Any film which features an unusual plot and a nude scene from Ursula Andress can't be all bad, but in most other departments Soleil Rouge (known in English-speaking countries as "Red Sun") is a disappointment. The director Terence Young may have made three successful Bond movies, but the rest of his career was littered with mediocre-or-worse films like The Christmas Tree, The Klansman, Inchon and The Jigsaw Man. This is another example of Young under-achieving as a film-maker.<br /><br /> In 1870, a locomtive makes its way through the Wild West. Aboard is a small band of Japanese travellers, heading for Washington with a valuable sword which they are to present to the President as a gift from the Emperor of Japan. An outlaw, Link (Charles Bronson) and his gang storm the train and steal various valuables, including the afore-mentioned blade. However, one of Link's accomplices, Gauche (Alain Delon) steals the loot for himself, almost killing Link in the process. A samurai warrior, Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune) sets out to retrieve the sword. Link joins him, hoping that he can catch up with his double crossing partner and exact his revenge...<br /><br /> The film is a real mongrel of a movie. Backed by French, Italian and Spanish financers; directed by a Brit; and starring American, Japanese and Swiss leading actors, it is hardly surprising that it seems to draw its inspiration from a muddled patchwork of influences. For a while, the unusual plot threatens to develop into something really interesting. The fusion of western conventions and samurai movie conventions is initially intriguing too. However, pretty quickly the whole thing slips into overly familiar cliches and it is barely helped by somewhat tedious pacing and supporting actors with such heavy accents that it is hard to tell what they are saying much of the time. Red Sun could have been - perhaps should have been - a good movie, but what it emerges as is, unfortunately, rather a waste of a good idea.