Highly Overrated But Still Good

best movie i've ever seen.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Dear God, really, what happen to this movie! It looks like everybody has a really bad sunburn or it's a Western film with Oranges. Everything is so bright. My copy of the film is discolored as hell and what I heard is I'm not the only one. The image quality of the movie is poor. I haven't found a great copy of the film. God's Gun also known as Diamante Lobo and A Bullet from God in some recopies is a Spaghetti-Western that is directed by Gianfranco Parolini or as credited in the American version as Frank Kramer. The movie was filmed in Israel, so this makes this another Matzoh Ball Western starting Spaghetti western legendary actor Lee Van Cleef and 1970's pop star Leif Garett who also started in Joseph Manduke's Kid Vengeance, a year later. Instead of being rivals, in this movie, Leif Garett stars as Johnny, a fatherless kid who takes turn helping run the local church with Father John (Lee Van Cleef) and then the local Saloon, with his mother (Sybil Danning). In a way, both jobs serve a purpose to the plot. It became clear that the theme of the jobs in the film is to show that the boy has to balance his life from serving what's good or entering a life of vice. It's become more a complex conflict for the boy, when a malicious group of bandits enter the town, and start making a scene at the Saloon, leaded by Sam Clayton (Jack Palance). Jack Palance felt like he was challenging his inner evil Jack Nicolson here. Palance is funnier than usual. He is brilliant in the role. He plays the bandit leader very well to the point that I wouldn't wait for the final showdown between Father John and Sam Clayton. Without spoiling too much of the film, both are fighting for the body and soul of the boy, literally. Great story. It illustrates that pacifism is unrealistic, even for Christians. Lee Van Cleef plays double roles in this film as both Father John and his brother Lewis, aka Diamante Lobo. When Father John is shot, his brother, to come north and settle the score. As it turns out, of course, the matter becomes a little more complicated as the gang can't tell the different between the priest and Diamante Lobo. This mysterious spirituous sub-plot gave the movie some deeply needed entertainment. I love how the film makes Diamante Lobo look like somewhat a revengeful fallen angel out to get the gangs for their sinful acts. Diamante Lobo was a bit creepy in this film. I honestly did the hokey 'Ahh' sound whenever Diamante Lobo shown up in the scene to confront an enemy. It's pretty awesome. Reminds me of the sound that came with Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy. I didn't mind the somewhat laughable wig, he was wearing and him talking to himself as another person. I have to say, Richard Boone as the Sheriff is just awful. Richard Boone walked off the film before it was completed leaving his role to be dubbed by another actor that doesn't sound like him. The reason why based by him is because the producer is an Israeli and the director is Italian and deaf, and they both don't speak. The mute thing is kinda silly. In fact, everyone in this film is dubbed by someone else, so it sounds nothing like the actors. The movie is full of action with a death count of 20. I love the over-acting when they get shot. It's full of those one shot kills that is pretty dumb. There is a few good supporting characters. The women are hated objects of lust and the men are just dogs. While, the rape scenes are tame. The movie makes it looks like they were just having fun rather than brutal. It makes it look like you can get away with attempt rape. The editing is pretty bad, as the scenes tend to go way too long, even when there is nothing going on the screen. There is a lots of tilted angles and zooms that wasn't needed. The flashbacks were blurry, and wasn't needed. I did dig the song of the last flashback scene in the movie. The music by Sante Maria Romitelli was pretty good, even if it's sounds like a bunch of hyenas laughing their head off. This is rated R for physical violence, gun violence, strong sexual violence, gore, some profanity, brief female nudity, brief male nudity, and sexual references, but it's pretty tame. Trust me. It's mostly PG-13 in these days, standards. The movie is widely available as a cheap public domain DVD. So it's easy to find in a dollar bin or find on the Internet. An astonishingly so bad, it's good film. Still, worth watching so amen to that.

"God's Gun" AKA "Diamante Lobo" (1976), which is directed by Gianfranco Parolini, who made the hugely successful Spaghetti Westerns: "If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death" (1968) and "Sabata" (1969), is actually a much better film than most people say it to be. Firstly, there is a very interesting performance from Lee Van Cleef, who plays two roles: a priest and a retired gunfighter! The great Jack Palance, while his own voice has been dubbed over, is still an effective villain and Leif Garrett who plays Johhny is quite good for a child actor. The direction is well done, with several neat tricks and the photography is uniformly excellent, especially the final "framing" shot. While it might not be as good as a Spaghetti Western like "Any Gun Can Play" (1968), it is better than "This Man Can't Die" (1967). A highly recommended movie.

Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, Richard Boone. How could this movie miss. It missed and it missed Big Time. Bad production, Bad Direction, Hilariously Bad acting. Richard Boone was dubbed. Not sure if Lee Van Cleef was dubbed. Bad Cinematography. It is night no then it is day. it is cloudy then it is not. Who camps in the middle of a road?We are told that Lewis (a major character) is in Mexico. Does the Director,producer, anybody else involved in this production know how big Mexico is? We are then led to believe a kid will find this Lewis person in 2 days. The kid just happens to ride to the correct town on the 1st try. And on it goes. I need to mention Bad camera work, oh I mentioned that. It is worth mentioning again, Bad camera work. Oh and bad directing. Wrong score for this film. Two pieces matched, the rest belonged in some other type of movie, not a western. The director should be shot!

This film is not as bad as it seems, considering few people heard about it and it has two titles G-d's Gun and Diamante Lobo, which will mix you up. The story is better than most spaghetti westerns, about a priest (Van Cleef) who is killed. So Van Cleef is the good guy, Jack Palance the bad one and Richard Boone the sheriff who does not want any trouble. Sybil Danning is the saloon girl with a good heart. So besides the story, the actors are good, so what goes wrong? In my opinion, the shootouts which are poorly made trying to make up with the sound and slow motion what it lacks in the technical aspect. It took me a long time to decide to see this film and I could not stop watching it after I started. I ended up liking it.