Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely amazing

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Most of the posters here have already thoroughly covered the concept and content of this amazing docu series, so I'll avoid generalizations.First of all, Apted began an American version years ago ["Age Seven in America," (91) and "14 Up in America"(98)], but I have been unable to locate them. He did not direct these versions, but acted as a producer. Ironically, 2005 is the year for "21 Up in America" and "49 Up." I certainly look forward to the latter.It is quite interesting to see that the styles and "feel" of each original series entry appears about ten years off. In other words, the shows in the 80s feel like the 70s, and the 90s editions feel very 80s-ish. Has anyone else noticed this? Perhaps it is the difference in cultures, or the style of film-making. Regardless, the "Ups" are amazing. I watched all six documentaries within one week. Although I had been familiar with them as early as the 80s, I had never bothered to sample an edition. My loss.There has been no document of human growth quite as effective as this.

I loved the Up series, despite having seen only 35up & 42up. For the uninitiated, this series was a pet "anthropological" cinematic project undertaken by director Michael Apted. In this series, he would revisit a group of British men and women and make a documentary film about their lives, every 7 years, starting from the age of 7. Of interesting note is the participant's differing social/ class divide; from the upper-middle class suburban homemakers to working class cabbies. (Note: 7up was originally only conceived as a television initiative if I'm not mistaken. But its underlying premise proved so intriguing, guess Apted just had to keep it going and see where it might end up. We are up to "42" now, nice....) My thoughts...These films might have shown mere glimpses of those ordinary lives, but I was still in awe of its premise no less. Like the flipping through of a moving photo album, we revisited the lives of these people. Within a two hour period, we saw these people grow up right before our eyes. We saw their physical and psychological transformation over the years. We saw how they charted their lives and lived it. We shared in their joys and tribulations. Of course, there were harmony, or discordance over those many long years. But this series was contented in just showing us simple truths. It captured vignettes of youth's idealistic beauty and inevitable follies. It revealed life's vaunted fulfillment and crushing regrets. Most importantly, it attempted to shed light on one's happiness barometer; how our pursuit of happiness and attaining contentment is directly corresponded with our expectations in the past, present, and probably beyond. We may not always tick like clockwork in this tragi-comedic mortal coil. But a rewind is often all it takes to get us back on track. This continuing Up series is thus IMO, a very worthy meditation on the meaning of our very own lives. I so wanna see what happens when those 7 year olds turn 49.

Brit Michael Apted began this film with "Seven Up!", in 1964, in black and white, followed in color every seven years by "7 Plus Seven(1970)", "21(1977)", "28 Up(1985)", "35 UP(1991)", and now in 1998, "42 Up." It follows several "randomly" selected boys and girls into manhood and womanhood. I found Neil most fascinating, he was a bright 7-year-old who wanted to be a "carriage driver", dropped out of college, worked at odd jobs, at 28 was homeless in Scotland, at 35 homeless in the Shetland Islands, obviously somewhat mentally unstable. Living off the British government payments, with no job. By age 42 he is in London, representing Hackney as the elected Liberal Democrat representative. He actually has a purpose now, does good for those he represents, still has no job. But he looks forward to each day now, something he had difficulty doing in past years.The beauty of this film is its unique look at us, humanity, and how we grow up, dealing with "life." This was truly an inspired project Apted undertook, beginning about 40 years ago. I would not have understood this as a casual viewer, but the every seven year "engagement" is stressful for the participants, as if they don't want to disappoint the viewing audience. Several actually opted out and were only discussed, because they no longer wanted the pressure of participating. I hope I am around to see "49 Up"!! The year 2005 is right around the corner (update December 2004).

In the most sociologically fascinating and perceptive documentary series ever produced, Michael Apted has made this enormously thought provoking series a labour of love. He has taken eleven seven year olds in 1964, and has filmed them every seven years since then. The results have been breathtaking. In seeing footage from when these now grown adults were little, we see how the boy becomes a man and the girl becomes a woman. We see as each attempt to reach their hopes and dreams. There are successes and failures (including one heartbreaking one), but we get more than that. We get an overwhelming sense of the connection and delicate fabric of human life.