(1977)Derek Armstrong21 Up is the third installment in the documentary series that revisits its cross-section of British citizens at seven-year intervals, and it finds its subjects at an age where they're able (and eager) to articulate the effect the project has had on them. Kind of by necessity, director/interviewer Michael Apted must remind these 14 young adults of the viewpoints they once espoused and the predictions they once made about their futures, as if holding them accountable for displaying consistent character traits throughout. It's becoming evident that the very act of committing these predictions to celluloid has turned them into personal benchmarks for these people -- benchmarks that they've either reached, or failed to reach. Both results could be emotionally burdensome: Either these individuals were too predictable by half, or they came up short. 21 Up makes for both a fascinating and a frustrating viewing experience; fascinating, because it's interesting to see how much (or little) they've changed, but frustrating, because the viewer sympathizes with the youths who question Apted's fixation on the random responses they gave as 7-year-olds. But what really starts to show is their pain over having their lives held up for examination, however well their ingrained British stoicism allows them to disguise it. When Charles Furneaux, who has been interviewed alongside two other upper-class companions since age 7, has to explain his failure to matriculate at Oxford (and to achieve the narrowly-defined version of success his companions have enjoyed), his eyes seem to ask "What do you want from me?", as though the very act of explaining has forced him to doubt his choices. While great tragedy has yet to engulf any of these 21-year-olds, some seem headed in that direction. One can't help but wonder what role this microscope may have played in that trajectory.
