Soleil rouge (1971)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Laird Koenig (writer)
Denne Bart Petitclerc (writer)

Release Date:

9 June 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller | Western

Tagline:

2 Desperados ... 1 Hellcat ... and a Samurai ... the greatest fighting force the West has ever known!

Plot:

The Japanese ambassador is travelling through the Wild West by train, when gangsters hold up the train...

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Beautiful Woman | Color In Title | Spaghetti Western | Female Nudity

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Link Stuart
Ursula Andress	...	Cristina
Toshirô Mifune	...	Kuroda Jubie
Alain Delon	...	Gauche, a.k.a. Gotch Kink
Capucine	...	Pepita
Barta Barri	...	Paco (as Bart Barry)
Guido Lollobrigida	...	Mace (as Lee Burton)
Anthony Dawson	...	Hyatt (as Tony Dawson)
Gianni Medici	...	Miguel (as John Hamilton)
Georges Lycan	...	Sheriff Stone (as George W. Lycan)
Luc Merenda	...	Chato (as Luke Merenda)
Tetsu Nakamura	...	Japanese Ambassador (as Satoshi Nakamura)
Jo Nieto
Julio Peña	...	Peppie (as Jules Pena)
Mónica Randall	...	Maria

Also Known As:

Red Sun (USA)
Sol rojo (Spain)
Sole rosso (Italy)
The Magnificient Three (Philippines: English title)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

France | Italy | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor and Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (1990) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1971) | Norway:15 (video rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Portugal:M/18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Les Films Corona

Trivia:

The movie stars U.S. born Charles Bronson, Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune, French actor Alain Delon and Swiss actress Ursula Andress. It was filmed in Spain by the British director Terence Young.

Goofs:

Factual errors: This story takes place around 1870. During the train robbery, several calvary soldiers are shown with foreign type bolt action rifles. The US calvary troops were not issued bolt action rifles during this period, but were equipped with either lever-action Spencer carbines or single-shot Sharps carbines, with single-shot "trap-door" Springield carbines being introduced in 1873.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Shanghai Noon (2000)

An amazing twist to the western genre...

This is possibly one of Charles Bronson's best cinematic performances with the exception of a few of his other films. Albeit the story is a little corny and there seems to be a lot of action going on all the time (which is O.K. with me) this movie really spoke volumes to me. Learning that this film is based on an incident that supposedly happened around 1870, that blew me away alone. A gunslinger, a samurai and a woman who only cares for herself (Ursula Andress) make up for the meat of the cast. A lot of action sequences in this movie and it is a little funny in some spots, Bronson (unusually) provides a lot of the laughs in the film. This movie is incorporating all different types of stuff and it just seems a little to-good-to-be-true type movie, but I really really really liked it! It's not to often that you get to see a gunfighter and a samurai fight on the same side in a "traditional" spaghetti western. Terence Young did a great job on this film. 8 out of 10 stars any day of the week.