Red Sun

''Red Sun'' (french: Soleil rouge, it, Sole rosso) is a 1971 Franco-Italian international co-production Spaghetti Western film directed by Terence Young and starring Charles Bronson, Toshirō Mifune, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress, and Capucine. It was filmed in Spain by the British director Young with a screenplay by Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts, and Lawrence Roman, from a story by Laird Koenig. It was released in the United States on 9 June 1972.

Plot

Link Stuart and Gauche are the ruthless leaders of a gang of bandits who rob a train of its $400,000 payload. On the train is a Japanese ambassador on his way to Washington, who has with him a ceremonial tachi meant as a gift for the president. Gauche steals the gold-handled sword and shoots dead one of the ambassador's two samurai guards. At the same time, by Gauche's order, other members of the gang double-cross Link by throwing dynamite into the train car he occupies and leave him for dead. Before the gang departs, the surviving samurai guard, Kuroda, tells Gauche he intends to track him down and kill him, but Gauche is dismissive of the threat.

The Japanese ambassador instructs Link, who was not injured in the attempt to kill him but disarmed, to assist Kuroda in tracking down Gauche. Kuroda is given one week to kill Gauche and recover the sword. If he fails, both Kuroda and the ambassador will have to commit harakiri for losing their honor by allowing the sword to be stolen and the samurai's death to go unavenged. Link reluctantly agrees, but he realizes that Kuroda will kill Gauche immediately, which Link does not want because he knows Gauche will have hidden the loot. Once they set off in pursuit of the gang, Link repeatedly attempts to elude Kuroda, only to be thwarted by the irrepressible samurai.

Sure enough, Gauche and four gang members bury the loot, and then Gauche kills them so only he knows the hiding place. Gauche pays off others, who go their own way, and the remaining gang members stay with him. While tracking Gauche's gang, Kuroda reveals to Link that his samurai values are disappearing and his countrymen no longer value the customs of old. Convinced that the country is changing forever and that the samurai spirit will soon be gone, Kuroda explains that the only way to honor his ancestors and his own way of life is to bring back the ceremonial sword. The two approach a ranch that has been taken over by some gang members, whom they attack and kill, then steal their horses. Link, now armed with guns taken from the gang, can no longer be threatened into doing Kuroda's bidding. He rides away from Kuroda, but has a change of heart and returns to him, having grown to respect the strict bushido code by which Kuroda lives. However, he warns Kuroda that he will kill him if he tries to kill Gauche before Link learns where the loot has been hidden.

Continuing the pursuit, Link decides the best way to get to Gauche is through his lover, Cristina. The duo travel to the brothel where she works in the town of San Lucas, and Link locks her in her room. The next morning, four of Gauche's men arrive at the brothel to fetch Christina. Link and Kuroda kill three of them, and the fourth is sent back to Gauche with the message that the duo has abducted Cristina and will give her to Gauche in exchange for the stolen sword and Link's share of the spoils from the train robbery. The exchange is to take place at an abandoned mission a day's ride away.

Link and Kuroda, on the way to the exchange, have a nonviolent confrontation that compels Kuroda to agree to not kill Gauche until Link has obtained from him the information he seeks. In trying to escape from the duo, Christina rides into the path of some Comanches and kills a warrior who assaults her. In retribution, the leader has her bound and her neck tied with wet rawhide, which will slowly strangle her as the sun dries the strip. Link and Kuroda attack the Comanches, killing many and driving the rest away.

Arriving at the mission, Link and Kuroda are ambushed by Gauche and his men. Gauche, who has the sword with him, tells one of his men to shoot Link, disregarding Cristina's appeal not to do so. Just then, Comanches attack, which forces the ex-partners, Kuroda, Cristina and Gauche's men to fight on the same side. The defenders successfully repel the attacks, first on the mission, then, after it is burned down, in the surrounding cane fields. When the last attack has been countered and the Comanches are dead or have fled, only Link, Kuroda, Cristina and Gauche are alive.

Gauche immediately faces off against Link, who has run out of bullets. Kuroda closes in behind Gauche and prepares to kill him, but remembering his promise to Link, he hesitates. Gauche turns and shoots Kuroda, mortally wounding him; Link seizes the opportunity to grab a rifle from the ground. Gauche is confident that Link will leave him alive to learn where the loot is hidden, but Link, having decided that the dying samurai's honor is more important to him than money, kills him, and promises the dying Kuroda that he will return the tachi to the ambassador. After Kuroda dies, Link rejects Cristina's offer to join her, and later hangs the sword in front of the train station where the Japanese ambassador is arriving, thus eluding capture and fulfilling his pledge.

Cast

Cast notes

Bronson starred in ''The Magnificent Seven'', an American remake of ''Seven Samurai'', in which Mifune had appeared. Film director John Landis has an uncredited appearance as a henchman killed by Mifune's character.

Production

The project was announced in 1968, with Toshirō Mifune attached early on. Ted Richmond Productions was going to make it for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Clint Eastwood was mentioned as a possible early co-star. The film was eventually made by France's Corona Films, headed by Robert Dorfman and Richmond.

Bronson was extremely popular in Japanese theaters at this time, and ''Red Sun'' set an attendance record in Tokyo, playing for a record 35 weeks in its first run engagements.

References

External links

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{{Terence Young

1971 films
1971 Western (genre) films
French Western (genre) films
Spanish Western (genre) films
1970s English-language films
Samurai films
Films directed by Terence Young
Films produced by Robert Dorfmann
Films scored by Maurice Jarre
Films shot in Almería
Italian films about revenge
Spanish films about revenge
French films about revenge
Spaghetti Western films
English-language French films
English-language Italian films
English-language Spanish films
Films with screenplays by William Roberts (screenwriter)
1970s Japanese films
1970s Italian films
1970s French films