Themes: Obsessive Quests, Culture Clash, Fish Out of Water
Main Cast: Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon, Capucine
Release Year: 1971
Country: IT/FR
Run Time: 130 minutes
Plot
In what was billed as "The First East-Meets-West Western," Toshiro Mifune plays Kuroda, a samurai warrior who accompanies a Japanese diplomat to the United States. The diplomat has brought with him a golden, jewel-encrusted sword to present as a token of good will to the president, but as they travel by train through the west, they're ambushed by a pair of outlaws, Gauche (Alain Delon) and Link (Charles Bronson). Gauche and Link steal the sword, but Link leans the hard way about his partner's trustworthiness when Gauche double-crosses him and makes off with the booty. Since both Kuroda and Link have a grudge against Gauche, they warily join forces to track him down and return the sword to its rightful owner. Along the way, they have to deal with cultural conflict, Indian attacks, and encounters with beautiful women (played by Capucine and Ursula Andress). Given its cast and theme, Red Sun was predictably enough a major box-office success in Europe and Japan, but it passed through with little notice in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Barta Barry; Georges Lycan; Satoshi Nakamura; Jose Nieto; Julio Pena; Guido Lollobrigida; Anthony Dawson
Credit
Enrique Alarcon - Art Director, Tony Pulo - Costume Designer, Terence Young - Director, Johnny Dwyre - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Jarre - Musical Direction/Supervision, Alberto de Rossi - Makeup, Henri Alékan - Cinematographer, Ted Richmond - Producer, Robert Dorfmann - Producer, Rafael Salazar - Set Designer, Karl Baumgartner - Special Effects, Laird Koenig - Screenwriter, Denne Bart Petitclerc - Screenwriter, Lawrence Roman - Screenwriter, William Roberts - Screenwriter, W. Roberts - Screenwriter
Red Sun is a film in the western genre with an international flavor. It starred the U.S.-born Charles Bronson, the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, the French actor Alain Delon and the Swiss actress Ursula Andress. It was filmed in Spain by the British director Terence Young. It was released in Europe in 1971 and in the U.S. in 1972.
The plot revolved around the attempts, by Mifune's and Bronson's characters, to regain a ceremonial samurai sword which is stolen by Delon's bandits at the beginning of the film. This film introduced the traditional ways (though somewhat distorted by the scriptwriters) of the samurai to some in the western audience.
