our class system.
9
@Maureen Kevany
That's an outmoded perspective. If you watch/listen to the BBC you will know that regional accents have been mandatory for at least 15-20 years. Provincial types, like your good self, will find success if they want it.
1
It was over 40 years ago that I began using the 7 up series to illustrate the impact of class on future mobility for my students in sociology. But it was clear that by the time 21 came out, the people in these films could no longer be boxed in by sociological categories. Each of these boys and girls- men and women- became their own story and we as witnesses- hopefully not voyeurs- saw them as surrogates for our own passages through life. Because of this remarkable series, I have come to partition my own life in seven year segments as a way of trying to make sense of how you get from here to there. I have been moved by each of the persons who bravely allowed themselves to be part of this project- you have helped provide perspective and insight in ways that have yet to be fully acknowledged. I was especially touched by the way some of the participants- Bruce and Neal- and Paul and Simon - reached out to each other at different points in their lives. Well- as a 77 year old, let me tell you that life does not end at any age unless it ends by death. I hope that there will be 7ups at 70 and 77- and beyond. Perhaps there are among the participants those who already work in the media- Charles?- or perhaps someone else can continue the narrative when Michael Apted is no longer able.
24
@Rmark6 I have the same hope, that if Apted isn't up to it at least one more episode will be produced by his production and editing team, ideally with him involved -- he's had some of the same people for thirty years or more, and one of them, Claire Lewis, maintains contact with the children (as they call them) in between filming episodes.
2
Beautifully said and written reflections on time and life and class and humans and art and trust. Truly moving tale of fifteen lives and all the lives they twine around. As a near-seventy-year-old myself, I stand near time's exit door with all these good people. A time for accounting. A time to reflect. A holy and at times overwhelmingly meaningful time of life.
Thank you.
35
The "Up" series is in a word (OK - two words), "Bloody Brilliant." Thank you Mr. Apted and to all who have participated in this incredible and insightful work.
Thank you, Mr. Lewis-Kraus for a timely update and wonderful summary. This is essential reading/watching.
33
From Wikipedia: "In science, the term observer effect means that the act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed. For example, for us to "see" an electron, a photon must first interact with it, and this interaction will change the path of that electron." I can't help but wonder how, for better or worse, being scrutinized by so many people over time would have affected my decisions from 7 and up. As much as I recognize the contribution being made by this series to our perceptions about inequality, I suspect more validity would have been gained by not showing it until the last subject had passed on (or left). And it might have been kinder.
10
Thank you for the introduction to these amazing documentaries. I can’t wait to watch them!
As for “set by 7”, I dont know. I’d say earlier for many. My 37 and 35 year old cousins (related by marriage) are both the same as they were when I first met them at age two and three: gregarious, confident, independent minded, extremely driven and absolutely unflappably. One would kick adults if he didnt get his way regardless of punishment and the other would break every rule and exact revenge if she didnt get her way. Today, one is a successful doctor and the other is a Department Director. I think it all starts much earlier and is to only a limited degree within anyone’s control.
9
Has anyone else noticed that the happiest, most confident 28-year-olds were those who had returned to the fulsomeness of their seven-year-old selves? The children seemed to disappear at 14, began to re-emerge at 21 and by 28 were "themselves" again. I know it's supposed to be about class and environment, but this series is really a study in psychological development. Brilliant!
39
@Betsey : You are so right! 7 years olds are in general self absorbed, selfish, irresponsible, insensitive to other people's needs, and don't keep their rooms clean. Sounds just like my kids at 7 and 20!
I happened upon this series while still in college in the 70s, and have been following it ever since. The first two installments showed, to me at least, after subsequently watching every chapter, that our basic character is set pretty early, and changes very little throughout our life. I am also lucky enough to have a parallel experience of lifelong friendship with a tremendous group of kids that I met in kindergarten. We still to this day, 66 years later, remain close friends, despite upheavals, successes, and tragedies, our characters remaining almost exactly the same as when we were in kindergarten. This series shows that reality clearly and simply brilliantly.
16
I’ve not seen all of the series, but upon reading this terrific piece will catch up and do so. I do think we can change and defy what is expected of us in the particular society we live in; but speaking personally, I know that the quintessence, the inner me, is still – while on a more sophisticated level – that which it always was. We are shaped by our parents, by our genetic heritage – as well as our environment and we can make choices, good, less ideal, and bad. I do feel lucky that throughout my life I have been able to be true to me. As an aside, my father used to write to our local paper and comment, and I recall being embarrassed by that at times – and here I am doing the same thing, unabashedly!
8
I love documentaries, and think this may be the best of them all. (Only "Hoop Dreams" and Ken Burns' "Civil War" are in contention.)
To those who haven't yet discovered the series, you're in for a treat. Start, of course, with #1 and then view chronologically.
I watched all the programs during one weekend in 2014. I'm sure I'll do the same seven years from now, should I still be alive, and every seven years thereafter.
23
There is some controversy these days over whether or not one can "teach" empathy. Having used this series in some of my classes I lean towards an affirmative response to the question--empathy for the subjects of the film, but also for oneself and those who enter and leave one's own life.
22
I haven’t viewed any of the Up series . . . yet. Soon to be rectified. I want to comment on the brilliance of the writing in this article. Even though it’s longer than usual, I couldn’t stop reading. There are so many emotionally moving and intelligent, provocative observations. I loved how the writer interwove the stories of the Up children with Apted’s own progress through life and their evolving perceptions of their own participation in this amazing longitudinal documentary. This article was a masterpiece, worthy of its subject. Thank you.
87
@Just Curious
Your thought express my own, exactly. Thank you for putting them into words. The author deserves special recognition.
4
A beautifully written article. Thank you Gideon Lewis-Kraus.
39
I am the same age as the children interviewed. I saw the first series at an art cinema in Kansas City when they were 28, I think.
I have watched every one of the series multiple times. I have great affection for all the participants!
Thanks for sharing your lives with the world!!!
About 12 years ago I went to a birthday party for a friend of mine who had turned 50 at the Rock and Bowl in New Orleans. My friend had spent quite a few years living in London and had invited us all to celebrate her birthday in New Orleans.
As I was walking up the stairs, I heard a distinct accent and I thought that is John from the series, the aristocratic beautiful boy. And it was him!!!
He asked me if I was studying sociology and I said no, I had seen it at the cinema. He was surprised that it was being featured there.
And of course I followed up by watching all the other series!
What is particularly funny to me is at this very moment I am in Missouri at our farm. My husband and I spent Thanksgiving alone. It was nice! Very cozy:-)!
Anyway, I just asked my husband who grew up in rural Kansas “ What do you want to do today?”
He responded as
did the very bright boy Nicholas, years ago
at age 7.
When asked what he liked to do, he responded “ I like to go to the town. “
My husband just said that and then I saw your article!
We ALWAYS say that!
I have to admit I haven’t read the article because I was so thrilled! Love to all 63 year olds!
Let’s work to save this dear old world!
104
PS! Just read the article! Thanks!!!!
3
@Anne b. McDonald YES YES YES!!!!!
5
The more apt metaphor would be: "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree".
It works at all stages of life if you've grown trees yourself you will know this. At any stage of its life the new growth can be trained even as the old trained in deformations remain. Don't take the metaphor too far people cannot be pruned. No matter how beautiful a deformation away from natural growth may be to you, in people they hurt.
