Death of a Soldier

I recently managed to obtain a videotape of this film from a local sound store although I had seen it many years earlier on TV and have a copy of the soundtrack on vinyl record. Reb Brown gives a splendid and convincing performance as American GI Private Eddie Leonski who strangles three local women in Melbourne over a three week period in May 1942 after a drinking binge. His motives are complex and disturbed, and when finally apprehended, confesses that he just "only wanted their voices". The focus of the film centers on the tensions between American and Australian service personnel and Leonski is portrayed as a necessary sacrificial scapegoat needed by the U.S.Army to restore their credibility with the local population. The film does have it's fictional moments such as the violent shootout between American and Australian servicemen at an unknown railway station which may be a substitution of the true confrontation between these forces in the Battle of Brisbane in November 1942 in which there were actual casualties. There is also the bizarre role of Jon Sidney as General Douglas Macarthur who utters nothing throughout the film excepting a one line sentence near the end. His mouthpiece is Michael Pate playing 2IC Major General Richard Sutherland. Great performances by James Coburn who plays U.S. Major Patrick Dannenburg assigned to defend Leonski, whom he considers insane, at an American Court Martial which has an already pre-conceived judgment on the case and Maurie Fields (as Detective Sergeant Ray Martin)and Bill Hunter (as Detective Fred Adams) who play the tough hard nosed Melbourne cops confronting obstinate American military authority over their rights to exercise civil jurisdiction in the case. Extra great performance by Max Fairchild, better known to many Australians as "Beau" of the television tyre commercials, who plays the swaggering, intimidating and outspoken American Provost Marshal Major Bill Fricks. Belinda Davey who plays civilian PR officer Margot Saunders, well attired in the fashion of the era contributes a good sensual feminine performance to an otherwise male dominated film. The superb musical score by Allan Zavod well threaded into the film captures perfectly the mood and style of the wartime 1940's. This is an absolute gem of a movie well worth watching even if for only it's relatively true historical significance.

This appears to be a remake of the older film: The Man in the Middle. The war time alliance is uneasy. Australians are in the war by one vote. They are concerned with national defence and recalled their troops from North Africa. In the midst of the angst, an American misfit kills an Australian.

The defen(s)e is intended to be pro forma.

I did like the older movie MAN IN THE MIDDLE and the Howard Fast Book upon which it was based.

I wish more Australian films like this circulated in the US.

It's War Time, circa 1942. The Place is Melbourne in Australia. A serious of murders have occurred in the dimly lit back alley streets. A number of eye witnesses claim that they have seen an American G.I running away from the scene of the crimes that have been committed.

If truth be told, film director Philippe Mora, was never what you would call a fashionable movie maker. Taking a look a his filmography, what can we see, "The Return Of Captain Invincible" and "Howling 2" both of which although not classics have since garnered cult camp status, the latter of which, if memory serves, Mora as a director was not happy with so he took the option and made the third in the franchise in his adopted homeland of Australia.

Anyway, with "Death Of A Soldier" Mora gets it first time, coupled with a gritty script by the late William Nagle and a star turn by Reb Brown, as the American G.I. at the centre of the controversial true story, namely one Edward Leonski, If you consider the majority of Brown's film output, i really don't think the man ever really had a chance to shine on screen, that was until this one came along. Superb period detail, and a truly devastating approach, especially more so as the movie itself is based on fact.

This is one movie that needs to be rediscovered, if you can, find it, buy it and cherish it. I know i have.

10 out of 10 This is a movie to be remembered

I agree with all the points made in the positive reviews of this film. I recently saw it for the first time on Briz31, a community TV channel which can only pay peanuts (if that) for its movies. I missed it at the cinema when it got reasonably good publicity but it quickly dropped out of sight. It deserved far better. I can only say that there is in Australia a tendency by organizations of any size to self-censor a lot of things that show the USA and particularly Australia's relationship with the USA in a bad light.

I would add something to Graf Spee's comment that the shootout between Australian troops and American troops was fictional. This incident was very widely believed to have really happened, by Australians in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Books and features have been written investigating it but no concrete evidence exists that it happened. Nevertheless, people believed it had, and I recall quite a few wartime generation people of both sexes telling me in all earnestness that it had, and that it was just typical that "The Government" would cover it up. So whether true or not, the existence of the legend is an indicator of the underlying tension between Americans and Australians at the time. The Battle of Brisbane was factual, but it was a riot during which some shots were fired and people were killed. The Train Battle, legend has it, occurred when a unit of Australians, on their way to the war zone, were insulted by Americans and a full scale fire fight broke out.

One Australian attitude to Americans has been summed up as "Over-paid, Over-sexed, and Over Here", and a book about the problem has been published with that title. I just wonder if a french author has ever written a similar work about Aussie soldiers, the "Diggers" of World War One, who were paid about 7 times as much as British soldiers and much, much more than French soldiers! The wheel turns.

It's obvious from the remarks in the previous commentaries by others, that none of them were ever in the military. Coburn was portraying a Military Police major (Maj. Dannenberg) serving as the Assistant Provost Marshal - he was not playing an Army attorney. At that time (and still optional today) an officer from any branch in the military can serve as legal council to an accused soldier - you don't have to be a lawyer (JAG Corps). This particular story was true, and is the event in military history that is directly responsible for the creation and implementation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) applicable to all the Armed Forces. The film is accurate and does not portray any Hollywood political bias. It's a great film and a good piece of history. A little known fact: Gen. MacArthur came close to being court martialed for preventing Maj. Dannenberg from appealing Pvt. Leonski's death sentence and conviction, but political allies in Washington intervened.