"The greatest fighting machine the West has ever known."
In 1870, Japanese ambassador Sakaguchi and his entourage travel by train to Washington to deliver a valuable sword to the President of the United States, a gift from the Emperor of Japan. On board the same train are two robbers, Link and Gauche, ready to make their move…
Charles Bronson
Link
Ursula Andress
Cristina
Toshirō Mifune
Kuroda Jubei
Alain Delon
Gauche
Capucine
Pepita
Barta Barri
Paco
Guido Lollobrigida
Mace
Anthony Dawson
Hyatt
Gianni Medici
Miguel
In 1870, Japanese ambassador Sakaguchi and his entourage travel by train to Washington to deliver a valuable sword to the President of the United States, a gift from the Emperor of Japan. On board the same train are two robbers, Link and Gauche, ready to make their move…
When a train travelling across the United States carrying the newly appointed Japanese Imperial Ambassador is robbed by "Gauche" (Alain Delon) and his gang, they steal a samurai sword that is to be a gift from the Meiji to President Grant. It now falls to the perfectly attired warrior "Jubei" (Toshirô Mifune) to retrieve the weapon and luckily, they have one member of the gang who was accidentally left behind - "Link" (Charles Bronson) - to help. Gradually, the two men (and their cultures) begin to bond and it is soon clear that both men have a grudge against "Gauche". This beef leads them to the brothel of his gal "Cristina" (Ursula Andress) and to a series of frequently quite entertaining combat scenes that allow Mifune to demonstrate his classy - though not always suitable - sword skills and associated flummery. There's quite a fun dynamic between the two principals here, but the film itself is a bit long, slow and it has something of the downbeat spaghetti western to it (Maurice Jarre not Ennio Morricone this time, though). Watchable, Bronson looks like he is enjoying himself, but I'd have to say entirety forgettable fayre with dialogue that is straight out of the "Janet & John" book of third grade screenplay tips.
**A Merging of Western and Samurai Flick** Which weren't too far apart to begin with. A rather good movie too.
When vigilante land baron David Braxton hangs one of the best friends of cattle rustler Tom Logan, Logan's gang decides to get even by purchasing a small farm next to Braxton's ranch. From there the rustlers begin stealing horses, using the farm as a front for their operation. Determined to stop the thefts at any cost, Braxton retains the services of eccentric sharpshooter Robert E. Lee Clayton, who begins ruthlessly taking down Logan's gang.
Bank robber Graham Dorsey spends a few hours with beautiful widow Amanda Starbuck, in which time his gang takes part in a disastrous holdup. Learning of his comrades' demise, Dorsey goes on the lam. Believing her short-term lover was killed by the law, Amanda decides to make the most of having had a liaison with the supposedly deceased desperado by writing a book about him. Much to his confusion, the still-living Dorsey watches as his name becomes legendary.
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
Jake Remy leads a gang of outlaw cutthroats making their escape toward Mexico from a successful robbery. Barring their way is a river--crossable only by means of a ferry barge. The barge operator, Travis, refuses to be bullied into providing transport for the gang and escapes across river with most of the local populace--leaving Remy and his gang behind, desperately seeking a way across. A river-wide stand-off begins between the gang and the townspeople, both groups of which have left people on the wrong side of the river.
A band of Mexicans find their U. S. land claims denied and all the records destroyed in a courthouse fire. Their leader, Louis Chama, encourages them to use force to regain their land. A wealthy landowner wanting the same decides to hire a gang of killers with Joe Kidd to track Chama.
After she's raped by the outlaw trio who murdered her husband, a frontierswoman hires a bounty hunter to instruct her in the ways of a gun in order to exact her revenge.
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
Gunning for revenge, outlaw Nat Love saddles up with his gang to take down enemy Rufus Buck, a ruthless crime boss who just got sprung from prison.
A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who owns much of the old west town named Kingdom Come. But changes are brewing and his past is coming back to haunt him. A surveyor and his crew scouts the town as a location for a new railroad line and a young woman suddenly appears in the town and is evidently the man's daughter.
A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.