What you describe of Jackie leading to that question of where she gets her strength is what the entire human race has done throughout its history. We go on and keep trying to do better. Everyone of us whom has endured hardship with no obvious height to be gained at the end of it knows the drive to go on is innate. It is those who do not endure that are the outliers of the human race. It is this innate ability to endure of the vast majority of people that allowed the class systems of the world to be built! Being confounded by the question about how or why one survives and keeps living is normal. It's what you do.
The question "Where does the strength come from?" seems to me comes from a place where the questioner is fearfully seeking the answer to a question they are not asking: Do I have that ability to go on in the face of hardship?
37
My all time favorite documentary series. It’s worth waiting 7 years for the next episode. In May 1964 when this series began I was 11 yrs old and living in Yorkshire, the son of the Pentecostal preacher and homemaking mother, both of whom were children of Welsh coal miners. In August of 1964 we moved to the USA, largely because my father was aware that Pentecostal religion was working its way upward through the American social classes in ways it wasn't in the UK, offering him the opportunities for advancement which would not have been available in the UK. This decision to emigrate made a substantial difference in all of our lives. But it does go to an underexplored aspect of the documentary series--the role of religion in the lives of the participants. Neil's religion is briefly explored. But in our instance, the intersection of religion and social class in the UK and US would provide some explanatory power, unavailable through other lenses. Subsequent events have likely proven my father correct: Pentecostals have risen into the political elites in the USA at levels not seen in the UK (I think).
16
Here is the lesson: the greatest thing we have is a loving supportive family. We thrive if we have one, struggle if we don't. We grieve when we lose loved one and if we didn't get love we grieve for what we never had. If you have a family protect it. If not, your greatest challenge is to make one and treasure it.
53
Apted is a genius - I first saw the series when it was "49 Up" and was fascinated. Can't wait to see the latest update - confirms that we are who we are (and always will be) - at 7. Bought the DVD for "56 Up" and will have to watch it again!
8
Do we not all reflect upon the arc of our lives like this, using old photos, saved letters and papers, childhood mementos, to recall our evolution? Do we not all rue what could have been and wonder about the social boundaries that hemmed us in? If our survivors have a memorial service for us, won't they display snapshots summarizing the path we have trod?
24
And here I am thinking "Boyhood" (2014) was a long shoot. I believe Jackie is a very fortunate person. This is a brilliant project. In particular, I like the paragraph which delves into becoming close to a child, for it is spot on. Michael Apted is one of a handful of outstanding directors today. Although much of his work has been in television (still very good), he has a solid resume of feature length films. For me, "Gorky Park (1983) was a home run. I remember seeing it when it opened. Lee Marvin is someone I always enjoyed. Even today, Mr. Apted is still casting very strong lead actors. For example, Noomi Rapace embodies this. He is a very prodigous director, also quite diverse. This is partially what makes him ideal for a documentary like no other (55 years long). I cannot wait to see the entire thing.
9
@Easy Goer I also loved HEIMAT At the library.
1
A splendid article, Gideon, about an extraordinary slice of life (thanks Michael) and as I read it, I couldn't help but think of the poignant film clips I've seen of our current President and how he too, like many/most of us, have not quite achieved all that we could in the ways that we should.
5
@Mark You can imagine how Trump was treated.
1
What an extraordinary project. I don't think anyone could watch these documentaries and fail to examine their own life. What seems vital to me is that Apted reveals the individual experience inside the collective without diminishing either. He's held two opposing ideas in suspension, something true poetry does.
16
I first discovered the series when at 28 I was in the UK on an extended world walkabout. In anticipation of the premiere there was first a review of the previous episodes. The first one seemed so exotic to me. Very different from the experiences and issues of my own childhood in San Francisco. The following films quickly became personal and sometimes painful. Now 63 myself I know it will be especially hard to watch one last time but I will because I love these kids and who they've become.
Thank you to the author and the NYTimes for a beautiful and brilliant story of the challenges and the power of the journey that has been this amazing series.
50
Your not going to glean much about what the project ostensibly set out to discover. The group is too small, not chosen in any scientific or methodical manner, several participants have dropped out, etc.
Nonetheless, it's the most fascinating documentary, all segments taken as a whole, that I've ever seen. It's simply extraordinary-- not just the product, but the decades-spanning production. Almost unbelievable, if you think about it. Maybe the greatest filmmaking feat in the history of the medium.
28
Extraordinary series. I will watch it!
6
Have been born in Belfast in 1948 and moved to Canada as a child , I love this Series . My wife of 45 years an English Canadian spent 4 years in England as young girl going to middle school in London . Both of us get all the class distinctions. We loved it so much we gave it on DVD’s to our adults children who also loved it .As an Irish Catholic I knew my place in Belfast . When we would visit Belfast and I would tell people I was born here (no Belfast accent ) the first question was were were you born ? People want to know in there own mind what team I was on. I love all the subjects in this series but Tony makes my heart sing. Just back from London last week , Marks and Spencer’s Restaurant on Oxford St. Has the bests treats in the afternoon . Greg
18
My understanding of the 7-year-old child maxim is that those years are unique in one's life because of how they shape one's personality and how one interacts with the world. All children have to take what they experience, which is all that they know, and make sense of it for themselves. Children who grow up in stable, nurturing homes expect that from the world, and can go on to create the same experience for their own children. Those raised by people who cannot care for them, in chaotic or abusive circumstances, usually carry those damaging lessons into adulthood. Where there is no intervening influence, some unconsciously recreate chaos, some believe they deserve to be abused, and the cycles continue.
31
@Kathy
Well said Kathy! We are product of our environment. Our first environment is our family. If family is abusive and chaotic the big majority of children will either be abusive or accept to live in the abusive environment.
Very few are able to break the abusive family's chaotic environment thru the second environment that they are introduced at age 5 or so which is school. Getting good teachers who channel the kids energy away from abusiveness is a one example. But I will say that is only a small portion but this avenue does exits and has made difference in some children's life.
So at the end of the day it is "Nature Vs Nurture". In my opinion I will say it is 99% Nurture and 1% Nature that controls children's future. 1% Nature I say because we don't have control over who our skin color, height, sex etc which provided by Nature.
I really admire those people like Michael who endeavor to understand human nature by asking tough questions about life and examining their own life.
1
@Jay "In my opinion I will say it is 99% Nurture and 1% Nature that controls children's future."
I disagree. Anecdotal evidence - my two brothers. They are only 14 months apart in age, but from earliest childhood they were so obviously different. The older one started earning his own money at the age of 10, mowing lawns and delivering papers. He started refusing gifts from our parents, except for clothing. The younger one always wanted wanted wanted things and whined until he got them. The older one loved to read, the younger one loved toy guns.
60 years later, the older one is a millionaire, mostly because he rarely spends money on himself (but happily spends it on other people or charities), the younger one has an aresenal of about 50 guns, a horrible temper and no money in the bank.
The older one is politically left (far left by American standards), the younger one is right wing.
My younger brother looks just like our maternal grandfather, who was a hunter, an arch-conservative man with a mean temper.
All this has nothing to do with "nurture", it has to do with "nature" (genetic disposition).
3
I initialluy devoured these episodes as part of my affection for the UK and the frequent trips there as an employee of a UK company with a US subsidiary. Over 30 years with daily interactions and trips to the UK every few months I came to feel more familiar with the UK and its people than much of my native USA. Weekend trips to the cities and countryside yielded a complex impression. The '7' series underscores for me the continuing class system of the UK which was hard for me, as an American, to see clearly until my later years. The 'airs' of the upper class, the luck to be born to more money or 4 last names, the faster corporate promotions of those with the correct accent, led me to feel that the UK is more of a failed state and an archaic feudal system that is not dealing well with the modern world and the democratic values that says everyone should have an equal opportunity. The '7' shows became painful, and made enjoying something with such obvious class overtones as Downton Abbey simply impossible to tolerate. DA is fiction, but the 7-series is a real indictment of the failures of British society.
