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.
| Death of a Soldier | |
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| Directed by | Philippe Mora |
| Written by | William L. Nagle |
| Produced by | David Hannay William L. Nagle |
| Starring | James Coburn Bill Hunter Reb Brown Maurie Fields |
| Cinematography | Louis Irving |
| Edited by | John Scott |
| Music by | Allan Zavod |
| Distributed by | Scotti Brothers Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 million[1] |
The film is directed by Philippe Mora and stars James Coburn, Bill Hunter and Reb Brown.
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.[1]
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.[2]
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, which put a black ban on the film. This meant it was a year before the film was released in Australia.[1]
James Coburn later said, "It wasn't very good. There were a lot of problems with the picture. For one thing we had an auteur producer. He was also the screenwriter. He wrote it too much like a comic strip. We also had a lot of auteurs working on the fucking thing. The director didn't have enough time to prepare it. I was very disappointed by the way it turned out. It was a hellava good story. It's too bad."[3]
Films directed by Philippe Mora | |
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