A Street to Die

Plot

Colin Turner (Chris Haywood), a Vietnam War veteran, blames Agent Orange for his cancer, and sues for compensation.

Cast

Production

The film was based on the story of Colin Simpson, a Vietnam veteran who had died while trying to claim money from the Repatriation Department. He believed his illness was caused by Agent Orange. Bill Bennett read about the story in the Weekend Australian while working as a TV documentary maker and pitched it to Peter Luck to be made for The Australians but Luck declined. Bennett then decided to turn it into a dramatic feature. He raised the money himself.

The script was heavily based on fact - Bennett says it was hardly fictionalised at all. Colin Simpson's widow was heavily involved in the research and writing. Bennett says he did not really consider the movie an anti-war statement:

I really saw it as being about the blindness of authorities to accept culpability. To that extent, I suppose, it is an anti-war film, but it was more to do with anti-bureaucracy and a very, very strong sense of injustice, that ultimately what was at work here was the possibility that, if a precedent was established, then huge amounts of money would have to be paid out.

The film was shot in the Sydney street where Simpson had lived and in Simpson's old house. The shoot took four weeks.

Release

The film was widely screened at festivals and achieved reasonable success at cinemas. It launched Bennett's career as a director.