This fascinating series of British documentaries chronicle fourteen children from the age of 7 up, starting in 1964. The film’s tag line is a famous quote from a Jesuit priest: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”
The original idea behind the first documentary was to show how social class in Britain largely determines an individual’s future. However, as the series progresses, this idea evolves into something much larger than a political rumination on class differences.
The kids were chosen by then researcher, Michael Apted, to represent a diverse range of social-economic classes and then see how their future lives would play out. The result is a intriguing look at how candid and bright-eyed kids are at 7 and how their human lives evolve, change, go through adolescence, young adulthood, marriage, career, divorce, disappointments and so on.
The first film was directed by Paul Almond and sponsored by Granada Television for a program called “World in Action.” Michael Apted took over as director in the follow-up films. Although he directed many award-winning feature films and other documentaries, this project is clearly dearest to his heart.
Not all 14 subjects in the original film agreed to be part of the subsequent sequels. The filmmakers that come to interview them every seven years are remarked by some to be “intrusive” and perhaps a reminder of dreams that perished or marriages that ended in divorce. But the ones that do continue in the series are reintroduced by a short, black and white flashback to the first initial interview in 7 Up and then are shown in color in the present day, responding to questions about their career, marriage, children (if they have any) and other life experiences common to all the participants.
My favorite subjects are Lynn, the librarian, and Neil, the one who goes through homelessness and mental instability and then becomes a local district councilor in northwestern England by the time of this film. Some of their British accents are hard to understand and Rita secretly wishes for English subtitles (!) like some films provide for certain regional English movies.
If you like documentary films with a unique twist, this one certainly has it. It isn’t often you have a documentary film that devotes such a span of time to its subjects. Michael Apted remarked that the film began as a political documentary but turned into a personal one, reflecting human nature and the nature of existence itself.
The fourteen subjects are Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker. Here is a link to the PBS’s POV Web site which features more in-depth information on the film and filmmaker:
