Assessing the Assessment

Maslin describes 35Up as “growing increasingly rueful with age.” (Maslin) I beg to differ, but to a certain extent. I believe it presents a more personal side of the participants. Whereas in the past prequels (i.e. 7Up, 21Up and 28Up) the participants expressed their opinion on a certain topic or answered one of Apted’s questions, by 35Up they are confessing secrets and showing a more vulnerable, human side that goes through ups and downs in life. Such was the case with Suzy, who had experienced the sickness and death of one of her parents and Tony, who confessed cheating on his wife, Debbie. However, the prior was not always the rule. We are presented cases which evidence that some of the participants are indeed (what Maslin calls) “drooping a bit”: “The study's less obvious casualties are Jackie, Lynn and Sue, three working-class women who variously married early, became single parents, took on dead-end jobs…  And Symon, the study's only black participant, had five children and a sausage-packing job at 28." (Maslin)

Maslin points out that the series has become much more than a documentary which depicts England’s social-economic disparities. It also reveals “a reality that cannot be found in nature… an astonishingly intensive view of their [the participants’] lives and evolution.” (Maslin) I could not agree more. We are presented with how socialization takes place among the participants, who are of diverse class, gender and race, with a single factor in common, age, and how such factors (or their social location) could shape their lives over times. She further argues that Apted’s original goal was “to study the effects of privilege or the lack thereof, but he leaves it to viewers to draw their own conclusions.” (Maslin) We can evidences this with Bruce, who at age 7 wanted to be missionary while attending a pre-preparatory boarding school and at age 21 was reading Math in Oxford University. Due to his family class, he was most likely to teach in one of the schools he studied in; however by age 28 Bruce was teaching in one of London’s less privileged schools at the East End and by age 35 lived and taught in Bangladesh, accomplishing the goal he described as a child. The audience might agree that although he advocates a noble cause, he did not make the most of his opportunities in contrast to other participants, such as John, who through his education and privileges became a successful barrister.

Finally, Maslin notices that the Jesuit Maxim does not apply to all participants and some “contradict it in fascinating ways”. (Maslin) Nicholas and Neil were the exceptions. While Nicholas, who was a small farm boy at age 7, “subsequently earned his Ph.D. in physics and now [at age 35] teaches at the University of Wisconsin”, Neil, who was “outstandingly winning and handsome at 7, … was by 28 a homeless derelict, mentally unstable” and at age 35 still a lost cause, regardless of being “a person of exceptional intelligence and thoughtfulness.” (Maslin)

As evidenced earlier, “many of Mr. Apted's former 7-year-olds have begun to squirm under the burden of such scrutiny”, but not all of them. 

Reference:

Maslin, Janet. "Review/Film; That '7 Up' Group Is 35 Years Old Now, And Drooping a Bit." New York Times[New York] 15 Jan 1992, n. pag. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. .

*Note: Some parts of the response may have a larger font than other. My blogger is having problems with this.