ShareThisBy BRUCE DANCIS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It would be damning with faint praise to call "49 Up" the best and longest-running "reality" series in history. While such shows as "The Real World" put photogenic people in decidedly unreal situations, "49 Up" chronicles the life changes of 14 people over nearly five decades.
Available on DVD this week (First Run Features, $29.95, not rated) following a short theatrical run in selected U.S. cities, "49 Up" began in 1964 as "7 Up." Produced by Britain's Granada TV, the first film in the series brought together a diverse group of 7-year-olds from all over England. Showing them at home, in their various schools and together for an outing at a zoo, the documentary was most notable in demonstrating that the British class system had already made a major impact on these children's lives and perceptions.
When asked about their dreams of the future, some of the upper-class kids already knew which public school (prep school in American parlance) and university they would be attending, while the working-class children wanted to become jockeys or lorry drivers or housewives or, in the case of two orphaned little boys who lived in an institution, just wanted to have a family.
The researcher for the first film was Michael Apted, who returned to interview and direct the film's subjects every seven years, at the same time as he was becoming a big-time movie director in his own right ("Coal Miner's Daughter," "The World Is Not Enough," "Enigma," HBO's "Rome").
"49 Up" does a superb job in showing the subjects' evolution over the past 42 years, so one needn't have seen any of the earlier movies to follow what's going on. We see people in different jobs, in different relationships and, in some cases, in other countries, including the United States (where Nick became a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin) and Bangladesh (where Bruce taught mathematics before returning to England).
During all these years, only one of the original subjects stopped participating in these films. But many voice, on camera, the difficulties they've had opening up their lives for public scrutiny every seven years. Lynn, for instance, complains that the program asks questions that are too personal, while Suzy calls it "very difficult, very painful" and Nick refers to the process as "emotionally draining."
John, on the other hand, while referring to the interviews as "a little pill of poison" he has to take every seven years, acknowledges that his involvement brought attention to a charity he is devoted to in Bulgaria. And Bruce, who had just gotten married for the first time at the filming of "42 Up," now has two children and says, "I'm surprised to be so contented and reasonably happy" after looking so lost and frightened earlier.
Most moving are the stories of the two orphaned boys from the children's home, Paul and Simon. Both have worked hard over the years (Simon as a freight handler, Paul as a bricklayer/contractor in Australia), but they succeeded in finding both economic security and what they needed most: a warm family life. Seeing them together again, with their wives and families, is truly touching.
The DVD includes an interview with Apted by film critic Roger Ebert, who has been a long-time champion of the series. (The interview was conducted before Ebert's recent illness.) There's also a biography of Apted and a photo gallery of the participants.
Most of the individuals in the series have managed to obtain either wealth or at least financial security over the years. But not all. Jackie, for instance, is divorced and raising three teenage boys while living on disability benefits she receives for her rheumatoid arthritis.
And the life trajectory of Neil, who is no longer homeless _ as he was at ages 21 and 28 _ but still seems like a lonely and lost figure at 49, is a bracing reminder that not all stories about real people have happy endings.
(Bruce Dancis can be reached at bdancis(at)sacbee.com)
