God's Gun (1977)

People are voting emotionally.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Of the few spaghetti westerns made in the latter half of the 1970s in Italy, this one turned to the infamous Golan/Globus production partnership for backing and thus found itself shooting in Israel. Unfortunately this gives the film a cheap, somewhat hopeless look, where visual spectacle is compromised by cameras which make it look like a television movie and show up all the shoddy special effects for what they are. The plot is also less than riveting, it has to be said, with a lack of decent action and gunfights for the western fan. Instead the central theme of the broken family is actually more interesting than the characters involved, but it doesn't really tie up very well and the script boasts little if any surprises. The film is crying out for decent fight choreography, but for some reason Lee Van Cleef doesn't even get to wield a gun until the very end, which makes for a very un-satisfying production (why hire one of the most famous actor gunslingers if you're not going to use him?).Van Cleef himself takes dual roles in the movie, firstly as an odd-looking priest and secondly as a grizzled gunfighter, the latter being far more accommodating for the actor. Of course the dual role means that Van Cleef can use his identity to fool the bad guys at the end, and for some reason director Gianfranco Parolini deems it necessary to add a silly supernatural-style veneer to the closing moments (Van Cleef appearing in clouds of smoke, with ominous music playing). Many spaghetti westerns dealt with themes of death and ambiguous revenge from beyond the grave, but these elements just seem tacked-on here. Even the final cemetery-set showdown is distinctly lacking in suspense or excitement. Despite the odd roles he is required to act, Van Cleef is still a fine actor putting in a good performance, so no fault there.His nemesis is played by Jack Palance, here acting at the height of the hamminess that would trademark his career during the mid '70s. Palance is not merely overacting here, he seems to have lost it all together, slurring his lines, laughing at nothing, and generally acting like a drunk on screen. Thus his character is more to be pitied than feared and I was left feeling distinctly unimpressed. Another mistake is the inclusion of Leif Garrett, an annoying American child actor from the period, in a major role. Amusingly, Garrett is rendered mute halfway through the movie (the reasons are inexplicable and the event is highly confusing), so we don't have to hear his dubbed voice any longer, thank goodness. Sybil Danning is also on hand, putting in a good performance and surprisingly remaining fully-clothed during the film, although she can't resist showing her breast in a brief flashback sequence.Parolini makes many crude attempts at style during the film, in a bid to emulate Sergio Leone, but these are mainly unsuccessful and pale in comparison to his contemporary, Enzo G. Castellari. The one thing I did like was the circular aspect involving the puppet theatre, which is the only clever thing in the movie. Otherwise this is the same old stuff with different characters and a different, but far too unoriginal, scenario. Watchable stuff that never stops moving, but never reaching any classic moments or providing any real excitement. Good Sunday afternoon viewing then. Maybe.

"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.

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.

The strangest thing of all about this terrible western is that while it has the look feel and especially the SOUND (loud, overdone) of a spaghetti western, most of the talent involved in the top positions were not European, including the director. Also, the three male leads did not sound right. The lead Lee van Cleef, sounded like himself most of the time , but Jack Palance and Richard Boone were dubbed. This is especially clear with Richard Boone who has a very distinctive voice. If someone out there can tell me why you would dub a distinctive sounding American actor's voice into English, please tell me. I liked the plot twist of the twin brother but this is a bad movie. Enough said!