SEVEN UP (1964) (A) - At 40 minutes, this special by Granada for British TV introduces us to 20 children (only 14 would return in subsequent episodes). The foundation is a quote attributed to Aristotle and St. Ignatius: "Give me the boy until he is 7, and I will show you the man." The idea is to examine a cross-section of postwar Brits, ranging from rich prep-school children to working-class kids. There are examples like the privileged John and Suzy at one plot point and scrappy East Ender Tony or somber fatherless Symon at the other. The hook here is an experiment to see whether any of these children will break free from England's rigid class restrictions.
Michael Apted was fresh out of college (15 years older than his subjects) and an assistant on this TV special; he would go on to direct the rest of the installments. We get to see these fresh-eyed children, many of them already quite well-spoken for their age, spout random observations and try to predict the future. Only time will tell if those predictions bear out.
The episode ends with a party comprising all of the children and then a romp on a playground where their inner selves play out. This final scene will provide the anchor for the future episodes, each subsequent film dissolving to black-and-white to remind us of those carefree days.
7 PLUS SEVEN (1970) (A) - Yes, teens are, by and large, not very interesting. But these children, at the end of the '60s, act as stalking horses for our own experiences or views of that age of the Beatles. Themes emerge in this episode. Apted is a good journalist, and he follows up on the earlier interviews with well-crafted questions.
We start to see deeper personalities emerge. We begin to see cracks in the psychological stability of a few of them, who are far too dour for a young teenager. Neil, a suburban Liverpudlian who was bright-eyed and cheery at 7 ("When I get married I don't want to have any children because they're always doing naughty things and making the house untidy."), will gradually emerge over the years as a deeply thoughtful, mentally unstable man. Paul, sad-eyed from the start, is still soft-spoken. Suzy is morose and uncooperative. We start to wonder about them all: How will they pursue happiness, and will they achieve it?
21 UP (1977) (A-minus) - Here we have young adults getting their first taste of disappointment. The British education system is highly tiered, and a failure to make it into Oxford can have a huge impact. Several participants fall short of their family's goals, though a couple of others show signs of achieving great success.
One of our favorites, the dilettante Suzy, is now a chain-smoking nihilist. Neil, having dropped out of school after barely a semester, is squatting and eking out an existence. Tony failed to make it as a jockey, and he's now training to be a cabdriver. The Oxbridge boys are sailing along. Jackie and Lynn are already married and playing to their working-class type.
This is the first feature-length entry (100 minutes), as Apted begins to refine the template of weaving together each of the participants while mixing in their backstories so that the subsequent movies can stand alone.
28 UP (1984) (B+) - By the fourth episode, a familiarity sets in; the '80s present a drab, depressing backdrop; and we are presented with the inevitable: plenty of marriages and kids, even from ones we would not have expected. People at 28 are not as interesting; they are starting families, launching careers, thinking that they are fully formed adults. They are distracted by the process of becoming the person they think they are supposed to be.
Apted tweaks the format here, separating the subjects into individual vignettes. This works for some but not for others. The penultimate subject is Neil -- now a full-on drifter finding shelter on the Scottish coast -- who gets extended time to philosophize about his lot in life as he struggles to keep his wits about him. Jackie and her two mates exhibit some of the first snippiness with Apted, chastising him for emphasizing their class status.
The length has now grown to two hours, fifteen minutes, and suddenly Apted's editing skills are tested. Still, there's no denying the power of the storytelling here and the heft of the cinematic history in the making.
BONUS TRACKS
The iconic closing segment that gets repeated at the end of each film:
When the children in "Seven Up" attend a party together, they dance to the Beatlesque sound of the Monotones, "What Would I Do":
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