Red Sun

By the end of the ‘60s, westerns had become truly international. German, Italian, French and Spanish co-productions offered up a grittier version of the Old West than Hollywood could muster at the time. But even European filmmakers knew front-loading your movie with familiar faces meant more worldwide box-office appeal. Which leads us to 1971’s Red Sun, an all-star high-concept affair starring Charles Bronson, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress and Toshiro Mifune in an East-meets-West adventure that attempts to match the U.S. “event movie” vibe with all the sex and violence of European sensibilities.

Forced into helping a samurai (Mifune) retrieve a stolen sword, Link (Bronson) heads off in pursuit of his former partner (Delon) who cheated him out of the proceeds of a recent train heist. Their only lead is Cristina (Andress), Gauche’s lover, who is coerced into joining them in pursuit of the loot…and the Emperor’s missing katana.

Directed in rather bland style by Bond veteran Terence Young, Red Sun isn’t going to bowl you over with the clever camera gymnastics of Leone’s Dollars trilogy or stoic elegance of John Ford’s oeuvre. Young seems content to let his high-profile stars do all the entertaining. And the chemistry between Bronson and Mifune makes for an undeniably fun watch. Japanese culture is the butt of most of the jokes (of course!) but Mifune’s honor-bound samurai comes out on top more often than not. Red Sun keeps the tone light, leaning into a Butch & Sundance repartee one wouldn’t normally associate with its two leads. It’s a crowd-pleaser that feels more like a theme park version of the Old West than the genuine article. But there’s space for feel-good buddy comedies in the genre too.

Arrow’s new release offers up separate Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions with the image looking superb on both, so which you choose depends on your home theater (and financial) setup. The 4K version adds HDR otherwise the extras are all the same: a new commentary track, video appreciate of the global Western phenomenon, visual essay that leans into the code of the samurai, film appreciation featurette, an archival Making Of, interview with Young and Mifune, trailer, image gallery, collector’s booklet and reversible sleeve.

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