28-Up: Real Drama, No Gimmicks

Meanwhile Tony, a native East Ender, has not rejected his working class background, but neither has he allowed it to limit him. As a child, with his cockney accent and brash attitude, it's not hard to picture him as the London cabbie he later becomes, but not so obvious is his transformation into a responsible, grounded family man. He is happy with his modest life, but also dreams of one day owning a pub with his wife, and you believe he has the sense and determination to really make it happen. In contrast to hard-working, optimistic Tony is Neil, raised with more opportunities for education and financial stability, but who has rejected his upbringing for a wandering, impoverished lifestyle. At 28, he has been unemployed for 3 years, living off of social security and hitchhiking around the country, and he admits that he has no real sense of his own future.

Of course the argument over how much one's environment determines one's future is further complicated by England's class system, particularly during the Thatcher regime when the film was made. Surprisingly, the most vehement responses toward the prevailing social structure come from the subjects with more privileged backgrounds, now opposed to the very establishment that raised them. Bruce and Peter, both educated in the private sector, support the state school system, arguing the division in education only perpetuates the unfair class divide. Meanwhile, Simon, a factory worker and father of five young children, says he barely ever thinks about his social position, and has simply chosen to take life "nice and easy." Childhood friends Jackie, Lynn and Susan even feel that they had more opportunities growing up in working class families because their lives were not predetermined by their socially ambitious parents. After hearing one "privileged" subject lay out his academic and professional future at age 7, it's hard not to see their point.

From a wealth of such conflicting examples, the film can only lead to one paradoxical conclusion: Humans beings defy expectations, and they also fulfill them. There is no one answer for how we find our own path, and that intangible element of possibility is exactly what makes life so interesting, and what keeps this film series so engaging. Even moments of joy often surface where you least expect them. In one poignant moment, Apted asks Tony, the East End cab driver, about the happiest day in his life so

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