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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > British > TV > Up Series (Documentary)

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


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