Subdeacon Joe Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Red Sun with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune. I tuned into it on AMC to make sure I would catch all of "The Horse Soldiers" and was treated to the sight of a samurai hiding in a field of rushes, being hunted by Indians, and helping American west outlaws in the climactic final fight. My brain hurts. Red Sun is a Western film, one of few with an international cast. It stars U.S.-born actor Charles Bronson, Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune, French actor Alain Delon and Swiss actress Ursula Andress. It was filmed in Spain by the British director Terence Young. It was released in Europe in 1971 and in the U.S. in 1972. Link Stuart (Bronson), is a ruthless outlaw, and co-leader (along with Gauche (Delon)) of a gang of bandits. Link and Gauche lead their gang on a successful train robbery, and discover that one of its cars carries a Japanese ambassador, who is bringing a ceremonial katana (sword) as a gift for President Ulysses S. Grant. Gauche takes the sword, and kills one of the two samurai guards, while members of his gang attempt to murder Link by throwing dynamite into the train car he occupies, then leaving him for dead. The surviving Japanese delegation rescues Link, and the ambassador instructs him to assist Kuroda (Mifune) in tracking down Gauche so that he may kill him and recover the sword and his honor. Kuroda is given one week to fulfill this task, or commit seppuku. Link reluctantly agrees, but he realizes that Kuroda will kill Gauche immediately, before he is able to extract the location of the stolen loot. Link repeatedly attempts to elude Kuroda, only to be thwarted by the irrepressible samurai. While tracking Gauche's gang, the duo encounter several obstacles, and Kuroda reveals that his samurai values are disappearing as his countrymen no longer value the customs of old. Link gains a measure of respect for the strict bushido code Kuroda follows, and eventually comes to an agreement with the samurai that Gauche will not be killed before he reveals the location of the stolen money. The duo eventually abduct Gauche's woman, Cristina (Andress) who leads the men to Gauche and his gang. In the ensuing fight, Kuroda is mortally wounded, and a disarmed Gauche tries appealing to Link's greed. Link decides that the dying samurai's honor is more important to him than learning the location of the stolen money, so he kills Gauche. Just before Kuroda expires, Link promises him that he will return the katana to the Japanese ambassador. He does so, thus preserving Kuroda's honor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 No weirder than Kung Fu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 No weirder than Kung Fu. Isn't that about like saying "No gayer than Liberace"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 At one time, GAY was a very nice word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang, SASS #53480 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 I saw it in a movie theatre in Minneapolis the summer I lived there in 1972. Wierd but watchable. Have no desire to see it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Isn't that about like saying "No gayer than Liberace"? C'mon fess up. You know you watched Kung Fu. We all did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 At one time, GAY was a very nice word. Note how Grant uses it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8U6aUPW48 That argues that it was at least a moderately well know euphemism for homosexual. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 Cite This Source Word Origin & History gay 1178, "full of joy or mirth," from O.Fr. gai "gay, merry" (12c.); cf. O.Sp. gayo , Port. gaio , It. gajo . Ultimate origin disputed; perhaps from Frank. *gahi (cf. O.H.G. wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. Meaning "brilliant, showy" is from c.1300. OED gives 1951 as earliest date for slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.), but this is certainly too late; gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang;" the term gey cat ( gey is a Scot. variant of gay ) was used as far back as 1893 in Amer.Eng. for "young hobo," one who is new on the road and usually in the company of an older tramp, with catamite connotations. But Josiah Flynt ["Tramping With Tramps," 1905] defines gay cat as, "An amateur tramp who works when his begging courage fails him." Gey cats also were said to be tramps who offered sexual services to women. The "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S. female impersonator Will S. Hays. The word gay in the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back to 1637. Gay as a noun meaning "a (usually male) homosexual" is attested from 1971. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 C'mon fess up. You know you watched Kung Fu. We all did. Didn't say I didn't watch it. Still kind of a fun show if you can find the reruns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Joe, put the dictionary down and back away. Our Hearts were Young and Gay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 Joe, put the dictionary down and back away. Our Hearts were Young and Gay From my cold dead hands, Bob! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spooky Joe, SASS #24061 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Maybe something's wrong with me but I enjoyed this movie. Toshiro Mifune has been in many movies and almost always give a credible performance. A bit different than the usual western but believable. A good meld of West and East. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Cherokee, SASS#48332 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 That movie came out at the height of the Martial Arts movie craze in the 70's..At the time it seemed cool, but I tried to watch it more recently and got bored.. But WAYYY better than those "import" martial arts films where the actors would be jumping over 30 foot walls, sticking to the ceilings like flies, and the voice track would be even more out-of-sync with the actor's actual dialog than the cheap Spaghetti Westerns! And I was one of those who liked "Kung Fu"..I was still in high school at the time, and I remember when on either Wed. or Thurs. night, the lineup would be "Gunsmoke" (the 70's version), "Kung Fu", and "The Waltons"..Good days, those.. I also remember one of the more profound things I ever saw scribbled on a bar bathroom wall was: "Remember when gay meant happy?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Hand Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Then there's always "The Good, The Bad and The Weird". A Korean "western" that takes place in Mongolia in the 1930s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texas cowboy Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Then there was also---"The Good, The Bad and The Accadimy Awards" Not much fer plot, but man did it have lots and lots O Wimin in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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