55
@Delawarian
How is that different from the class system in the US? A child in the US, born into an upper-class family, is given all the privileges and entitlements of that class. A child in the US, born into a family struggling with poverty, is encumbered and oppressed by that poverty from the very beginning. The opportunities will never be equal, thus assuring the lack of social and economic mobility for the child who is poor. The level of inequality in the US has never been higher. We most definitely have a class system in America and it is becoming much less likely that someone on the bottom rung can rise to a higher level.
167
@Patricia Caiozzo I tend to disagree--to some extent. Although the 'thumb on the scale' giving many minority students access to higher education (Affirmative Action) was and still is controversial, it enabled a significant number not only access but eventual success. Being well-above average in intelligence made a difference. A young African-American man I know went to a low-income area high school and did brilliantly. (He didn't need a 'thumb-on-the-scale.') Raised by a mother and grandmother as his father was in prison, he was accepted to Stanford University and got both a BA and an MA in 4 years. He's now in local politics and was elected as the youngest ever mayor of his town.
The elephant-in-the-room that is rarely discussed is the relationship between low intelligence and low-income. Not every person has the mental capacity to achieve at a high level. The lack of training in needed mechanical skills and service industries, and the low interest in promoting these (including the lack of prestige) is a big void when society still has need for competency in such areas.
Some are starting to discuss the 'option' of a basic income supported by taxes and, for those unable to enter such areas as hi-tech and academically demanding work with commensurate income, perhaps this will be a remedy to consider.
15
You nailed it on the head. The majority of Americans, as with so many other concerns, have no idea about the class distinctions, "old" money and even castes (pardon the Hinduism reference) which are a way of life in Great Britain; rather, "were". These still exist, but as you put it so well, they are having a hard time adjusting to the present way of life (I'm paraphrasing). Ironically, in America (in our way), we are also having much difficulty coping with the "modern" world.
5
Dear Mr. Apted,
Thank you for a life’s work well done. Thank you to all the participants for helping me when in 1964-65 when I was 7 years old moving from California to go to school in Humberston, where my father taught at a nearby Grimsby secondary school. You all helped me understand what was what as “the American”. For a child there was no television program on BBC or ITV, and certainly not on the pictures or in school which featured children’s thoughts and hopes straight from the subject. It made me think of what my own middle class life might be like in comparison to the subjects. Following the subsequent episodes back in California has been a mirror for myself, and a link to a shared past.
21
adding to the title - for those who believe that 1964-2019 constitutes all of humanity, which can be comprehended, in the absence of innate technologies, using a camera. Voyeurism is and should remain in the realm of entertainment.
4
@sumati Whatever else the series is, it IS entertainment. It is filmed life, not life.
In today's social media world of immediate gratification, I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon the 7 Up series not long after it began. I say thank you to the participants for letting strangers into their lives although I soon felt like I knew them by the second film. And to Michael Apted, thank you for sticking with it. Watching the films always gave me pause on my life and the decisions I'd made along the way while also realizing the factors of luck and fate in some of my life's journey. I connected with each person's successes and failures and their life journey. Thank you again to all the participants.
28
Watching these children grow up as we ourselves were growing up was one of the most extraordinary experiences of storytelling in my lifetime. Was it possible to watch these children without measuring oneself against them? Not for me. They became touchstones and milestones, and warnings as well about the accidents and unfairness of life. Every episode brought tears to my eyes but it was sometimes difficult to know exactly whom I was crying for. Congratulations to Mr. Apted for seeing it through and illuminating so much of life for all of us. Also to Mr. Lewis-Kraus for capturing so movingly the heart of what Apted has done. And especially, thank you to the “children,” who allowed us into their lives. (Minor note: it’s “to the manor born,“ not “the manner born,” which in the context of “Up” is not insignificant.)
42
Actually, no. The original is in fact “to the manner born”; it’s from Hamlet. “To the manor born” was a Victorian era revision.
3
“To the manner born” is correct (from Hamlet). “To the manor born” is both a British sitcom and a corruption of the original saying.
4
@ADN -
I thought this too, until I looked it up.
Actually, it is, indeed,“to the manner born” (and does not mean “born with a silver spoon in their mouth.”
1
I hope all of the participants in the series realize there is an enormous amount of affection for them by the viewers and not judgment. This article made me cry as does every episode of the series. I can't wait to re-watch them again.
185
The author says that our greatest fear for our children is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control.
Perhaps. My greatest fear for my children is that they will lack gratitude for the opportunities and advantages they have been afforded—regardless of whether those are greater or less than those afforded others—and live in a frustrated sense of entitlement, rather than seeking to make the world a better place.
Contentment and satisfaction result from the productive application of effort, despite the barriers—great or small—we all must struggle to overcome.
41
@kkseattle Beautifully stated.
@kkseattle
How many millions of US children suffer from what is euphemistically called in USDA and other govt. programs "food insecurity". Look it up.
Perhaps those children who lack essential nutrition during the most consequential growth periods in their lives and other socially created catastrophes are facing barriers that are a lot bigger than you ever imagined... etc. (yes, even some individuals overcome some of those barriers, but they are heroes and heroism should not be required just to lead a normal life.)
If you mean that your children and thus yourself should seek to make the world a better place, you'll get your kids to go for that goal if you advocate by your own example empathy and compassion.
1
Thia article is so beautifully written, I kept finding myself stopping to read and reread a passage. I was just amazed and so impressed with Gideon's tone and gentle handling of such emotional material. I would certainly read a book written on any topic by this author.
108
@karen I have the same reaction. Lewis-Kraus works the language beautifully to describe this huge project, combining it with a portrait of the director. What else has he written?
15
@Torr Oslo
The first was 'A Sense of Direction', if I remember correctly.
Have watched the series repeatedly in its entirety and shared it with psychology students and colleagues as well. Do we watch it out of voyeurism, or something noble? It is akin to Steichen's Family of Man, fostering a sense of connection, of familiarity, of bonding, with those who are far.
21
@Kevin "Do we watch it out of voyeurism, or something noble?" How can we know? Why do we judge?
1
@Roger not so much that we judge, but observe and respectfully acknowledge the ambivalence of some of the participants (esp Suzy and John) in a series that has not merely chronicled but also in some ways shaped their lives.
@Kevin I mean, why do we judge our own motives for watching? Why the dichotomy of "Voyeurism <> Nobility"?
I'm so grateful to Apted and the remarkable people who stayed with the project as long as they did. I know it was painful at times, but their honesty was beautiful. I remember seeing it for the first time at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago and feeling shocked when I realized that I was crying at the end. I love seeing "the children" with their parents, their children, at their work, at leisure. Witnessing the turns their lives have taken is gripping. When they started losing their parents, I was going through the same thing. Apted's really skillful at capturing what makes each person unique--their passions, their vulnerabilities, their own surprise at the direction their lives have taken. I've been so anxious about Neil--and struck at how unfair and brutal mental illness can be. I'm disappointed and mad, frankly, that Suzy refused to come back. It's like attending a family reunion where you find out that a cousin you love got into a snit with another family member and is boycotting the celebration. But it's impossible to know everyone's motives, so I should cut her some slack. I'm sad that the series is ending. It's enriched my life and I've loved sharing it with my children and my students.
