Red Sun comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 19th October and is one of the wildest, and weirdest westerns ever made, where a cowboy and a samurai team up on a revenge mission.

With a cast made up stars from America, Japan, France and Switzerland, directed by a Brit who brought James Bond to the screen and written by the scriptwriter of The Magnificent Seven Red Sun is a buddy movie with gratuitous violence and nudity. It’s rated by no less an authority than Quentin Tarantino as one of the best spaghetti westerns ever made, alongside the likes of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars.

Charles Bronson and Alain Delon are robbers who hold up a train and steal a shipment of gold, and a samurai sword the Japanese ambassador was to present to the president. When Bronson is double crossed by his partner, he joins forces with the ambassador’s sole remaining samurai guard, Toshiro Mifune, to hunt down his treacherous Delon.

Bronson, Delon, Andress, Mifune are...

Red Sun certainly has an eclectic cast – Hollywood hard man Charles Bronson from Once Upon a Time in the Westand The Dirty Dozen plays The Gunfighter: He made the land run red under a blood-stained sun!

French crime film superstar Alain Delon from Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge plays The Outlaw: He killed for money, for women and for excitement! Sex symbol Ursula Andress, famous for that iconic beach scene in Dr No plays The Tigress: She had the weapons to handle any kind of man! And Japanese screen legend Toshiro Mifune from Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood plays The Samurai: He bought a new kind of weapon to the West! Together they were billed as ‘The greatest fighting force the West has ever known.’ It’s an audacious line up that works beautifully.

The Bond Connection

Director Terence Young made the very first Bond film, Dr No, in 1962, and went on to make From Russia With Love and Thunderball. This was the second of three films Charles Bronson would make in a row with Young (including Cold Sweat and The Valachi Papers), before Bronson would team up with Michael Winner, first for westerns and then the infamous Death Wish films.

Editorial Notes

Better known as Soleil Rouge, Red Sun was an international co-production, filmed in Spain, and was a big hit in Europe and Japan. It was known as The Magnificent Three when it was released in the Philippines. It would be referenced in the box office hit Shanghai Noon starring Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan in 2000, about a cowboy teaming up with a Chinese imperial guard.

The film’s memorable score was by Maurice Jarre, who composed music for over 150 films, including Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Ryan’s Daughter, Witness and Dead Poet’s Society.

Director John Landis (Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London) makes an uncredited appearance as a henchman. “Toshiro Mifune kills me,” Landis says of his role, “puts a sword through me!”

BD Technical Details:

Feature Running Time: 115 mins approx / Feature Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 / Region B / HD Standard 1080p / 2.0 Mono DTSHD Master Audio / Colour / English / HOH Subtitles

DVD Technical Details:

Feature Running Time: 110 mins approx / Feature Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 / Region 2 / 2.0 Mono / Colour PAL / English / HOH Subtitles

Copyright line:

© 1971 STUDIOCANAL Oceania Produzioni Internazionali Cinematografiche S.R.L. Diagonal Films. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by STUDIOCANAL LIMITED. Artwork ©2015 STUDIOCANAL LIMITED.