42: Forty Two Up (1998)

Alternate title (IMDb title): 42 Up

Sixth installment in the series which interviews a set of United Kingdom people every seven years.

A single sequence makes this worth viewing. Michael asks Tony whether he feels the East End has changed much, Tony answers affirmatively, saying it has become "cosmopolitan" and adds "For me, it's rather sad", and we are shown a glimpse of an East End street with the people in it, and there is no telling whether this is London or, say, Cairo. If you asked my opinion, I would say this is really rather sad, and not only for Tony; I am not even British and it is sad for me too. Apart from a few misguided souls who, at various stages of their education, received a toxic mixture of Christianism and Marxism (one such specimen may be seen right here in the Up series), and think this is all very good and well, I would be ready to bet that the majority of the English people had no desire to see their country flooded with hordes of immigrants. And yet, this came to pass in a so-called democracy. The million-dollar question is: how come? Also, how well does this speak for democracy?

It's about time I'd point out a serious mistake made by this series. Its quotation "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" is interpreted in a completely wrong way by the filmmakers (and also by at least one of the interviewees, but that was in an earlier installment). From the Breaking Spells site, one reads:

"That was the Jesuit motto, alleged to be attributed to Francis Xavier, the co-founder of the Jesuit Order. The implication is that the best opportunity to indoctrinate a person in a lifetime of belief and devotion to religious dogma is when they are young."

The meaning ascribed to it by the people who made this series is that one's personality is already fully formed by the age of seven.

Of course the latter interpretation is one of the points of interest of the show, whereas the former isn't. Or is it?