26
What a terrific piece. I knew Paul Almond the Oxford-educated Canadian director of first film. I have always thought that 7 Up is the most interesting in the series, much richer visually than what followed, although it is a fascinating idea. Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is in a way even more daring, taking a chance on a childhood actor and seeing what happens when he reaches college age,
13
I feel so lucky to have been exposed to the start of this magnificent series while attending NYU Film School in the 1970’s!!! I have not seen the last 2 or 3 installments and wish the whole thing was available on Netflix or Amazon because this life’s work needs to be widely seen. It is unique in the history of cinema as well as a poignant look at society. What needs to happen to make the whole thing accessible?
39
@Belinda Rachman You can access Brit Box - where the whole thing is streaming through Amazon Prime video - it costs like $6.00 a month.
3
@Belinda Rachman - They are available as DVDs from Netflix, and on Amazon with a BritBox subscription.
2
@Belinda Rachman >... The film was presented at the Film Forum this Wednesday and the makers were there for Q & A. Very poignant! You can join 'Brit-Box' or go to Amazon to get the whole series.
Cheers!
1
This article brought me to tears. I am the same age as the stars of the Up series and have seen/followed/digested each of the previous shows. Every 7 years I revisit them and my own life flashes before me with both similarities and unfamiliar scenes. Indeed I love this series and I am anticipating the 63 show being as brilliant. I am saddened by the end of this docuseries, but it is truly like all things in life.....Things change and things end. But Oh, how I loved the dance with these people. Thank you NYT and Mr. Lewis-Kraus for the light you put on Mr. Apted and his brilliant children. I am one of them, really but not really!
58
I have followed the show over all these years and at times almost feel I "know" these children on the road to becoming adults. Despite the obvious class implications, what I took away from the experience are the twists and turns that life can take, especially when it was apparent Neil was suffering from mental illness. But more than anything I was happy for most of them that they found their way and managed to carve out a life that had meaning for them.
Thank you Mr. Apted, because no matter how haphazard the series beginnings it became amazing cinema!
25
"Existential audit" is a perfect phrase to describe what the subjects endured every seven years. I was stunned by the multi-layered depth of what I felt when I saw 42 Up years ago at a movie theater.
30
Very nice work Mr. Lewis-Kraus. Thank you.
17
Thank you Mr. Apted and all of the participants.
Like being able to hold a flower in one’s hands.
As it blooms, unfolds, and decays.
A gift superlative.
38
The author doesn’t list where you can view this magnificent sounding series
11
Coincidentally, I started watching the last few episodes this past Tuesday. They’re on Britbox.
@NJworkingmom
Yes, he did: Britbox.
@NJworkingmom
7-56 can be seen on Britbox.
I always found the “ . . . Up” movies rather cruel. I remember a man who had big ambitions as a child and wound driving a taxi being Told, “You’ve failed at everything you tried to do in life.” Another man started showing signs of psychosis as he aged and the interviewers stopped by to ask him, “How does it feel to know you are going mad?” Increasingly the participants refused to be interviewed, and I decided not to go to any more installments.
29
@Alex K The questions asked by the producer in the film are astoundingly rude and unnecessarily negative. I saw the film this Wednesday. I'm astonished, as a Brit that this kind of aggressive questioning is acceptable? Weird stuff like "Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?" What? Most of the children were quite uncomfortable. It does however present an interesting and historical overview of a small section of people from different classes who've shared their lives and expectations. The people from the East End, the Cockneys are amazing and so much fun. The upper class boys are relatively hopeful that they can use their education to improve the world...
1
I've read a few of these reviews of the "Up" series and watched some of this epic, making me realize that I too am getting old. This brought me to tears.
Rarely nowadays does the NYT publish such excellent writing that evokes a profound emotional response despite being a review of other peoples work. Telling the story of Michael Apted and the production of "Up" is as intriguing as the work he and his team produced... maybe more so.
One can only hope that even if Mr. Apted passes, his legacy continues to the next installment with his "kids" telling his story as I think Mr. Apted is the greatest participant.
176
@mediapizza Agreed on the excellent writing...the danger is that Mr. Lewis-Kraus outwrites (is that a term?) his subject matter!
2
@Magg Wynn
Agree with your statements too, but I guess even if the subject matter is weak, every reader who likes to be immersed in a story could benefit from a few more strong writers. The fact that "up" has always been an intriguing social and media experiment deserving of both praise and serious contemplation makes me respect the substance and style of this particular article at this moment in time. Simply Poignant.
I am quite sure that what Michael Apted has done could not be repeated in any remarkable manner again and while there are plenty of stories that can be more concise, if Mr. Lewis-Kraus wants to author the unabridged history of the series or a biography of Mr. Apted, I would certainly want to read it.
5
The passage of time is one of the cruelest and most painful aspects of life. This series is poignant, but can be distressingly emotional to watch if you're over 50.
48
If this article ever attempted to answer the question posed by the headline, I wouldn't know; I grew weary of the novel before I got to it.
3
@Bill Smith I found the article riveting and its length wholly justified. That you were actually looking for an answer to an unanswerable question--one that this series has taken seriously for so many decades--means that you might have missed the point. I recommend watching the series in its entirety. Your patience will be rewarded.
27
Thank you so much for this article.
17
Just remembering some of the characters and scenes over the decades brings tears to my eyes every time.
12
This is so beautifully written. I don't have children myself, but this paragraph, I imagine, encapsulates the complex tangle of emotions and desires every parent must feel when they look at their children. Thank you for writing this.
"To spend time with a child is to dwell under the terms of an uneasy truce between the possibility of the present and the inevitability of the future. Our deepest hope for the children we love is that they will enjoy the liberties of an open-ended destiny, that their desires will be given the free play they deserve, that the circumstances of their birth and upbringing will be felt as opportunities rather than encumbrances; our greatest fear is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control. At the same time, we can’t help poring over their faces and gestures for any signals of eventuality — the trace hints and betrayals of what will emerge in time as their character, their plot, their fate. And what we project forward for the children in our midst can rarely be disentangled from what we project backward for ourselves."
72
I was in my early 20’s in art school when I saw 35up at the Music Box Theater in Chicago. The series has punctuated my own life and artistic practice. Now a middle aged NYC artist who works with archival photographs this series continues to inspire. I am ressaured artistically that there is nothing more compelling than documenting the march of time.
21
One of the reasons I love this film sequence AND this article: there is so much out there of immense value unknown to many and we must work to make them known against the never ending crush of media breaking against us hourly.
I doubt that many under the age of 50 are even aware this series exists or how deep and moving and irreplaceable and unique it is.
Thank you for writing a beautiful and thought provoking piece about one of the most beautiful and long running movie projects of the 20th and 21st centuries. Surely something to be celebrated and discussed.
56
What a sensitively observed and beautifully crafted piece –thank you, Gideon Lewis-Kraus & NYTimes. And to Mr. Apted and the many grown-up children who have allowed us to share their lives. Bravo.
62
I am the same age as the subjects (I was going to write 'children', but then realized...:-) in the 'Up' series, and also grew up in the UK. The series is, obviously, and in so many ways, the story of my life. I feel a profound sense of gratitude for what Michael and all of them have done. It is not only a magnificent work of art, but such a human and powerful statement of what it means to live a life. It highlights the arc, the impermanence, the constant change, the unknowability of the future in ways that move me to tears, repeatedly. And most profoundly and importantly, how we face it all. In so many ways, we really are all the same.
