The movie Roger Ebert called “an experiment unlike anything else in film history”
Any writer with half a hope of making it in the world of film journalism would do well to consult the work of Roger Ebert. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times for most of his life, Ebert transcended the boundaries of film criticism, giving his reviews and critiques and air of humanist leanings.
Film criticism can often be difficult to penetrate, especially when the writer is well-versed in the technical and thematic facets of making a movie. However, Ebert’s writing managed to be at once entertaining and easy-to-digest while showcasing his encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of cinema.
With that in mind, it’s always a good idea to see which movies Ebert favoured and which he detested in order to get an idea of the kind of films we ought to be watching (or not). Throughout his career, the Illinois-born critic named several films he thought were excellent, and in 1991, he listed his ten greatest films of all time.
After discussing the widely admired Casablanca, Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey and La Dolce Vita, Ebert turned his attention to more of a leftfield selection, the 1984 Michael Apted documentary 28 Up, the fourth entry in the wider British documentary series Up, which focuses on the lives of ten males and four females at different points in their lives.
In his review of the 28 Up, Ebert said, “I defy anyone to watch without fascination. No other film I have ever seen does a better job of illustrating the mysterious and haunting way in which the cinema bridges time.” With nine episodes in total – one being released every seven years – the Up series indeed manages to transcend time while showing the kind of difference in socio-economic background that Britain is comprised of.
Up began with Paul Almond’s 1964 film Seven Up!, but Michael Apted soon took over the series, directing each of the other films, including the most recent, 2019’s 63 Up. According to Apted, Almond had wanted to make “a beautiful film about being seven”, whereas he wanted to make “a nasty piece of work about these kids who have it all, and these other kids who have nothing.”
Going on to express his admiration for Apted’s effort, Ebert wrote, “The miracle of the film is that it shows us that the seeds of the man are indeed in the child. In a sense, the destinies of all of these people can be guessed in their eyes the first time we see them. Some do better than we expect, some worse, one seems completely bewildered.”
The iconic film critic went on to say that the “secret and mystery of human personality” is open for all to see in the early parts of our lives, and that’s precisely what 28 Up and the other films in the documentary series show. He added, “This ongoing film is an experiment unlike anything else in film history.”
When it comes to Ebert, we know well his love for some of the big names in cinema like Federico Fellini, Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick, but his wider writing also reveal a writer who had an incredible broad taste, delving into the more obscure pieces of film from the United Kingdom. When it came to his favourite documentaries, there were few works that captured Ebert’s attention quite like Michael Apted’s 28 Up.
