OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES
Australia, 1981, 90 minutes, Colour.
Scott Burgess, Cornelia Francis, George Mallaby, Max Cullen.
Directed by Colin Eggleston.
Outbreak of Hostilities is a well-made Australian telemovie, designed for the wide audience. It takes us back to Queensland at the outbreak of World War Two, a holiday resort, a time of good manners and gentility. It focuses on a family, especially the young teenage son, sensitively played by Scott Burgess. It focuses on a friend who returns from England after a broken romance, with news about the outbreak of hostilities. The young son becomes infatuated with the visitor and begins an affair, even though she is 20 years older than he. The parents and the patrons of the hotel are scandalised. There is a confrontation. However, the war breaks out and the young son enlists. By chance he encounters his father in the Libyan desert - and they both are killed. There is a reconciliation between the visitor and the parents - who then look after the baby.
The film is well acted by Cornelia Francis as the visitor and George Mallaby as the father. The supporting cast includes Max Cullen. An interesting telemovie and comment on Australian manners and morals.
1. A film of period, the outbreak of war? A film about youth? Morals and manners?
2. The re-creation of the period, Queensland and the holiday resort? The war archival material? The western desert? The music of the period, the score?
3. The title, reference to World War Two, to Bobby's life and his relationship with his parents?
4. The excerpts of archival material on the war, Germany, Neville Chamberlain, Hitler, the battles? The war seeming remote but affecting people's lives? Bobby enlisting, his father enlisting? The war and battles and the desert? War deaths?
5. The presentation of the family on holidays, the genteel style, the enjoyment, the hotel and its management, customs, the guests and their recreation, listening to the radio, playing cards, socialising? A proper style?
6. Bobby's parents - ordinary, loving, prim style? Love for their son? The visitor from England, friendships but yet the mother being wary, observing her? Their looking at Bobby and his infatuation, the reaction? The reaction to him, wondering what people would think? The showdown and the angry words? The return home, the confrontation, Bobby's decision to leave?
7. Bobby and his age, experience? Idolising the visitor? The infatuation, dancing attendance, helping her to dress, getting her a drink? His parents' reaction? On the beach, sharing and talking, falling in love? The affair? The effect on him, taking responsibility? The age difference? His youth and inexperience? His parents' reaction, his defiance, the scandal, the showdown, the humiliation and his leaving? The job, enlisting, in the desert, the letters home, meeting his father and the reconciliation, the news of his child, his father's death? The impact of his own death on the audience?
8. The visitor and her arrival, seeming exotic at the holiday resort, her European background, flouting conventions? The mother's wariness? Her behaviour, attention to Bobby, the attendance, helping her dress, his infatuation? Their sharing, the beach, falling in love? The age differences, emotional dependence? Decisions? Moral issues? Bobby leaving? The argument with his parents, her pregnancy, her visit to the mother, the discussion of the pregnancy, becoming friends? News through letters? The impact of his death? The birth of the child?
9. Bobby in the desert, the reconciliation with his father? His own death? The women left? The framing of the film with the woman remembering her encounter with Bobby?
10. A film of memories, regrets, the past, changes?
