28 Up, directed by Michael Apted - 8.7 out of 10

28 Up, directed by Michael Apted
8.7 out of 10


The idea of this excellent documentary film is meritorious and it is used in psychology and other fields.

Indeed, we could think of the nuns of Notre Dame or the Duchenne smile studies.
The former is one of the strong evidences in favor of the notion that those who are happier, more optimistic live a longer life, for the nuns who were more positive in their writing lived on average nine years more than those who had been less enthusiastic in their diaries.

In the Duchenne smile research - well, one of them, for there isn't only this single study - the photographs taken at the end of highs school were used to see what happens with those who have an authentic, Duchenne smile in those photos and with the rest.
After returning to those graduates three years, seven and then more years later, it was found that those who had had an authentic smile in their pictures had a better professional and private life.

In 28 Up, director Michael Apted interviews some children, then returns when they are teenagers, young and then finally adults.
It is very interesting to see how their views on money, women and respectively men, life have changed or indeed, stayed much the same.

One man is at the end of the period a professor in America, after studying nuclear physics in Cambridge and realizing at the end of the studies that his standard of living had dropped significantly.
Thus he takes the chance of a much better life, at least financially, and settles with another British woman in the United States.

Another protagonist would travel even further, making Australia his new home, the land where he takes a long time off and drives for thousands of miles, on a journey that includes self discovery, perhaps.
One boy who had wanted to work with horses as a grown up has become a taxi driver in London, after the difficult learning period and the test that one has to pass, proving he knows a huge number of streets in the British capital.

Some have become lawyers, while some of the women have settled as housewives.
One of the most intriguing, captivating characters had been living in a state orphanage as a child.

As an adult, he has five children and could not be any happier.
He has a fantastic insight when he states that they could give him more more money, but he wouldn't be any happier...

Is the one who has two million pounds any different from the one who has one million?
When they are rich, they will always want something else down the road.

He is perfectly right! 
The phenomenon in question is called Hedonic Adaptation.

Indeed, having money for a decent life seems crucial for happiness.
But once a threshold of about seventy thousand dollars per year on average,  in America for instance, is reached, differences in wellbeing brought in by more money appear to be insignificant.