The article is brilliantly written, and has given me much deeper insight into the series. Thank you Gideon for such a superb piece of writing. And thank you most of all to Michael, Bruce, John, Peter, Andrew, Jackie, Lynn, Neil, Tony, Charles, Sue, Symon, Paul, Suzy and Nick
135
Oh, my. What a beautifully written article and fascinating group of subjects. Amazing. I haven't seen the programs, but I will be sure to look them up.
34
@Carol I reply only to second your praise of this brilliant and evocative article. I also haven't seen the programs, but feel that I have real insight into this important work.
10
I tell people that children are the only really legitimate reason to want to live forever. They are simply THE greatest story. You want to see what happens to them next, and after that, and after that, and to THEIR children, and so on. Apted's series, and the gracious contributions of the interviewees themselves, are the closest many of us can come to this dream. The heartbreak we feel when tragedy befalls them, or success enters their life, is as close to feelings of family as one might get on film.
I also tell people that the great thing about life is that you get to meet so many people. And the sad thing is that you have to say goodbye to so many as well. The end of this series makes me sad, but it has been an honour and joy to meet them.
170
Funny, I’d like to live forever, but I’m not that crazy about children. Adults are more interesting and actually less cruel.
7
@Mark Hammer "The longer I live having to deal with humans, the more I love my dogs". Vladimir Nabokoff
2
@Mark Hammer You are exactly correct. Children can be wearing, expensive and frustrating. But they really are the only thing that gives meaning to life. Otherwise, what's the point?
1
Without question one of if not the most meaningful documentary ever made; the entire thing in all its gestalt will remain one of the great human achievements. I look forward to "63" with a mix of the joyous anticipation of meeting old friends and the trepidation of knowing it may very well be the last time I get to do so. I can't thank all the participants in this project enough: you've made me think, encouraged me to take stock of my own life, given me so many new eyes with which to see the width and depth of the human experience. I am a better person because of you. Thank you.
97
@Geoff I am writing to add my thanks to all who have taken part over the years. I am just a few years older than the participants, and have grown up with them, my life illuminated by theirs and Apted's grand documentary. I am left above all with a feeling of tenderness toward us all, and warm good wishes to all we've seen as children, adolescents, young men and women, and on up.
12
I took a child psychology class where we watched 28-Up and it was astounding to me then (in the mid-1990s). I’ve bought other updates and it hasn’t had the same impact throughout, but now that it’s nearly over and I realized I’ve been watching for 25 years it hit me hard.
These movies have been a gift in my life. Thank you.
29
@Matt Both funny and encouraging to hear your experience. I *taught* child, adolescent, and adult development courses, and used 28-up in class as a springboard for discussion. I'm pleased to hear I wasn't the only one doing so.
13
Yes, one does seem to go full circle. As my mortality becomes more evident with deaths of family and aging, I note actions, traits, habits from childhood seem more noticeable. I’m even back to my 5 year old hairdo which is just very appropriate for my hair and unwillingness to put a lot of effort into it. Pretty much what I was like then is how I’m now - maybe a bit more mature and I don’t run as much.
28
I've thoroughly enjoyed this documentary series. I was a brilliant concept that changed the nature of documentaries. We should hesitate to draw any conclusions from the effort, however. This is not a scientific endeavor. If it were the flaws would be too large to ignore. Observation alters both behavior and perception (att: Heisenberg). People aren't atomic particles either so the limitations of science in the fields of human behavior draw this effort much closer to the sciences in the field. A fascinating follow-up would be to engage the children of the children in a similar way. The way people react to their parents usually tells you a great deal about them.
18
@Mhevey love your idea!
Apted has created the finest documentary series I have watched since the beginning. This article brought me to tears as I have connected with each of these participants over the years and this one appears to be about facing mortality. Thank you to the "children" for your honesty, forthrightness. and loyalty to this project. It has been a humbling and humane experience for me.
46
I am an old man, soon to be 80 years old. This film series has made me to reflect on my own life.
I return to the failures of my parents and their attempts to achieve what they struggled to achieve. I have wanted to do the things, in my own way, that they longed to accomplish.That was an education.
I have had many failures, but the loving energy of my parents motivated me to struggle.
I only succeeded when I reached the age 39 years with a PhD from a major university. This enabled me to teach returning adult students following a similar motivation, to do and be better.
I am no better than my loving parents, Betty and Bill, but it is their aspiration that has motivated me over these many years.
God bless you, my loving parents.
234
Congratulations on your challenging educational achievement. You remind me there any many different measures of success besides formal achievements like careers, degrees and so on. Such as: staying alive, getting sober, being kind, being an involved family member, helping others, supporting people emotionally, taking care of plants and trees and animals....
16
I have followed Apted's brilliant series for many years and have been mesmerized by each of them. At the time the series began there was a psychological theory that a child's future was determined by her experiences before six years of age. In the case of these children, it would appear that the British class system and quality of education are more responsible for future "success" and happiness.
11
I will skip all the inevitable political remarks to thank Apted, his crew, and the once-young people who made the Up films possible.
Their stories made me less lonely on my own journey. I collect and write down metaphors about time. These films are one extended metaphor.
35
Absolute proof that those of privilege succeed regardless of their abilities. It is easy to observe in Britain with the monarchy and here in the children of people like trump. Trump himself is a example, having never worked a day in his life.
So we are destined to be lead by every more vacuous fools looking only to their own interests. England has already passed the tipping point, a once great country that is now a minor player, the USA is not far behind.
43
I disagree. Andrew, John and Charles - the three most privileged boys in the program, have all achieved success in their lives by dint of an enormous amount of hard work. Only the most able, outstanding and hard-working barristers such as John, are able to take silk and become Queen’s Counsel. Andrew has a successful career as a solicitor and Charles is an award-winning TV producer. Naturally, their privileged upbringing meant that they had every advantage in the their youth, but it cannot be said that any of them sat back and waited for the fruits of their privilege to ripen and fall into their laps.
30
@Paulie *spoiler alert* The 'working class kids in the 'Up' series have generally done well for themselves and seem happy.
Er, so some things change and some things stay the same?
You know the interest of the series ends up not being able to prove anything and I can’t really tell if that’s brilliant or just plain dumb.
It should have just been called ‘What happens to people every 7 years’, but then we all would have been trolled into finding out about it, huh?
2
I have followed this series since the last installation. I never noticed the gender balance was ten boys to three girls. 1963 was certainly a very different time.
17
@Still American - You didn't notice the gender balance. Are you possibly a male?
2
I have followed this wonderful series from the moment I learned of it. While I appreciate the director, I would also like to thank the participants who have so kindly continued to allow us into their lives, year after year, through the ups and the downs.
We have been blessed to watch your varied journeys.
Much love to you all!
45
Well-written, well-researched. A fascinating view of human life when the camera is slowed down to one frame every seven years.
21
My husband and I were very moved when we first saw 7 Up as we had three children of our own in the age range. Although we have not seen every episode, we have appreciated the concept and the execution.Wonderful example of the human condition.
Thanks
17
Beautifully written, both as a tribute to the humanity of Apted and all of the "children" and as a meditation on how talent and the gradual development of wisdom can combine to create a truly meaningful work of art. I look forward to watching this entire series now.
18
"Julian is an excellent student who ranks at the top of his class in reading and arithmetic. He is personable and gets along well with others. He is self-motivated to accomplish tasks set before him and cooperates well with his classmates to accomplish shared goals.
