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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Salesrank: 57500
Released: November 14, 2006 |
| Our Price: $16.00 |
| Used Price: $8.75 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, The UP Series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a researcher for Seven Up, has been back to talk to them, examining the progression of their lives. From cab driver Tony to schoolmates Jackie, Lynn and Susan and the heart-breaking Neil, as they turn 49 more life-changing decisions and surprising developments are revealed. An extraordinary look at the structure of life in the 20th century, The UP Series is, according to critic Roger Ebert, "an inspired, almost noble use of the film medium. Apted penetrates to the central mystery of life."
49 Up Reviews:
49 UP 
2009-04-15 - A great look at the lives of young Londoners as they evolve into adults and move on to middle age. Your own life flashes before you as you watch this film as well and see a little of yourself in all the "UP" kids. A masterpiece of film work everyone should sit down and watch with their family members. I thought about this film for days after seeing it. The best documentory I have ever watched. I can't wait till 56-UP releases in a couple of years!
Al Abdullah
St.Louis, MO.
your life backwards
2009-01-02 - This a really good documentary. and I think Micheal has tried to stay fairly objective (although he does slip at times)
I found this film quite touching. Its moving to see little children grow up-blossom into someone beautiful or dig themselves into a hole-and the only face you can put on that 49 year person is a small child's.
I dont have children, but I can see why any parent would love this film.
Does this documentary have an real value? does it teach us anything? I really don't think so.
The only lesson I did take away was that, if you hit the ground running( a decent family, well to do, educated parents etc), you're more likely to make it in this big bad world.
A Documentary Sequel 
2008-11-30 - I've read about this series for years but just never got around to watching any of them. The first film was made in 1964 and was titled 7 Up. It featured a group of seven- year old English school children from different schools, locations and social classes. (Some were from public schools and some were from private schools, which leads to ongoing confusion for me since in England a public school is what we would call a private school and vice versa.)
Apted was 22 years old when he made the first film, and he thought it would be a one time project. But he continued to make a film every seven years, featuring the same people profiled in the first film (though some have dropped out of the project over the years).
49 Up is the film I watched, and it features footage from all the projects made through the years (7 Up, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, and 42 Up). One of the subjects of the films, John, wonders if the whole thing is just an elaborate exercise in reality TV, but it certainly is much more.
The film captures the idealism of childhood that is often crushed by the realities of the world. It is interesting to see how the filmmaker also had preconceptions that are crushed through the years in much the same way.
In the first film Apted quotes the Jesuits who said, "Show me a boy at seven I give you the man." Some of the children make predictions about their lives that are uncannily accurate (Andrew, for instance, at seven years old predicts the schools he will attend and his profession as a solicitor). But some of the kids defy expectations. Some kids from broken homes fear relationships, but go on to build good marriages and become good parents. Some make foolish mistakes and spoil their childhood dreams and potential.
One interesting theme is the importance of one's roots as an adult. Nick leaves England and moves to the States. The filmmakers take him back to his homeland for this edition of the film. The landscape of the country of his youth was the cold and harsh moors of northern England. He says he does not miss this land but then, when he sees it, he is moved. He says that other locations seem insignificant in comparison.
Most of the subjects talk about how painful it can be to have their lives captured on film every seven years and have it broadcast (on the BBC as well as in the movie theaters) for millions to see. Jackie brings up the unfair nature of a filmmaker's option to pick and choose the segments of their interviews he will use, and feels that she and others have been treated unfairly. Suzy tells Apted she believes 49 will be her last time to participate.
The films remind me of the moment in Annie Hall when children in a classroom stand up and say what they will do in their later lives (one elementary school student in that film stands and says, "I will become a heroin addict and die of an overdose".)
When we look at children, we don't like to think about the trials they will inevitably face in the years to come. But we also can't conceive of the wonderful things they will do in the future.
One of the kids, John, at seven is a child of privilege who talks with his friends about how good it is that his school is expensive, because otherwise poor children would flood in and his classes would be too crowded. You think this kid will grow to be one of the upper class twits so successfully lampooned by Monty Python. To a degree, you'd be right. He goes on to be a barrister who looks quite a bit like Mr. Bean.
But there is more to his story. He was drawn to the woman he married by a shared concern for the poor in the Eastern Europe. The reason he continues to do the film series is to draw attention to the educational and medical needs in Bulgaria.
John is not alone. We see other children grow to be very good men and women who care for their families and for the needs of the less fortunate.
The most poignant segment of the film is about Neil, a bright young kid whose life takes some nasty turns. As a teen, he says he doubts there is a God. At seven, he had dreams of college and career, but he later drops out of school and has trouble finding work. He becomes homeless and admits to questioning his own sanity. In 35 Up, one might have questioned whether the man will even be alive in the next film. But in 49 Up we see a very different man. Little is said about religion in the segments on most of the characters, but Neil in this film has found Jesus. And it has made all the difference in the world.
49 Up came out in 2006. I would now like to see six other films. And I'm looking forward to 2013.
Almost feel guilty for loving this exquisite project...
2008-10-03 - I've been watching this fascinating series from the start, and have loved it totally. There is something so incredibly fascinating about seeing how these kids turned (and will turn) out. The most amazing thing about it, for me, is that every single one of them became a decent, responsible, thoughtful human being, and that has nothing to do with class or economics, as the film proves. I am so touched at their incredible idealism, their faith, their intelligence, and their grace. Each one of them still has a beautiful, beaming countenance, except, of course, for Neil. That said, it is Neil whom I really connect with. He was perhaps, in my mind, the most beautiful of the children, with an almost otherworldly innocence about him that is sublime.
Watching this installment, I wished I could go back in time and protect him from the slings and arrows he would face as an adult. He turned out to be the most troubled of the group, and I can't help thinking that he was almost "too good for this world," as they say, a quality that showed up early. Still, what he has done with his life at this time is remarkable; he is giving both social and spiritual service to others, and what else is there, really, for a person to be able to say "I gave my best"? He has the mind of a philosopher, and I wonder if he writes poetry. I love his beautiful, suffering face. He's actually very handsome, and I wish he would find a wonderful woman who could make his life a little less lonely, as have the other males in the series. All in all, it's an extremely loveable group of people. I can't wait to visit with them again, but I have a bit of guilt about that, because some of them indicated that the filming is a huge intrusion on their privacy - their lives - and, as one of them said, "It opens up a can of worms every seven years " (or something like that, old wounds, etc.). I guess I would like to say "Thank you!" to each of them, for giving us a glimpse into their lives, which, in a sense, is a glimpse into ours. And also - thank you for being good role models. This film teaches one what it means to grow up and lead a good life. Hugs to one and all, and thanks to Michael Apted, who made a beautiful series.
Apted's opus for humanity
2008-09-04 - Yes, he did it again! One of the great filmic projects of the 20th Century, Michael Apted's The Up Series, makes its entrée into the new millennium with the seventh bravura installment of its documentary format. Although shown on British television over the last four decades, viewers in other parts of the world have usually had to see it on the big screen, in local arts and independent theaters. Late this year, the DVD of the 49 Up was released in America, just a few weeks after its theatrical release, and it's a worthwhile successor to earlier films. While the series' participants wax bitterly, on occasions, many wax philosophically, displaying one of the series' greatest virtues- showing that the average person is not necessarily as doltish as modern reality television would lead you to believe. Given an opportunity to reflect, average folks can stumble upon real wisdom, rather than the Lowest Common Denominator stupidity that American `reality' shows like Survivor or Fear Factor highlight. Of course, neither of those shows is reality- they are merely staged gimmick shows. The Up Series is `real reality,' and no, there won't be a new episode in a week's time to appease the speed addicted MTV mindset. It'll take seven long years before the next entry pulls into port.
The series began as the brainchild of the Left Wing ITV television show World In Action, made by Granada Television, which in 1964 sought out typical school children from the lower and upper classes of English life. Back then, the class system in Merry Olde England was noteworthy, as the voiceover intoned, `The executive and the shop steward of the year 2000 are seven years old,' but by the third installment, 21 Up- in 1978, the lives of these ordinary people took precedence over political posturing, and the series was firmly in control of co-producer Apted- director of The World Is Not Enough, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Gorillas In The Mist, who was merely an assistant on the original Seven Up. The motto of the series has always been the notion espoused by a Jesuit proverb: `Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.' That seems to have proven a durable- if not infallible, wisdom....Some viewers and critics feel that this should be the last episode. I disagree, for people like that are injecting a `purpose' into the films, rather than extracting one out of them. This is often a problem with news coverage in any field. Centuries and eons from now, this series will be a Rosetta Stone- despite the immense tracking of our culture via printed media, films, radio, television, and the Internet, for it was the first one to focus on average people, whatever their backgrounds. These participants will become icons who are studied and debated long after most of their peers are dust; a fact which may explain their reluctance to appear in it, but not excuse it, for the nobler option is almost always to serve the betterment of all. Is a few minutes onscreen glimpse into real reality that much of a loathsome burden?
By 56 Up, it would not shock me if the first death occurs within the fourteen- I just get a sense of it- perhaps Lynn or Jackie, or perhaps some tragedy, so that sense makes each episode with all of them all the more meaningful. The series, as a whole, and this installment, shows that there is a great nobility in utility, which is best summed up by wisdom that Bruce imparts: `When dreams go and the day to day living of ordinary life and family life takes over, I think we just sort of live without our dreams.' In what other medium does the offhanded poesy that too much fictive art misses come so vividly to life? Where else do people show off the best in themselves- an ability to cogitate, reason, empathize, and reflect, rather than the worst- their own petty envies and lusts?....The reason why the series touches so many others is precisely because they lack such things as artistic talent or a platform to be seen. If I can be so moved, merely by the memory of watching the earlier installments of this film, I have to believe that most of the participants- whom we all know and refer to by their first names, as they age and wise up a bit more, will see that they, too, have been touched by something greater than anything their lives, alone can signify. And the fact that their touching will last long beyond flesh on flesh is something anyone reading this review, now or in the far future, can be thankful for.
