NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Radiance Films Blu-ray (June 2023): Radiance Films have transferred Rudolf Thome's Red Sun to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "High-definition 2K digital transfer overseen by director Rudolf Thome". It's not the sharpest image but is consistent and the colors are surprisingly bright. There are rough textures and few speckles. I'd say it looks quite pleasing overall in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate.

NOTE: We have added 42 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Radiance Films use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. Red Sun has violence but it's fairly passive with gun shots (silencer) sounding flat and more like a pop-gun. The score is credited to Jean Sibelius (the Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods who passed in 1957) but there are plenty of empty pauses with samplings of Tomaso Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor, Small Faces Afterglow (Of Your Love) etc.. Radiance Films offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray offers a select-scene commentary by director Rudolf Thome and Rainer Langhans, a former boyfriend of Obermaier - known as a German writer and filmmaker who had membership in the Kommune 1 movement located in the empty apartment of the author and poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger. They discuss the political and social aspects of the film, the, largely, unprofessional cast and how the film was perceived by viewers / critics. It is in German with optional English subtitles (sample below.) Rote Sonne between Pop Sensibility and Social Critique is a new (2022) 20-minute visual essay by scholar Johannes von Moltke on Red Sun, which looks at the social and cultural influences on the film and provides context for the era in which it was made. From Oberhausen to the Fall of the Wall is a 50-minute visual essay by academic and programmer Margaret Deriaz tracing the development of the New German Cinema from the Oberhausen Manifesto to the fall of the Berlin wall. The package has a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters and a limited edition 52-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Samm Deighan, newly translated archival letters by Wim Wenders, critic Enno Patalas and the German Film Evaluation Office on the film's official submission, newly translated archival interview with Rudolf Thome and an overview review. This is a limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of logos and markings.

Rudolf Thome's Red Sun stars Ursula "Uschi" Obermaier who was a former fashion model and actress associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. She is considered an iconic sex symbol of the "1968 generation" and the mass student protests of that year that created lasting changes in West German culture. The German-made film evokes both Godard's wandering political playfulness and Wenders 'New German Cinema' work. There are blatant feminist overtones with a group of, mostly, braless babes (Obermaier, Marquard Bohm, Diana Körner, Sylvia Kekulé and Gaby Go) making a pact to murder their lovers within five days. It's quite interesting with the mini-skirt fashions, colors and contrasting Sibelius (from "Karelia Suite") orchestration and other music. I liked the matter-of-fact coldness of the violence and the hip 60's vibe of the entire film. A real time-capsule of that era. I'm sure not to everyone's tastes but I was very happy with my the Radiance Films Blu-ray viewing. The extras certainly helped my appreciation with a historical context of the film. Absolutely recommended to the appropriate cinema crowd.

Gary Tooze