He should try to develop interest in topics and activities shared with other boys rather than with the girls and devote less time to entertaining his classmates."
My second-grade, end of year assessment by Miss Claudia Young. That's me. It's been me for 57 years. Give me a child until he is seven... indeed.
66
I have never seen the UP series, or actually knew they existed other than once reading about one.
Reading this, I went immediately to my Britbox site and fully intend to watch the series. I'm far too old to watch on 7 yr intervals, so binge watching will be my weekend entertainment.
Reading this article will put what I see into more perspective.
21
@Sajwert
You're in for a treat!
7
@Reader I am exactly as I was at 7 or even 2, my relatives tell me. I am SO glad of it!!!!!!!I still speak to everybody like i did on the trolley at age 2 and 3. If somebody gets on my foot, I get them off!!!!!
I would love to see, or have seen, an American version of this, as would be easier to relate to the educational, cultural, and societal aspirations vs actualities of a group of American kids.
The closest comparison I can recall is Linklater's "Boyhood" that documented one life over a span of 13 years. But this one, with 7-year interviews of the same bunch really reveals more.
I find gripping the anguish of filmaker Apted's realization that 63 Up will be his last film of this series, an unusual case of two impending deaths: the man's art and the coming finality of the man's life.
22
It was a great tragedy when Boyhood did not win the Oscar for best movie. I lost faith in the Academy Awards that year.
7
@Craig Laferriere
If there were ever any doubt that the Academy Awards are about politics and not cinematic quality, it was put to rest when in '05, "Crash" won Best Picture over "Brokeback Mountain".
13
The loss of faith is a painful thing...
1
Perceptive article about a brilliant series. Reminding us of how our own lives have turned out in ways most of us could never have anticipated when we started out.
The visual equivalent of Paul Simon’s 1975 song:
Some folks’ lives roll easy as a breeze
Drifting through a summer night
Heading for a sunny day
But most folks’ lives
Oh, they stumble, Lord, they fall
Through no fault of their own
Most folks never catch their stars
48
Gentle but powerful stuff. You really do feel for them, one and all, having grown up with them. Their era and struggles being ones own, so to speak. I urge anybody to watch it and especially your shouty self righteous friends as it reminds us all that we need to walk in somebody else's shoes if we're to understand and engage with them to make things a little bit better.
94
This is why I subscribe to the New York Times. Thank you.
352
@Jean hear hear! Fewer lopsided op-eds and more like this.
34
@Jean Amen to that. Enough already with all that left wing craziness, more stories of the normal non-partisan American lives.
1
Thank you, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, for a terrific piece.
And again for the paragraph that begins, ““To spend time with a child ...” An exquisite summary of the true angst of parenting.
58
Gosh this is such a fascinating film series. What a great thing to have done!
23
I've been following the brilliant 7 up since it began. A few years ago I took my grand daughter to London and we took a taxi ride with Taxi Tony, once the feisty little East End boy . It's been fascinating to watch the children grow up, not all in predictable ways. And having seen Lynn through the decades, very sad to learn she has died.
31
I've watched this from the beginning with my daughter who is now nearly 50. One of the really useful things we learnt from it for her growing up and now that of her three sons - is that it's 21 to 28 thatseems to be the most anxious time for all of them. Leaving childhood and finding their place in the world as adults. Some of the dreams fizzle out and compromise has to take over. By 28up they all seemed more settled in themselves. Most people might think adolescents would be the hardest but there is still usually some 'shelter' still at those ages. The conversations it triggered between us were also really good for our relationship and our understanding of our place in the world. Would highly recommend it.
84
@Geraldine Mitchell While that's definitely a critical period, part of what I've loved about this series is how many surprises there are at every age: 30s, 40s, 50s. We don't stop living or dreaming or evolving at 7 or 28.
4
Does anyone know how to watch the series?
7
@Irene I recall that PBS made some if not all available to viewers. Check their archives.
3
the article cites that they're available to stream on BritBox.
2
@Irene Netflix
8
Hard to match the Up series' thoughtfulness and wrenching emotion, but Gideon Lewis-Kraus has in this window into the life and work of Michael Apted. In age I'm only a year or so behind the Up subjects. Back in the early- and mid-1960s I used to go from Toronto to a very unfashionable part of north London every summer with my mother to visit family. My cousins, square on matching age with Up'd subjects, were all versions of Tony, even so far as working at the greyhound tracks. And their later lives have been on a similar arc. My two cents: Gideon does a great job in drawing out Apted's themes of class but there's also a regional aspect that goes less noticed and understood (on this side of the pond anyway). The footage of Nick as a boy in the moors is both beautiful but crushingly sad, so lonely a young life.
32
A beautifully-written, nuanced article examining the beautifully-directed, nuanced work of art that is the “Up” series. I caught a few of these years ago, thank you NYT for reminding me of how much I loved these films and, in a way, reconnecting me to my own younger self.
Articles like these are exactly why I subscribe. And I will be buying the series too.
29
We saw 63 Up tonight. The entire series is brilliant and humane. Thank you for this fascinating piece.
25
Dr. Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress about opportunities here that she never could have had in the UK, given her "poor" (as in class) accent, and her age, neatly summarize the Seven-Up series.
100
@ROI
Up to a point. But I am slightly older than Dr Hill, grew up only 10 miles from her in County Durham and while not really poor (my father was an office worker), certainly had the local accent. I'm probably not as bright as Dr Hill, but still got, and capitalised on, a lot of opportunities. I am, however, male. If she would have been denied opportunities in the UK I suspect it was less because of the disadvantages of class, which we shared, but because of her gender. Girls were not expected to grow up to have distinguished careers.
59
@ROI
I don't think the series or its implicit premise, that opportunities for those growing up in the UK are conditioned by class, can be 'neatly summarised' at all. Class is still an iniquitous feature of British (and, may I say, US) life but there are many Dr Hills here.
19
@ROI Dr Hill obviously has a chip on her shoulder, probably wasn't good enough for Oxbridge. There are plenty of successful northerners at Oxford and Cambridge. My favorite is Dr Victoria Bateman, originally from Manchester, I doubt she would keep her job at an American university. Her accent has obviously softened but I wouldn't hold it against her.
2
"UP" - as in 'uplifting'
14
nice article but why so long? it leaves me with little desire to pursue the programs
3
Yes, it is a longer piece. It’s not imply a report or review, but from my perspective, writing that mirrors its subject. This documentary unfolded over many years and yielded profound insights. My sense is the length and depth of this piece was an homage to the director’s remarkable devotion to his subject as well as his own and others’ humanity.
128
Don’t deny yourself, Jane Borish. Watch it from start to finish. It is, perhaps, the most powerful use of media ever.
30
@Jane Borish
If you are referring to the length of the article, I am glad it was long. It is that well written.
37
Gideon is a wonderful writer.
23
Finally an intelligent, descriptive and thoughtful article worthy of the NYTimes (former?) reputation. I'd much rather occasionally look up a multisyllabic word to be sure I'm correctly recalling or inferring its meaning, than repeatedly have to look up slang and acronyms and wade through caustic, overdone, or sometimes-inobvious lathers of sarcasm that too often now populate articles appearing in The Times.
101
@Subscriber
Agreed! I was so moved by the emotional depth and thoughtfulness of the language in this article. I'm in my 20s and the "caustic, overdone" style you mention, probably meant to attract readers like me, has totally turned me off the NYT recently. This is a nice change.
