COWBOYS, INDIANS.SAMURAI (OH MY!) - "RED SUN"

Red Sun (1971)       Once again, BQ will resist the urge to call for all of us to bow our heads in fond remembrance of the long gone International Co-Production.......

                  Cause I think I've done that in God knows how many other posts......

                  Yes, I'm lucid enough (some times) to realize how junky they were........but damn, weren't they fun?

                    How else would you see a cast like this together in one movie - Charles Bronson, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress, Capucine, Bond villain Anthony Dawson......and (wait for it).....Toshiro Mifune???

                     In a western, no less??  Scored by Maurice Jarre? And directed by Bond veteran Terence Young?

                     By the time "Red Sun" came along, the International Co-Production was past its 1960's Golden Era........most of the popular junk-genres (giallos, Mafia bloodbaths, assorted horror and war) were putting down roots in Italy exclusively.

                     "Red Sun" stands out in this 'twilight' period for its irresistible High Concept premise.......a samurai turned loose in the Wild West.  And not just any samurai. We're talkin' no less than Toshiro effin' Mifune!! 

                     .........swinging that wicked curved blade and turning Cowboys 'n Indians alike into freshly carved lunchmeat. Pulp Cinema heaven on earth........

                    I wish I could say this movie's every bit as entertaining as it promises to be.......with wisecracking outlaw Bronson and eternally stoic Mifune joining unlikely forces to hunt down suave, cold-eyed frontier sociopath Delon.

                   Alas, no. It suffers from the usual Co-Production-itis......a re-recorded English soundtrack that makes the supporting actors sound like they've been replaced by loud radio announcers selling used cars.

                    And oddly, for a Euro-based Western, it's missing those wonderful exaggerated gunshot sound effects, similar to cannon fire.  The "Red Sun" guns sound like the cheap toy cap pistols that my friends and I use to fire off at each other when we were 6 years old.

                    Still, there's plenty of stuff to dig in and enjoy here........early on, director Young flirts with the usual nihilistic spaghetti-western violence,,,,(Delon shoots a hapless U.S. Cavalryman as a practical joke for quick giggles.)

                     But then the film mostly settles down to the odd coupling of Bronson and Mifune. In a rare change of pace for him, Bronson clearly enjoys himself as a sarcastic rogue.......and the script gifts him with the film's best exchange: after a Mifune tirade in Japanese, Bronson cracks, "I don't know what that was all about but it sounds like it came from the heart."

                     By the time the final battle rolls in, you don't even mind the sloppy filmmaking (Delon's minion, Anthony Dawson pops up alive and well after taking an arrow in the back during the previous scene,,,,)  And as icing on the cake, there's the typically sing-songy theme from Maurice Jarre, whose music you could identify even if his name never appeared on the credits.

                    Clumsy and flawed in its co-production chaos, "Red Sun" is still never less than fun all the way through. So BQ'll fire off 3 cap pistol stars (***).......(and you won't want to miss Toshiro Mifune dealing with a frontier mosquito....)