Seven Up! (1964)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

..........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA...and ORLANDO, FLDefined as a documentary, this seems, to me at least, closer to a reality TV show in its focus, execution and style. Certainly, for a project conceived and initiated about half a century ago, it was, undoubtedly, way ahead of its time.The basic premise, in a nutshell, was to select a small group of kids that represented a cross-section of British society in the early 60's. The children were all to be the same age: 7. All of them would be interviewed and filmed answering the same set of questions and participating in the same activities every seven years. This every seven year "snapshot" would continue until the subjects were well into middle age.At the beginning, the producers state their primary intention as "thusly allowing the viewer to watch the development of a group of children from varied backgrounds and distinct social "classes", and draw their own conclusions"....Is it just me, or does anyone else hear strains of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" faintly in the background? All in all, I must admit this UK doc really brings out the latent voyeur in you...(or at least in me, perhaps!) Directed by Michael Apted, what I found to be of most interest, to be brutally honest, were the inherent biases and preconceptions of the interviewers/producers/director as evidenced by both their choice of questions and subtle differences in the handling/presentation of the screen dynamic of the interviews themselves...Or perhaps the inherent biases and preconceptions are really mine?!? My suggestion: Watch Seven Up/Seven Plus Seven and decide for yourself. 9*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

In 1964 Michael Apted filmed a documentary on a couple of seven year olds for a British television studio from various backgrounds. The idea was to see what the generation heading into the next millennium looked like at that early age, what their hopes were, their dreams, their aspirations. It was an interesting snap-shot for sure back in these days, but then again, who knew what would really become of those kids? Well, someone clever got the idea to revisit them at age 14 - and thus made another documentary. Seven years later they did it again, and more and more things began to shape and what at this time could be seen as an experiment became really extraordinarily interesting.So it went on, a documentary on the lives of people like you and me. Today, a couple of dozen years later, we've got several more installments and have gained insight on what has really become of those children of the sixties. The series as a whole is simply the most outstanding and longest running reality documentary ever filmed, it's all about life as close as it can get, and due to its unique circumstances the feat is impossible to copy. There are twists and turns in the lives that we are allowed to follow, sometimes of course also influenced by the fact that they are shown on screen, in a positive or a negative way. However, in general we get a good portion of real life experience handed out via the Seven Up! series in a way we never would be able to experience otherwise, apart from our own lives. Groundbreaking indeed, must see. Should be compulsory viewing for anyone in the process of growing up...Additional notes: The Seven Up! series has sparked various imitators all over the world, ranging from similar approaches made in the USSR, Germany, Australia and South Africa, thus honoring the original. All these attempts put together provide a kaleidoscope of developing lives around the planet in different times and places. They have their own merits, but owe much to Apted's pioneering spirit. Even Robert Linklater's "Boyhood" (2014), where a young actor is being followed playing a fictional character over twelve years while he's growing up, apparently was heavily inspired by the "Seven Up!" series. Linklater's hybrid film that tries to merge fiction and documentary however ultimately falls somewhat flat, as it is neither the one nor the other. Better stick with the real thing, and it all started here.

"Seven Up!" is the forty minute documentary from 1964 that stands as a prologue for the most forward thinking documentary series of all-time. The film brings together a group of surprisingly articulate seven-year-olds from a variety of backgrounds in England. Through a number of questions posed to each of the children, the audience gets the opportunity to get to know the world through these children's eyes, and often presumably through the parent's eyes and therefore only quoted through these children. Personalities more than perspectives ring through the strongest in this first film, and the glimpse at the education system circa 1964 is intriguing. Unfortunately, as "characters" that will ultimately be seen for another forty years to come, the thick accents of some of them make for a rough start. All in all this is important cinema regardless.

I get most all of my films by recommendation and this is universally the most recommended to me of those I haven't seen. The series I mean. I suppose it wouldn't make any sense at all to see them out of order so as with everyone, we all start here.To do that, we have to place ourselves in several other worlds. I'm an American. Though I spent a few years in school in the UK, We came home when I was five and I have few memories. For Americans, England — at least the pre-Thatcher England — was a sort of fairy- tale place where privilege was sprinkled here and there and strongly supported on the backs of the relatively poor remainder because by such tax they helped define what it meant to be British.There aren't many blanket statements that can be made of the US — and this is less true now — but it is still true that Americans define themselves in large measure against this tradition. The idea of class immobility seems a perversion of nature.Naturally, that's at the center of how this experiment starts. I'm sure the filmmakers never intended to follow these children as markers (more than representatives) of the collapse of privilege. Not the injustice and wealth, but the willingness which Brits poured into protecting a country (twice!) against barbarians so that their rich could continue pulling the traditions along.So start here, fellow voyager. This first installment is completely without merit except in how it sets the starting point for a voyage through the transformation of an old two-class system to a "modern" two-class one, seemingly only for the amusement of the rest of the world.Perhaps it would have been more interesting to have selected all girls.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.