9
@Subscriber totally agree. Although a good editor would have caught “to the manner born.” Otherwise, a beautifully written piece about an incredible series.
2
@LisaLisa Whoops it's been pointed out here that "manner" is correct--it's from Hamlet.
2
I do love this show. I don't see why someone with integrity couldn't make another, with an even more diverse group of people, and it would be value.
5
@bess There have been several other versions of the show, including an American one that followed the kids up to 21, I believe, and then just stopped (even though the original idea was to do the same thing as the UK series).
8
@bess I think it was in an interview with Claire Lewis, who's worked with Apted for decades, that I read about some other attempts. It's on YouTube.
People say the Russian one is good. Some other one ran aground because it changed networks and a new network wasn't given access to archives of a previous network. :(
A wonderful and moving story. Thank you.
14
The laughable myth of "upward mobility" propagated by the wealthy in America is simply an unsubstantiated con. The brutal truth of all capitalist societies is that social classes are heriditary caste systems. The rich are not based on talent or 'initiative' but inherited wealth, privilege, the self-assurance of knowing that all government and society is bent to their service. The working class not only has been dispossessed of the means of production, but faces a government of the rich that focuses its mighty power on ensuring that the labor force remains such, from its cruel 'educational' system, myriad debt traps, the absence of social support for children and elderly ensuring their burden is borne by working class families, and on. Then to add insult to injury, they are treated as curiosities for the amusement of middle class "intellectuals."
101
We need to hear more working class people speak for themselves; we've got Darren McGarvey's Poverty Safari, but I'd like to hear from the people who didn't succeed and become famous, and how they are getting by. Life seems to be getting worse rather than better for the working classes in the US and UK, as in the "meritocracy" society, they now have to bear the burden of it being "their fault" that they are working class. Jonathan Rose's Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes shows that, ironically, class snobbism actually got worse starting in the 1960s: privileged young rebels had no respect for people who were simply doing their jobs. It would be interesting to have some sequel to his study, preferably in working class voices. (Would also like to hear what working class people think of the work of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.)
26
@AR Hogwash. My parents were tenant farmers in one of the poorest states the country. Their ancestors were dirt farmers from the beginning of time. One parent finished high school and the other dropped out in the ninth grade. My sister became a teacher and I a lawyer. Her children and mine graduated from ivy league schools. None of us famous, but beneficiaries of the manifest opportunities for "upward mobility." And it was not only my family, but essentially all of those I attended school with in our small. rural, farming community have outdone their parents, and their children have outdone them and live satisfying lives. Some, of course, stagnate or decline, but the overwhelmingly positive trajectory I have witnessed all around me gives the lie to the false narrative of a "hereditary caste system" in "capitalist societies" determining the future.
11
@Concerned Citizen
I am over-educated. But, perhaps because I come from working class roots, I have always had the greatest respect and dignity for honest work. I actually mean more than that. I have the greatest dignity and respect for any human being. I consider myself no better than anyone on the planet. The people of the world deserve the same respect and dignity of all of us, subject to life and what it means to be human. Maybe there is something wrong with me.
2
Thoroughly enjoyed this brilliantly written article and being reminded of the interesting lives of the characters in this great documentary. Already looking forward to seeing 63 Up!!
17
Superbly written, you gave me additional information not available in the series; I appreciate that. Quality writing, its why I love the NYT. This superb series reflects aspects of us all in some way, and oddly sets out my life, hence why it resonates so well. As a 64 year old Brit, I've grown up with them, these people are family, I cry when they do, and they are loved by us. Enjoy the programme and the uniqueness.
48
Thank you, Mr. Apted and crew, thank you to the participants for a meaningful series that will live on in many people's hearts and minds and serve generations of social historians. And thank you to Gideon Lewis-Kraus for a splendid, interesting, and well-written read.
Perfect for our American Thanksgiving with all of its emphasis on generations and the vicissitudes of life that become salient during reunions, and all the diversity and commonality therein.
33
I started watching this at 14 Up and was captivated then and have been ever since. What a wonderful recording of the progression of life.
17
So sad that this is the end. I’ve not seen anything that so honestly conveys the lonely, joyous, and always surprising trajectories of the human experience. The stories are told through experience, but the mood is conveyed through the changing faces; the subtle mismatches between word and affect that betray the animal emotions beneath the chatter.
I agree that binge-watching the series could induce vertigo, but I may try it anyway.
17
Say it ain't so!!! Someone has to keep it going and I propose Steve McQueen, the film director. I've been fascinated by the series all my life as well as that classic photograph of those boys outside the Lord's cricket grounds. On a deeper level, when I was 7 or 8, Mme. Lise, my French tutor from Belgium noticed my abiding obsession with newspapers and magazines. She said, M. Charles, you are a future journalist, you must read more and more. Well, I've just retired after an expansively satisfying career as a journalist, lawyer and diplomat. It pays to read at an early stage. Critically, credit must go to talent scouts like Mme. Lise. I had wonderful and inspiring teachers on three continents, l don't remember all them, but I'll never forget Mme. Lise. Kudos to Sir Michael...
28
This is a very fine piece of journalism elegantly written.
39
The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Brilliant.
33
I remember learning about this project in a psychology class almost 30 years ago. Gratitude to all involved in these films, as well as the journalist who beautifully captured this important story -- this is the true work of humanity.
49
What a beautiful piece of journalism. It rose to the humanistic quality of the Apted documentary, which I've only seen in bits and pieces, a failing I will try to remedy. I was struck by the implications of the headline as I read the story: Is who we are at 63 somehow prefigured at 7? What a great question to ask, both in the films and the story, even if the answer is muddied by luck, character, tragedy and all the other important variables of life. I suspect I'll find the beginnings of the answer in the films, which I'll now race to watch. Excellent job, very moving.
43
I must have first seen the program when it came to the U.S.in the 80’s, so I guess it was 35. I remember how much it impacted me, the vastly different lives, each one of them experiencing highs and lows In different ways, at different ages, against different circumstances, but somehow all connected. It was as if I knew each one of them. I was always struck by the resilience of Tony, and tragedy of Neil’s journey.
However what stays with me most with is that these 14 people could never have imagined the impact this program, and series would have on their lives. Andrew Sarris very well may be right when he called it “the most remarkable nonfiction film project in the history of the medium” but clearly it also had the most remarkable impact on their lives, and not always in a good way. I guess they paid the price for our cinematic experience.
43
I’ve watched every episode in the series, some more than once. My favorite person is Neil, the once-homeless and emotionally destitute man who later became a civic-minded town council member. I found his resilience to be inspirational. Likewise with Mr. Apted’s dedication to his project and its value as an historic document.
305
A terrific article about a remarkable series.
113
Well, not having seen the series since its inception, but rather, bingeing it over a few weeks, while recovering from an illness, I'd say to any prospective viewer, watch it, but not over a period of 54 years. That's just too long!
It does indeed start out as a look at class in Britain. It ages though, like a fine wine, into a universal story of what inevitably happens to all of us. Deeply moving and thought provoking on many, many levels. If you haven't seen it, see it!
153
All I can say is "wow". Thank you, NYT and Michael Apted.
71
I watched the first of the series, then life got in the way. I actually recorded it on my VCR....
How do I watch all the other series? Where can I find it?
6
@Cheryl
The whole series is on YouTube, all on one channel. Google Seven Up 1964
47
@Cheryl 63 Up is or will soon be on Britbox.
