28 Up
I watched 28 Up, the fourth installment in the Up series, a day before my 28th birthday. I did this on purpose. I thought it might be profound. It was, but it would have been whenever I'd watched it.
At this point I am expecting nothing less than a near perfect cinematic experience from all of the subsequent and future installments in this series. I am just too caught up in the progression of each of these lives. I was disappointed that John and Charles dropped out, but so immensely grateful that everyone else has continued! For some reason I thought a lot of them started dropping out, but it seems like almost all of them have been with it for the long haul. John I am particularly looking forward to hearing from again if he shows up in future series.
I can't blame him and many of the others for wondering what interest other people could really have in their lives. Some of them have argued that they feel like the show is unfair or that they have some kind of burden since people will look at them as if they are some kind of typical case of their class or upbringing. But anyone watching up to this point must be able to see quite clearly that each of these people are distinct individuals and while it's clear that genetics and upbringing will have a massive impact on you for the rest of your life, life can take anyone into completely unpredictable directions. Thus the people in this film are not in any way typical, but neither are they in any way more special than anyone else. Any single person could have been featured in these films instead and been just as worth watching. Each life as valid as another, it's the method of following them here that is what's worth watching.
I really do feel like all people are good inside and that conflict comes from us having to view the world through a certain perspective and the inability to fully see the world through anyone else's. A film like this assists us, even if it is a little bit, in important ways, of seeing some of those other perspectives. Although we are still just seeing people in their lives at a very tiny snapshot of time in their lives, being able to see a progression of these snapshots is so revelatory.
Rating: 10/10