Seven Up and 7 Plus Seven (on one DVD) are the start of a great documentary project. The film makers chose 14 boys and girls from different classes in England and decided to follow them for decades. The initial film had as its guiding motto “Give me a boy until he is seven and I will show you the man.” The documentary wanted to look at the managers and shop stewards of the year 2000. The kids are not cute: they are interesting people. The power of the documentary becomes obvious when the kids are seen again at age 14. The change in some is amazing. The energetic imaginative little guy who was the closest to being cute at seven became a serious drudge. The young lad from the Yorkshire farm who had stood up to the film makers when he was seven was so shy at fourteen that he would not look at the camera. I kept thinking that for the parents the change would be gradual but also so drastic that the parents would have to deal with a person who was far removed from the one who started school just a few years earlier. Approximately half of the children did not change any more than I expected. Tony, the independent, hyperactive little monkey, was apprenticing as a jockey. Jackie, the energetic kid from East London, was still sharp and perceptive as a teenager, if quieter. Although the films may be rough and almost amaturish, they left me eager but also a little apprehensive to see what these people would be like at 21. (The Up Series)
Jim Bell