Wider Screenings film review - Red Sun (Soleil Rouge) (1971: d. Terence Young)

RED SUN [SOLEIL ROUGE] (1971)
d. Terence Young; pr. Robert Dorfman, Ted Richmond; ph. Henri Alekan; m. Maurice Jarre; ed. Johnny Dwyre; scr. Laird Koenig, Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts, Lawrence Roman; cast. Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress, Capucine (112 mins)

East meets West in International Western

Emerging from such 1960s hits as The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen [Blu-ray], actor Charles Bronson was becoming a box-office star in America.

Such it was that in 1971, the actor was recruited for one of his more offbeat vehicles, Red Sun. Indeed, Red Sun perhaps remains the first and only truly international Western. By the early 1970s, the Italian and European-styled “spaghetti Western” was immensely popular. The hit films of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood in particular were re-defining the genre away from its traditional values and into bleak ambiguity. However, the film that ushered in the Italian Western, Fistful of Dollars [Blu-ray], was inspired by a Japanese Samurai film, Yojimbo (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] , by Akira Kurosawa. Indeed, two other Westerns of the 1960s had been Kurosawa remakes – Magnificent Seven Collection [Blu-ray] (with Bronson) reworking Seven Samurai (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] and The Outrage reworking Rashomon (The Criterion Collection) . This multi-national polyglot of influences – American, Japanese and European – effectively peaked in Red Sun, the first Western to make the internationalization of the once quintessentially American genre part of its deliberate discourse. With European finances and crews, American locations and an international cast it sought to fully examine the East-West cultural amalgam not now by remaking Kurosawa but by building a plot hook around the genuine Samurai as a character type and casting Kurosawa’s favoured actor, Toshiro Mifune.

Synopsis (contains spoilers)

Red Sun makes a point of announcing that it is set during a period of cultural expansion in which Japan and the US established diplomatic ties.

.Shortly, a train carrying the Japanese ambassador and his two Samurai guards is overtaken by a bunch of thieves led by Charles Bronson and Alain Delon. Delon steals a priceless sword from the ambassador, one Samurai dying in the attempt to prevent the theft of this weapon. Furthermore, Delon double-crosses Bronson and leaves him for dead, absconding with the sword and the stolen loot. As Bronson is alive, he is instructed by the ambassador to guide the remaining Samurai (Toshiro Mifune) to Delon so that Mifune can regain the sword. Bronson and Mifune set off on Delon’s trail. As Mifune intends to kill Delon on sight but Bronson needs time with the Frenchman to make him tell where the loot has been hidden, Bronson tries to ditch Mifune. Mifune proves formidable and stubborn and a begrudging respect develops between them. The two make their way to a nearby town and specifically to a brothel run by Bronson’s lover (Capucine). There too is a spirited whore (Ursula Andress) whom Bronson knows that Delon is smitten with. Bronson holds Andress hostage as they now go off to confront Delon. However, Andress manages to escape and ride off into additional trouble – renegade Comanche – and as a showdown with Delon approaches, it seems the Comanche may alter everyone’s plans.

Allusion and the Process of Genre Internationalization

Beneath the playful tone of Red Sun is a curious attempt to internationalize the traditionally hermetic world of the American Western as a genre.

From the outset it expands the familiar generic terrain so as to reference the emergence of America as a political presence in world affairs. Hence, with deliberate irony considering future American-Japanese relations, director Terence Young structures the episodic film as a journey amidst a form of almost allegorical cultural contrast. The casting is knowingly symbolic as the film conflates the conventions of the “loner” as they existed in the respective film cultures being alluded to: hence the taciturn Bronson (one of Magnificent Seven Collection [Blu-ray] after all) is a kind of American rogue, whilst Mifune obviously references the warrior code of feudal Japan and Delon, the star of that French film noir masterpiece aptly titled Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray], is the amoral European sophisticate. Hence, in the contrast between these figures is found a variation on Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging). Correspondingly, Bronson’s playfulness recalls Eli Wallach, Delon has the Lee Van Cleef position and Mifune brings the genre a complete moral circle by playing the Eastwood figure originally based on Mifune himself. Although this slyly deconstructivist gamesmanship propels the film, director Young’s merely competent handling of a middling script threatens to reduce it to a mere novelty.

