21 Up

The subjects are still pretty open, even though at 21, they don't seem very eager to share their lives with the whole world. They're more aware of the fact that his will be seen by many people. More so than they were as 7 and 14 year olds, definitely. That puts a self aware spin on things. And even more interesting, they now confess to the fact that at 14, they may not have been as truthful as it seems basically because...well, they were 14, and they had the same insecurities everyone else has as a teenager.

What I also find funny is that at 21 looking back at 14 and 7, they think they are looking back on their most foolish times, but I'm sure the next time we check in with them, they'll be older and wiser and be embarrassed by what they see here.

Charles (one of the kind of kids that you think of when you think of rich British school children) is one of the ones most aware of the impact of the film. He even makes a comment about how, as a rich "character" in the movie, he was meant out to be "bad" while the lower class kids were meant to be "good." That's how he viewed the film. And he spoke about the sort of manipulation you can use with editing and different ways to produce it.

Which is another funny point. It's not just to see the evolution of these kids, but the evolution of the filmmaking. Not something simple like going from black and white to color on the 7 Up and 7 Plus Seven, but the use of b-roll when we get to 21 Up and the filming style, the way the camera moves. LOTS of talking over video footage. I imagine on the next addition, they'll finally institute some lower thirds in this thing. I almost have all the names down, but that could definitely help.

I tell you what, if I have to hear Give me the child until he is seven and I'll give you the man one more time, I might hit something. I know these weren't meant to be watched back to back to back, and when they first started making these there was no such thing as VHS, let alone streaming Netflix, but they say it at the beginning AND end of each one. Annoying.