28 Up; The Long Way Home

Although director Michael Apted is better known in the industry for his blockbuster Hollywood films (Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorky Park, Gorillas in the Mist), his real forte is the full-length documentary. The Long Way Home, somewhat reminiscent of Apted's profile of musician Sting in Bring on the Night, introduces Boris Grebenshikov and his Russian band Aquarium. A legend in his own land, Boris travels to L.A. to cut a studio album with Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame). What begins as a lark quickly turns into a fiasco. While enjoying the sights and sounds of the free world thanks to the spirit of glasnost, Leningrad's darling ends up between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, his fellow band members thinks he might be selling out to the West, while on the other Boris discovers that the modern American music industry can be a harsh mistress indeed. Intercutting the music of Aquarium (which is melodious driving folk rock) with studio recording ala Stewart-style (lots of synthesizers and drum machines), Apted pointedly demonstrates the difference between Boris's previous natural sound and the new, but hardly improved, plasticized Boris. In addition to telling the story of one man's loss of innocence, The Long Way Home is also a revealing portrait of modern music, as embodied by Dave Stewart. Initially bubbling with fake enthusiasm, Stewart's chirpy demeanor gradually crumbles into pointed cynicism. By film's end, you get the feeling that Stewart wants this project off his back in the worst way. Offering both an engaging story and a penetrating look at the recording industry, The Long Way Home is highly recommended. 28 Up, another Apted film, is to date his masterpiece. A winner of numerous awards, the film follows a group of kids from England, filming them at the ages of 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 1964 through 1984. Wordsworth's line "the child is father of the man" is brought home with disturbing force in this unique film which interviews over a dozen subjects during a twenty-one year period. Sometimes the results seem uncanny: John, Andrew, and Charles, a trio of upper class kids detail the itinerary for their coming years (prep schools, colleges, professions) by name at the age of 7. At 28, they have followed their set in concrete pathways to the letter. The embarrassment of such a rigid progression is perhaps the reason why John and Charles declined to be interviewed at 28. In other segments we meet Tony, a vivacious youngster who, at 7, dreams of becoming a jockey. Although Tony briefly realizes his dream, at 28, he is a cab driver. A wistful tone creeps into his voice when he recalls his early days, but he is clearly happy in his trade, and has a good marriage and a growing family. The most disturbing sequence follows Neil, a bright-eyed boy who, at 28, is a homeless drifter that can't quite put his finger on what went wrong. And, in one of the most amazing changes, Suzie, who at 21 is an emotionally unstable, bedraggled, bitter cynic, is seen at 28 as a happily married mother--infused with an extraordinary calm and suburban glow. Running throughout the film is the question of opportunity: the kids are drawn from a cross-section of environments ranging from private and public schools to boarding homes. And while some of the children clearly prosper in the social groove they were born into, others break the mould. For myself, the most fascinating aspect of 28 Up was the patterns: at 7, nearly all of the kids had that wide-eyed sense of wonder and confidence that the world has yet to break (in some of them the spark returned at 21). At 14, by contrast, they were struggling with the woes of adolescence, and at 28 had lost every last vestige of youth. Somber, assailed by adult pressures from all sides, the 28-year-olds were a far, and somewhat depressing, cry from the innocent and hopeful 7-year-olds they once were. A truly special film, 28 Up is highly recommended. (R. Pitman)