Death of a Soldier

Death of a Soldier
VHS cover
Directed by	Philippe Mora
Produced by	David Hannay William L. Nagle
Written by	William L. Nagle
Starring	James Coburn Bill Hunter Reb Brown Maurie Fields
Music by	Allan Zavod
Cinematography	Louis Irving
Edited by	John Scott
Release dates	1986 (1986)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	$4 million

Death of a Soldier is a 1986 Australian film based on the life of American serial killer Eddie Leonski. The film was shot using locations around Melbourne, Victoria.

The film is directed by Philippe Mora and stars James Coburn, Bill Hunter and Reb Brown.

Production

The idea of making the film came from William Nagle who wrote a screenplay to produce himself; David Hannay came on board as co-producer. Dick Richards was originally meant to direct but then Philippe Mora became involved. Mora and the producers wanted to import Americans to play three roles, Leonski, his best friend Gallo, and lawyer Danneberg; Actors Equity only agreed to two.

At one stage it was announced that the movie would be called Leonski and be shot in August 1981 with Don Lane as a US Army major.

The budget was originally meant to be $3 million but this was found to be inadequate during shooting and additional funds had to be raised. To save money the shooting schedule was reduced; some of the crew complained to the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees' Association, who put a black ban on the film. This meant it was a year before the film was released in Australia.

See also

• Cinema of Australia

External links

• Death of a Soldier at IMDb
• Death of a Soldier at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Death of a Soldier at New York Times
• Death of a Soldier at Oz Movies