5
I haven't seen any of these yet...never heard of it. But I'm slightly younger than them and am really looking forward to checking it out. I wish I was English...I suspect the lack of closed captioning (I assume there is none at the start?) to try to make sense of your dialect lol and lack of understanding your culture will make this more challenging to understand than I wish. But, I'll be watching it soon!
10
Brilliantly intricate, or voyeuristically obvious?
No, I don't really want an answer. I was just to chicken to end with a period , because then it becomes a statement,, doesn't it ? --No don't answer that either.
5
Today I saw a classic Margaret Thatcher quote bumper sticker. It praised the posh over the East Enders.
Under Thatcher's regime, breadlines swelled to post-WWII levels. "We must maintain the Upper Classes such that God in His infinite wisdom may sort the masses and separate the wheat from the chaff."
Gosh, it's fortunate that the richest tenth of a percent have preserved that moral tradition.
22
A remarkable read! Thank you. Anxious to see the series.
16
Alas, "The mass of (wo)men lead lives of quiet desperation."
(Henry David Thoreau)
18
Was it ever considered that Apted’s presence in their lives, however infrequent, and their participation in the series, altered their lives ?
22
In short, yes.
The impact (advantages and burdens both) of the kids’ participation is explicitly discussed throughout the various documentaries. This honest reflection is part of what makes the Up series so powerful.
35
@RBLKK Thank you. I have yet to watch but eagerly await when I may.
5
@Michelle
An apted metaphor is Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics - measuring it changes it.
I can hear the groan...
14
The president still acts as if he was 7.
12
@Bob
Don’t insult 7-year-olds!
He’s never grown out of the *terrible twos*!
20
A beautiful piece; it almost made me cry and captured the peculiar atmosphere around the 7 Up series. I've been with it since the first 'Up' which was grainy and slightly patronizing. Revisiting the original, 7 years later, opened it out and put real flesh on the participants. You came to care for them and not exactly anticipate the next installment but know, almost by osmosis, that it had arrived. I'm sorry about Apted's infirmity but I, selfishly, am more sorry that after this there won't be any more.
57
Would that those of us between the coasts could watch this weekend; still, I'm grateful in the expectation that, like its predecessors, it will make its way inland by spring.
8
History is one of my passions - but history of real people, of culture and art. I never could keep kings' years of reign and wars straight - but the defining human moments of a peek into an actual life are fascinating to me.
I watched all of 'Seven UP' - it fills me with wonder, with humility and thankfulness. Thank you to Apted and the British 'kids' for offering a window into your lives.
Happy Thanksgiving to US readers
81
In all societies ever created my man over time, heritage and wealth most primarily have determined what a person's life will be. America states confidently that it has no cast system, but it surely does, as can be seen by most of the power still in the rigid and firm hands of the very rich, as always. England still has a solid caste system, but modern talent in the arts and technology has disrupted that to a significant degree, as it has in America.
However, until some future society can effectively devalue the hoarding of money and a patrician genealogy as the highest personal attributes one can possess, and as a result create a sincerely more equatable society for all, the power of money and heritage will continue to stand above all else in determining any 7 year-old's path through life through all of its resulting successes and failures.
33
@richard conner The reason Fiona Hill migrated to the United States was opportunities which class restrictions in England denied her, due to her background and non-patrician accent. She was a good catch that got caught in the Trump destruction of the government.
45
I watched this series a few years ago on Netflix, mesmerized. Take away the British accents of the participants and we're observing our own class system. It's no surprise it translated so well to American viewers upon its release here. I look forward to, yet with some sadness, to seeing this final episode. Being of the same age, the similarity of their lives and of those I know and love, are very real and poignant.
This series, along with Richard Linklater's 2014 film "Boyhood", are two of the most remarkable long-term film projects in recent memory.
127
@Jrb
I was just thinking about Boyhood and wondering if Richard Linklater was inspired by the series. I would not be surprised.
2
I have been watching this series ever since the very first one, "Seven Up". It is truly unforgettable and a phenomenal achievement by Michael Apted. Inevitably you become drawn into their lives and you pick favorites whose fates you never forget, whose fortunes are incredibly moving. For me the most excruciating was Neil, who seemed to drift hopelessly downward until he was virtually homeless at 28. Yet he persisted. I intend to binge watch the entire thing once the last one becomes available.
58
@Bonnie Beresford
Neil has meant a lot to me because I saw so much of myself and of some of my friends in him. I always wished we had learned more about him.
In fact, for all the participants, I wish we could see some of the footage that was not included in the final cuts....
5
I am speechless. What an amazing piece.
Thank you for everything Mr. Apted. And thank you Mr. Lewis-Kraus for capturing this rare look.
289
Beautifully written article. I look forward to being able to watch the series.
As I approach 60 having survived cancer twice and a divorce once as well as having lost both parents and a sister, the end of the article sums it up for me as I face my eventual demise.
“I might have 10 more years of sadness of not doing what I want, but there’s something beautiful about that.”
and
“a life forever contoured in haunting outline by other people’s triumphs and other people’s pain.“
151
Enjoy every day and seek the beauty in the smallest things....
23
@Radha
Do yourself a favour, and watch all of the available full programs (on BritBox, apparently).
Don't just take in the current age 63, or you'll miss the true essence of the 7-Up series that so many of us have been devoted to since it arrived here in 1985.
As another has so eloquently written, this is seminal to his/her life and mine - don't deprive yourself of any of it!
9
@Michele K
Thank you Michele
I was able to find the series up to 28 and would like to watch them in order. The youtube recordings from 35 are blocked and copyright protected,
Thanks for the BritBox recommendation. I will look there for the remaining shows.
In gratitude.
Radha
4
Discovered this program in the early 1990s when I lived in Britain and adored it. I have watched every episode since. One of the best documentaries around, what with the personal and social commentary.
I am sorry to hear about Nick. He was always one of my favourites.
52
We are all vulnerable through our past actions
The present makes us vulnerable in the future
The openness of this series highlights
How important it is to be alive in the present, share our dreams
And foibles with others and most importantly
Ourselves
25
Interesting article. I was captivated by the differences over time of the children. I could identify with aspects of several of the participants' lives.
8
Excellent article on a phenomenal series. Thank you.
37
Seems to be a variation of the 60 seconds of fame. And in its premise that class makes a difference it emphasizes life’s mundane futility’s without exalting life’s peak achievements. So British self critical.
4
@Al Morgan Your comment suggests you have not seen the series. I encourage you to watch the entire thing and then make your assessment. Apted’s great achievement simply cannot be reduced to a phrase about British self-criticism. Like all great art, it is enormous, wide ranging, cumbersome, filled with surprises and revelations that defy categorization. 7 up contains the entire human experience in an ingeniously condensed form. Heartbreaking, inspiring, sobering.
66
@Amelia Silver :
Amen!
Although I've not (yet!) seen the 7 UP series, by reading the lengthy article I again -- not for the first, third or seventh time -- rued my conscious decision to not pursue a career in Art and Sociology when in college, many years ago.
To me it was less about class than age. Brilliant from the get go. Imagine if actors spoke their real feelings rather than just those written for them.
32
@missiris
then they would not be acting !!
4
Echoing the sentiments of other commentators, “7 Up” is one of the most fascinating and compelling longitudinal documentary series. Over the years, with every new installment, I have eagerly followed the lives of those in the series. It was great to see Michael Apted and Tony - one of my favorites - speak during their New York visit and screening at the IFC Centre a few years ago. Am constantly surprised that more people have not been exposed to this incredible output.
124