Once the film establishes its allusions, it seems content to then play out a series of minor variations on traditional Western situations with the novelty of casting alone investing these scenes with anything out of the ordinary.

.Nevertheless, the episodic journey thus becomes a metaphor for the intertwining destinies of the world’s powerful nations as is fought out in the generically imposed battlefield of American popular culture. By reclaiming the Western for all, Young feels that there is more of a chance for a kind of equalization: the American may be the last person standing as it were, but he can only grow through the cultural evaluation and respect gained through the film’s distillation of international affairs. Cultural assessment thus seems Young’s intention here in a view of an America too wrapped in irresponsibility to fully respect another culture or unable to perceive the arrogant worst in who it may choose to associate with. Bronson’s final choices thus culminate this process of cultural discernment – the acquisition of respect and righteous judgment – and the transition of an amoral man into true ethical statement. Aptly for the genre, Bronson’s respect for the cultural “other” develops through the appreciation of masculine prowess – with weapons and with women – so that it is the celebration of macho honour that finally transcends cultural difference and eases the path to a more politically conscious sense of honour.

Common Masculinity Within Cultural Difference

The transfer is available in fullscreen only. It is grainy, indistinct and with a drab colour sense.

Varying landscapes are effectively portrayed, from the desert to the snow-capped mountains, emphasizing the physicality of the journey. Likewise, the final shootout in a wheat / cane field is effective as spectacle. Sadly, Terence Young seems indifferent and coarse and despite the odd movement or angle, the film seems more functional than stylish. Costume stresses the cultural differences between the three performers as a kind of shorthand. On that note, the offbeat presence of a Samurai warrior in full regalia in the Old West is always stressed as the film finally approaches the common masculinity beneath differing cultural trappings – such is the ritualistic nature of set-piece. Young frequently cuts to a hot red sun as a kind of punctuation mark beat and much of the film consists of following two culturally apposite figures journeying together. Reaction shots are important here, particularly those of Mifune – the real fish-out-of-water figure here – as he clearly assesses the culture around him. Indeed, Mifune’s reactions slowly seem to have a catalytic effect on Bronson as if he too is beginning to assess and discern. Nice use is made of the Comanche – an absent signifier through much of the film – and also of Mexican bandits, the two “minorities” neatly completing the film’s multinational cross-section of the American West.

Cultural Diversity & Musicality

The sound transfer is available in Dolby Digital mono only. Although the score is engaging it fails in design to incorporate as much of the distinctive musical diversity of the cultures on display to fully complement the material beyond the functional.

The score is thus much better at the jovial underlining than the international context. The opening sequences make use of a train engine and the rhythms of train motion. Dialogue seems oddly forced here – and Young as a director has been accused of over-directing actors before – although the self-conscious nature of much of the resultant performances manages to impose some analytical distance from the film itself. Some references to ideology, honour and politics recur but such is never allowed to be dominant in what is a film which, almost despite itself, strives more for novelty enjoyment than political message. Diegetic effects are moderate as it is the bizarre collection of accents that again over-stresses the anomaly of this film as a Western. The action scenes feature prolonged stretches of diegetic sound without voices but once again the transfer limits mean that little real aural spectacle is achieved. Amidst routine competence, the concluding emphasis on diegetic action as opposed to dialogue nicely underscores the brief moment of international co-operation needed to stop the common enemy (connoted in rather racist terms – the tradition Mexican and Indian “others”).

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USA DVD PURCHASE INFORMATION: Red Sun
UK DVD PURCHASE INFORMATION: Red Sun [DVD] [1971]

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