Death of a Soldier

Watching this film, you could be forgiven for thinking that the battles the Australians and Americans fought against the Japanese were merely practice for the battles they fought against each other on the streets of Melbourne.

"Death of a Soldier" looks at life in Melbourne in 1942 when General MacArthur and the Americans hit town. There were tensions, but the film takes the urban myths of the time and gives them a large dose of anabolic steroids.

The film's strength is in the story of Eddie Leonski the American soldier who strangled three Australian women (The Brownout Murders). After reading "Murder at Dusk" by Ian W. Shaw I was surprised at how close the film stayed to the facts of the case.

James Coburn as Major Patrick Dannenberg has a lot of work to do in the film. Not only does he manage relations between the Americans and the Australians, but also becomes deeply involved in the investigation of the murders. Bill Hunter and Maurie Fields play Australian detectives investigating Leonski's crimes. They do this with a series of poses - standing with their hands in their pockets at the crime scenes or leaning against the bar of the local boozer.

Reb Brown played Eddie Leonski. He's a powerful-looking dude and although his performance seems over-the-top, apparently Eddie Leonski was that crazy. Another impressive performance was delivered by formidable, 6'4" Australian Max Fairchild as MP Major Fricks, a man you would instinctively address as "Sir".

Other reviewers have pointed out that there was always the perception that something like the shootout between American and Australian soldiers had happened. But the origin of the incident would seem to be the one given in the "The Battle of Brisbane" by Peter Thompson, when a U.S. soldier was pursued and shot by Australian police and soldiers after he killed an Australian on a train. Hardly the shootout depicted in the film with casualties rivalling the assault on Buna.

My main criticism of the film is that it's all sensation with very little balance. In reality much of the aggression between the two allies involved brawls between scrappy young men who probably went in for that sort of thing back in civilian life anyway. Similar things happened in New Zealand (The Battle of Manners Street).

Not all Australians felt put upon. 15,000 Australians married Americans (possibly that left some Aussies fuming), but most Australians appreciated that despite gutsy efforts by the Diggers in New Guinea, the situation would have been dire if the U.S. had not arrived in force in 1942.

But perceptions are important and the negative vibe in "Death of a Soldier" probably carries more weight than it should. Maybe Dr. Brendan Nelson, the director of the Australian War Memorial, put things into broader perspective during a speech to the National Press Club in 2013:

"... I've said to the Americans in particular in various roles I've had that not a day goes by in this country where we don't give thanks and gratitude for American sacrifice in this part of the world".

"Death of a Soldier" is a first-rate little thriller, based on an actual incident that took place in Australia during WW II. Eddie Leonski, an American soldier stationed in Australia, goes partying in the local bars at night. Women are attracted to his boyish charm, rugged good looks and spectacular physique. What they don't know is that underneath that exterior is a brain-damaged serial killer. Years of heavy alcohol consumption, and horrible physical abuse at home, have driven Eddie to the point that when he gets drunk he turns into an uncontrollable killer. He first asks his victims to sing for him, and when they do, he strangles them ("I just want your voice, that's all . . ."). He is eventually turned in by one of his fellow soldiers who is aghast when he hears Eddie offhandedly remark, "I think I killed a couple of those women."

The movie doesn't end there, though. It shows how Eddie is used by all sides--the U.S. Army, the Australian government--to further their own agendas. The Army wants to hang him, the Australians don't want to offend the Army just at the time it needs help to fend off a possible Japanese invasion, and nobody particularly cares that Eddie is obviously insane and has no idea what he has done or what is going on around him. Reb Brown, best known as a star of low-grade action movies, is outstanding as the pathetic Eddie, never turning him into the caricature of the hulking, subhuman serial killer. He really makes you feel for Eddie. James Coburn is fine as always as the lawyer appointed to defend him, but it's Reb Brown's show, and he is up to it. It's a shame Brown never got a chance to do anything else as good as this, and it's also a shame that this film is as unknown as it is. It deserves a much wider audience than it's gotten.

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.

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

Despite a previous poster's wildly inaccurate and hysterical right-wing rantings (among other things, the fact that he kept calling it a "Hollywood" film when it was in fact made by an Australian company with an Australian director and was shot in Australia, and his claim that the "Hollywood" filmmakers wanted to let Reb Brown's character go free when no such thing was even remotely suggested leads one to suspect that this guy never actually saw the film and is just repeating what he read on some shrill far-right-wing website) this is a very good movie, and is based on an actual event. Eddie Leonski (played to near perfection by Reb Brown) was a brain-damaged (caused by a combination of years of heavy drinking and severe beatings by his parents when he was a child), acutely alcoholic American soldier with obviously severe mental problems who was stationed in Australia during WW II. He murdered several young women during a string of off-duty binges of heavy drinking. When he is finally caught (turned in by a fellow soldier to whom he had inadvertently admitted the murders), provost marshal James Coburn is assigned to his defense. Although not happy about it, once Coburn meets his client it's obvious to even his untrained eye that Leonski has serious mental defects and little if any grip on reality (at one point Coburn wonders how someone like Leonski with such glaringly obvious mental problems managed to even get into the army). When he tries to get Leonski placed in a hospital for the criminally insane, however, he discovers that the authorities--American and Australian--are determined to hang him, their decision based more on political considerations than Leonski's shockingly obvious mental deficiencies. The performances by the two leads and the mostly Australian cast are excellent, with Coburn standing out as usual. A subplot concerning his budding romance with a local girl is unnecessary and doesn't go anywhere anyway, but otherwise this is a crackerjack little picture, a fascinating and little known story told well with first-rate performances by Coburn and Brown. Well worth watching.