Essay: What Can We Learn From The 'Up Series'?

Every person in this world is competent to live their own life as they want to live it. We are all individuals, and we are who we choose to be. I think that the films taken over the past 50 years are for viewers to realize and learn about what consequences can lead to, and numerous mistakes that can be avoided in life.

The up series is an extraordinary film that has impacted people’s lives considerably. By watching every series and observing what they are doing now and where they have ended up, gives people an understanding of life and make them reflect on their own life.
Its not only a guide to our lives, but It shows us what we can do in life to not throw it away; and make each moment in our short life count and have importance to.

The films show us a lot of different aspects of life and how each choice you make leads you in a different path in your life.
People who have watched this series have always said it’s been really rewarding and directs them in life. It also gives them an insight in how life turns out a certain way.

In my opinion, I don’t particularly like the Up series, for one key reason; its teaching us about life before we have already lived it.
For example, a person who is say 50 years of age can appreciate this movie because they have *already lived at least half of their life and can relate to these characters in the film, then analyze situations in their life that have been the same and various decisions they could have made for their life to turn out differently.

For person who is a teenager or in their early 20’s, I think this film almost destroys the purpose of life for them and in a way shoves life right in their face.
Watching the up series all at once makes you consider what their life must be like and you almost take their journey in life with them. But we want to take our own journeys and discover and enjoy life for ourselves. We are getting told about life and getting bombarded with information about life before we have had a chance to live it they way we intended to.

It’s changed my whole perspective on life itself. I never really thought about how I could live my life in certain way, it eradicates everything i've ever thought about achieving and pursuing And completely destroys the purpose of life I think. As result of not succeeding in life, you could end up homeless like Neil himself.

Sure, there are a lot of thing to learn from this film, but isn’t it better off not knowing them at all? Wouldn’t you rather figure out life for yourself and not worry about making a mistake or making a decision? It would just be much more sufficient to take life as it comes at you, take risks in life and do it how you please with out the fear of extermination. For me, that’s exactly the impression I obtain from this film.

There are important lessons to learn, but I would have rather have learn them by myself WITHIN life rather that a film tell it all for me.
I do have some respect for this film and the people who didn’t willing volunteer to take part in it, as their whole life is exposed to the general public to be observed and judged on.

Although, I do think the 7 up series does contain a lot of important lessons that we can learn in life.on the positive side, I think we can all learn that no matter what 'class' you are, you can achieve all you want in your life and still live your life similar to everyone else. It doesn’t matter what you are born into or what your parents are, every person has the potential to live their life just as they want and they can be who they want to be, there is no limits.Although the characters stayed all in their classes, apart from Tony which moved to middle class from lower class, and Neil from comfortable middle class to nothing, the films shows us that no matter what class you are in, people who are worse off financially make the most of their lives and live it happily.

People like Neil who threw away his comfortable life and ended up having nothing, compared to someone like Paul, an orphan who had nothing and now has a well paying job and happy family living comfortably is an example of this.One of the good lessons we can learn from the up series is that you can make your life anyway you want it to be. Whatever decision we make is our decision and it’s our choice, not someone else’s. I think Neil realised this and wanted to live life as an individual and not have people telling him how to live it like say his parents would.

It also shows us how wrong our predictions can be, as you wouldn’t expect a happy lively child like Neil to grow up and be homeless. I think he surprised us the most out of any of the characters. As a positive, from watching this I feel less inclined to waste my days on earth and take each day for granted. Watching this program made me realise that life here is short and it just passes you by right before your eyes, and to make the most of everyday for it might be the last day you have. Life is so fleeting, time just flies, the next thing Lynn knew her mother died and Tony’s mother and father died. The next think you knowyou could have a brain disease like Lynn. It’s just so hard to prepare for these things, but they do happen and they happen so rapidly.

I also think that that the people in this program may have suffered a whole lot also and felt as if they were too frightened to fail as everything they did was to be recorded and shown to the public. People say ‘some things need to be forgotten’, where as the characters in the program had everything filmed and they always had that constant reminder of their memories and all the mistakes they had made in their life.I believe it would get quite depressing. Although, Paul’s wife thanks the program because she feels it keeps their relationship alive as they are reminded of why they loved one another and how they fell for each other.

The film is a realization of humanity. There are a lot of lessons to take on board from these people and it gives the public a real understanding of life and its situations. It was so interesting to see where these people would end up in their life and to go threw their journey and examine it. It’s been a great experience and reminds us all not to take our life for granted.