The Up Series (Documentary set, with 49 Up update link/release/First Run Features)
Picture: Sound:
Extras: C Films: B+
7 Up C C
7 Plus Seven
C C+
21 Up C+ C+
28 Up C+ C+
35 Up C+ C+
42 Up C+ C+
NOTE: Since this originally posted, an unexpected 49 Up
installment was released, which you can read more about at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4411/49+Up+(Documentary)
It is now included in later copies of this
collection. Now, the original review…
What started as a television project turned into one of
the biggest, most celebrated documentary series of all time. Michael Apted, who has done everything from
commercial films, to thrillers, to genre-breaking features, also does great
documentaries. His Up films began
as a project for television, but caught on so well that each revisiting with
the children from the original television installment in 1962 got longer and
longer in length. First Run Features
previously issued 42 Up, the final installment, on DVD. Now, the company has put the entire six installments
out on five DVDs.
Whether this could be attributed to an unintended case of
pre-home video sequelitis or just Apted briefly starting over regardless so no
viewer is left out of being reminded or being made aware of what they may have
missed, each follow-up has the opening of the original show. Not al of the children stayed on in the
series for the duration of the series, but Apted focuses on the children’s
initial thoughts and ideas about their world.
One even wants to be a horse jockey.
When the show started, it was great documentary work that
showed the innocence of the children and came out of a time when such
filmmaking was more respectful of its subjects.
By default, with the way media has blown-up into the goliath it has
become today, the subject’s parents might not have agreed to do this as easily
and the ugly phenomenon of “reality TV” has ruined the integrity of all but the
most thoroughly sincere such efforts. It
seems exploitive a bit in the later installments and reminds us of many of the
psychologists who exploit their patients for research purposes by saying that
opening up will “help them” though never talk about the permanent record the
film and video can be. Apted is somewhat
guilty of this in some respect.
Watching the whole box through, I had to ask if these
lives were any of my business to begin with.
Outside of that ethical question, Apted’s editing choices are very smart
and when all the installments are over, we see the sad ark of so many
children’s dreams and so few hopes realized.
That is an ugly truth no one can do anything about. Hopefully, the series did not hurt any of
these people in the long run, but we may not know that for many years. They began focusing on 14 children, but five
particular standouts are Tony, Susan, Neil, Jackie and Lynn. Without ruining anything, they stay for real
to the end, something we will never be able to see again in such an
over-“media”ted world.
The image is 1.33 X 1 on all the films, but the first has
a transfer down a few generations in picture and sound. It is also the only totally black and white
film in the bunch. Oddly, footage from
this film in all the follow-ups looks and sounds better. The color in 7 Plus Seven is in bad
shape and image on 42 Up has some bad jpeg compression, and may have
also originally been 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 in its entirety. It is the same disc First Run issued in both
picture and sound. The sound is Dolby
Digital 2.0 throughout, monophonic until the final film. The first film’s sound is too compressed for
its own good and needs to be redone down the line. All the films include stills from each on the
DVDs they appear, each DVD has text on Apted, and Apted does commentary on the
final film that wraps things up. With
the entire set, it makes more sense, of course.
If you are gong to see these films, they really work best in
chronological order, and you can even skip the refreshers at the beginning of
each follow-up if that does not bother you much. 49 Up
was produced in 2006 and is reviewed elsewhere on this site
- Nicholas Sheffo
