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.

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

In the 1970s Phillipe Mora looked to be a director who was going to deliver the goods. His strange doco BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME was a 30s jigsaw puzzle of fascinating imagery that needed a commentary. In the 80s he delivered this quite fascinating film. But in the 90s it all went wrong with terrible horror films and now, nothing. In the last week I have seen two James Coburn films. I have never ever been interested in any performance or film of his. Timing has now led me to THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964)...a superb military satire, and DEATH OF A SOLDIER, two films made 20 years apart both with him, both set during WW2... and I have to admit I now have a new found appreciation of Coburn's acting and characterizations. DEATH OF A SOLDIER is a very well made Wartime murder drama with a protagonist played by under rated and over looked he-man Reb Brown. My only vision of him was during BIG Wednesday of all things, when, during a hilarious house party, he cleaned up the gatecrashers in a demolition derby worthy of Hercules visiting Animal House. He is great looking and appears as a cross between Steve McQueen and Ryan O'Neal with a great physique. Here that look is used to great affect as a loudmouth Yankee party bumpkin on leave during WW2 whose alcoholic haze leads to crimes that actually did happen In Melbourne in the mid 40s.. His character is a lot like that of Don Murray, the yahooo-ing cowboy in the Marilyn Monroe film BUS STOP. It is the study of his mentality and it's effect that mires Coburn into a court trial or considerable predicament. The film is excellent and interesting in so many ways, and really flawed in two major things: the clumsy appearance of "General MacArthur" posing and strutting about.... never speaking ..even wearing sunglasses indoors to maintain the image (Jeez!) ....and the overuse of obvious 40s music. If I hear In The Mood again in a 40s film well..... Sadly the film did no biz in its day which I remember had a lot to do with Mora's difficulties with the distributor and with the media, and remains a strange and interesting example of a period piece pic almost 'got right'. Coburn is the best actor there, among Aussie stalwarts... with Maurie Fields being very real. There is far too much swearing.

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.

Although James Coburn's character is called Major Donnenberg in the movie, the person who actually defended Leonski was Ira C. Rothgerber, Jr. He died in 1993 and was one of the greatest Colorado lawyers of the 20th Century.

With the outbreak of World War II, Ira joined the Army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Stationed in the South Pacific and Australia, he served in combat areas and won a Bronze Star. In Australia, he served with another young lawyer from New Jersey, Colonel Bill Powers, whom he convinced to return with him to Denver and join the firm at the end of the war. The firm then became known as Rothgerber, Appel & Powers.

During his service in Australia, Ira was appointed as co-counsel to represent a young, uneducated private accused of the rape and murder of several Sydney women. General MacArthur's command was determined to show the Australians that U.S. soldiers in their country would be held to a strict code of conduct, and the prosecution sought the death penalty. The soldier, William Leonski, was by all accounts mentally deranged and likely insane. Nevertheless, he was found competent to stand trial, and his mental impairment defense-then unprecedented in military courts-was swiftly rejected.

His client summarily tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang, Ira sought an appeal through the military high command. Denied review, Ira dictated by long-distance telephone a petition for stay and certiorari to Denver for transmission to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, before the Court could consider the petition, Leonski was hanged