God's Gun

1977 "Two Brothers... One Took the Cross... The Other Took the Gun."
4.9| 1h37m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 March 1977 Released
Producted By: The Cannon Group
Country: Italy
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Priest turned vigilante Father John hunts down a gang of criminals, led by Sam Clayton, who killed a man in a local bar. On the gang's return to the town, they kill the priest, leaving a young parishioner Johnny behind. He now seeks revenge for the death of the holy man.

Genre

Action, Western

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Director

Gianfranco Parolini

Production Companies

The Cannon Group

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God's Gun Audience Reviews

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
TheLittleSongbird Unfortunately for God's Gun that is not meant in a good way. God's Gun is not an awful film but at best it's mediocre, with talented people on board and some great ideas on paper it could have been a good film but the potential is not properly used.God's Gun has its merits with the film having some gorgeous scenery and well-tailored costumes(Lee Van Cleef's wig is just atrocious though). The music score is derivative of Ennio Morricone somewhat but it's a clever, atmospheric one that suits the film well. A few performances are decent, the best being from a charismatic and intensely steely Lee Van Cleef in a double role. Sybil Danning doesn't have much to do but she does bring compassion and heart to her character and to the film. Apart from acting like he was drunk in the final scene, Jack Palance is an entertaining villain, he does bring a menace to the role but an enjoyable hamminess too.Most of the acting however is very weak. Leif Garrett's Johnny really fails to engage, in some scenes he overdoes it and in others he appears completely disengaged, while the secondary and extra roles look under-rehearsed. But in the acting stakes the biggest disappointment was the complete waste of Richard Boone, his character is barely in the film and Boone sleepwalks his way through it. The amateurish dubbing doesn't help, for most of the actors dubbed the voices do not fit the actors or the characters, the worst offenders being for Boone and in the church scene towards the end, it's even out of sync with the mouth movements and in a sloppy way. Nor do the uninteresting caricatures that passes for characters(only Van Cleef's vengeful brother character intrigues a little) or the stilted script which also has a lot of padding and corny melodrama. There were some great ideas in God's Gun but not much interesting is done with them in the storytelling, a lot of it having a muddled and trying-to-do-too-much effect, with an embarrassingly overwrought ending and overlong, unneeded and overdone rape scenes(especially the one in the saloon). God's Gun is stodgily paced and apart from the scenery it does look as though it was made on the cheap, the camera work was distractingly bad with jerky movements and shots that are too wide and too long in places, at its worst at the end which was enough to make one sea-sick.Overall, not awful but strange and rather mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Wizard-8 "God's Gun", along with the following year's "Kid Vengeance" was the last time Lee Van Cleef appeared in the western genre. (The two movies were probably filmed back to back.) In this western, Van Cleef is supported by a once in a lifetime supporting cast, with Sybil Danning, Leif Garrett, Jack Palance, as well as Richard Boone (though Boone's appearances barely make up one solitary minute of the running time.) You might think a western with this cast would be a lot of fun, but for the most part it isn't. Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus obvious didn't command polishing of the screenplay, since the finished product is filled with questions that aren't answered for a long time (like with Garrett's character becoming mute for a long time), or aren't answered at all (when Van Cleef's preacher character has the drop on the bad guys early on, why is only one of them put in jail? And when Garrett's character flees the area on horseback later, why is he later without a horse?) The biggest problem with the screenplay, however, is that there is a lot of obvious padding. Had the movie been shortened here and there for fifteen to twenty minutes, it would have run a lot smoother. The musical score isn't bad, but you don't watch a movie just for the music. In the end, the movie is strictly for Van Cleef and/or spaghetti western fans, and even they may be annoyed by the movie's shortcomings.
martimus98 God's gun is the epitome of the poorly written, poorly directed, poorly produced spaghetti-type western. Yet in the face of this it actually succeeds The movie stars Lee van Cleef in a dual role, Jack Palance in a single role, Richard Boone in very little role, Sybil Danning in her best kind of role, and Leif Garrett in a fairly lackluster role.The movie tells the story of two brothers, both skilled with guns. One follows a divine path. The other follows a more mercenary path. Father John helps turn brother Louis from a path of gambling and destruction. When Father John is bushwhacked by a group of bad guys led by Jack Palance, Louis returns from Mexico to get revenge on his brothers killers. Does he follow his former path? Of course not... he don's his brothers cloak and hat and gets his revenge the old fashioned way.I've read numerous accounts blaming much of this movies shortcomings on overacting, underacting, poor cinematography, and numerous other reasons. In my opinion the actors were simply following the directors direction. The director, in turn, was following the path provided him by the producers... those wonderous schlock merchants, Golan and Globus.. These guys put the "B" in "B" movie! Personally I enjoyed this movie for what it was... a short diversion into a movie so lifeless it lives... and so bad it's good! They don't make movies like this anymore! Some days, however, I wish they did.
lastliberal Once I saw this was a Golan and Globus production, I knew I was in for some real action. I didn't even know they did westerns, and I was initially thrown off by director Gianfranco Parolini's pseudonym of Frank Kramer. But closer inspection reveled this to be a spaghetti western done with Italian and Israeli casts and crews. What was I in for? The cast was the main attraction: First, there was two-time Oscar nominee and Oscar winner (City Slickers) Jack Palance. Now I know there is going to be some major league craziness here, and I wasn't disappointed. he was off the charts with his comic gunslinger. Then, we have Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) playing a duel role. You might have even thought this a zombie western - the bad guys certainly did.We mustn't overlook Sybil Danning (Chained Heat) who managed to give us a peak at her right breast as she was recalling a rape that produced her son (Leif Garrett). There was some real excitement as we wondered if Johnny would find out who his father was.Richard Boone ("Have Gun Will Travel") was a drunken sheriff, and Pnina Rosenblum was a strange dance hall girl named Chesty, who provided some adult conversation. I say strange as she was a Member of Knesset in Israel until a couple of years ago. Do they know her past? It doesn't have a great script and the production values are typical of spaghetti westerns, but it was an interesting story and we just don't see too many adult westerns.