A Brilliant Conflict

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I couldn't believe this movie is underrated, it has such a strong romantic vibes to it, it really gave me chills. Although the movie was quite rough in relation to abortion and mental institution. I found it awful sad when Lola and Brownie were separated because of the fact they weren't married. It does tell ya a time when everything had to be silent about any negativity involved in a persons mental health, what an ignorant era in the society we were living in.I loved seeing Charlie Schlatter and Kylie Minogue's sex scenes because you could tell they were really in love regardless if they were only just acting!I wonder if they were going out, their scenes looked surreal! Great movie especially Charlie Schlatter ;)

Now that she is so well known as a pop star, it seems strange to think that Kylie Minogue was once better known as an actress; indeed, when her first hit "The Locomotion" came out it was dismissed as a soap star's attempt at a novelty record. "The Delinquents" was Kylie's first feature film, a teenage romance set in the Australia of the 1950s. The word "delinquent" normally means a criminal, often a teenage hooligan, but the young people shown in this film do not, at first sight, appear to fit that definition at all.Lola Lovell and Brownie Hansen are working-class teenagers from the small town of Bundaberg. Both are from difficult family backgrounds, having grown up without their fathers. Lola is the daughter of an unmarried mother; Brownie's parents are divorced. Lola's mother is, outwardly, a devout Catholic but inwardly a narrow-minded hypocrite. Brownie's mother is weak and can do nothing to protect him from his obnoxious stepfather Bert, a man who demands respect from Brownie and thinks he can compel it by administering vicious beatings. It is therefore hardly surprising that the youngsters, starved of affection, should fall madly in love. Lola becomes pregnant and they attempt to run away together, but this attempt is frustrated by their parents. Despite her Catholic principles, Lola's mother forces her to have an abortion (presumably legal in Australia at this period, when it was still illegal in Britain).The most interesting part of the film comes when Brownie does manage to leave home and finds a job as a merchant seaman. His father was an American sailor (was this detail added to explain away Charlie Schlatter's accent?), and Brownie's great ambition has always been to follow him in a career at sea. Lola also manages to escape from Bundaberg and makes her way to Sydney, where she and Brownie are reunited. For a time, it looks as though all will end happily, but their problems are just beginning.We Poms frequently look on Australia as a relaxed, tolerant society, but the country we see here is anything but. It was, of course, Australia which gave the word "wowser" (killjoy) to the English language, and according to an Australian friend of mine the word can refer not only to narrow-minded moralists but also to high-minded idealists who make it their business to mind everyone else's, in the interests of the greatest happiness of the greatest number. (One legend, unfortunately not supported by the compilers of dictionaries, has it that the word is an acronym for We Only Want Social Evils Removed). There are plenty of wowsers of this sort in the film.Brownie and Lola are arrested by the police and charged with "vagrancy". The film never explains exactly what the elements of this crime are under Australian law, but it would appear that it is sufficient to be young and short of money. (Under English law a person can only be convicted of vagrancy if they attempt to support themselves by begging, something which Brownie and Lola never do).Brownie is fined, but Lola, being under eighteen, is taken into care and forbidden to see Brownie again. This is presented not as a punishment but rather as being for her own good. "It's for your own good" is the watchword of every high-minded wowser, and one we hear a lot in this film. (It was, for example, for Lola's "own good" that she was forced to have an abortion). For Lola's own good she is sent to live with Auntie Westbury, a court-approved foster mother, and a first-class wowser in her own right. Auntie is played by Melissa Jaffer as Australia's most monstrous suburbanite since Edna Everage, an amusing caricature of the complacent, middle-aged middle-class square who disapproves of young people and all their ways, especially sex and rock music. When Lola rebels against Auntie's regime, she is sent to reform school. For her own good, of course. There is a subplot involving Lola's friends Lyle and Mavis, a married couple; when Mavis dies their young daughter is taken away from its father and put into care on the grounds that he is unemployed. (For which read: because he is poor, working-class and therefore unlikely, in the eyes of high-minded wowsers, to prove a good father).Most of the film rarely rises above the level of a sentimental soap opera in which Lola and Brownie are the idealised heroes and, with a few exceptions, the adults (anyone over twenty) the villains. Those exceptions are Lyle and Mavis and, to some extent, the ship's bosun who befriends Brownie, although even he has his blind spots; he advises Brownie not to get involved with Lola as romance might be an impediment to his seafaring career. There are no particularly memorable acting performances; on the basis of this film, Kylie was probably wise to concentrate on her singing rather than her acting. She is fine when portraying Lola as a sweet and innocent young thing, less so when her character turns truculent and rebellious under severe provocation from the System. The film is, however, worth watching for those scenes which provide an insight into fifties' Australia at its most reactionary. 6/10

Loved this movie,was only 16,had just met and fallen in love with my husband to be,so a real memorable movie for me,really captured what its like to be a teenager in love,when the world seems against you and teenagers really do know whats best for them sometimes and adults can get it so wrong.The anger, frustration and despair of Lola was portrayed so well by Kylie,the music was great ,the actors were great,i loved the scene when they were all dancing and Lola holds the baby ,so the mom can have a proper dance,and when she tells the women who's house shes been sent to live in what she thinks of her after she finds shes hidden Brownies letters,is just amazing.

I remember seeing this movie the day it opened (Boxing Day) 1989, and was completely blown away by Kylie's performance. A TV actress, singer and now bona fide movie star, there seemed to be no stopping her. Of course as we now know there were many movie mistakes to follow. But this still stands as one of her finest efforts and is still an enjoyable piece of escapist moviemaking.