Rent Red Sun (1971)

Don't bring a sword to a gunfight! - Red Sun review by Count Otto Black

In 1971, spaghetti westerns were all the rage, Charles Bronson, Toshirô Mifune and Alain Delon were A-list stars in their respective countries, and Terence Young had recently directed 3 of the first 4 Bond films. Throw them all into the mix and you've got the ultimate international action movie - right?

Well, maybe not. It's always been a basic fact of Hollywood life that gimmicky westerns are less successful than well-made ordinary ones, and "cowboys vs. samurai" is about as gimmicky as you can get without involving aliens (which, when they finally got around to it, wasn't as successful as everyone had hoped). Spaghetti westerns always lost that indefinable something when they weren't made by Italians. And Japanese actors, however good they may be, tend to be better when they're not required to act in a foreign language.

Toshorô Mifune is rather wooden, but you can't really blame him, since the character he's playing is a one-dimensional stereotype who doesn't call for anything beyond his default "hard man of few words" performance. And Charles Bronson basically just played tough guys, so he's very awkward when delivering all the wisecracks he's landed with here (given the presence of a director and a couple of actors from "Dr. No", I wondered if the part of Link had originally been written for Sean Connery). In fact, it probably would have been better if Bronson had played a ruthless sheriff who somehow winds up in Japan, and Mifune the bragging half-smart bandit he reluctantly teams up with. As for Alain Delon, while he's very convincing as a psychopath, apart from the beginning and the end he's hardly in the film. Instead, we get endless scenes of Bronson and Mifune annoying each other while they gradually bond, complete with irritating "This bit's ZANY!!!" music.

The action, while it's certainly as bloody as you'd expect with swords involved, is a bit flat, sometimes confusing - I often had trouble keeping track of which minor characters were still alive - and there isn't quite enough of it, as if Terence Young assumed that, like Sergio Leone, he could get away with long action-free stretches despite lacking Leone's visual flair and memorable characters. Instead, he uses meaningless spaghetti western tropes, such as having the baddie constantly play with his gold watch because El Indio did that in "For a Few Dollars More", except that Delon's Gotch does it for no reason at all. Clumsy and illogical plot devices, poor characterisation (Ursula Andress is basically there to get tortured more and wear less than she did in "Dr. No"), and a sense that the budget wasn't very high all help to make this film a minor oddity rather than the offbeat classic it might have been with that cast.

Saturday Night Viewing: a pleasure - Red Sun review by AP

Not a great film, but I wanted something to enjoy, and this fitted the bill neatly. There's nothing to add by way of plot synopsis to what already exists on Cinema Paradiso other than to say it rambles along in the way a western trail movie can do. Occasionally it reminded me of 'The Outlaw Josie Wales' in the way it moves from set piece to set piece. For me, this did not detract.

What I really enjoyed were the the two central performances. Bronson seemed to be relaxed and enjoying himself, ditto Mifune. Good to watch them walking: Bronson with his easy stride, Mifune with his characteristic shoulder swagger. And, of course, they are both good in the fight scenes, either between themselves or when tackling their opposition, either the left-handed Gauche and his Mexican bandits or the Comanches. Ursula Andress looks good, but isn't, I'm afraid, much of an actress, and set against Mifune who is terrific at saying so much with his face and his glances, she's something of a disappointment.

Overall, good ol'-fashioned fun.