Thanks for the memories!

Memorable, crazy movie

A lot of fun.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

'Blood River'/'God Forgives I Don't' ('GFID' 1969) (or 'Dio perdona...Io no', 1967), also known in the US as 'God Forgives' & 'Blood River', is an average production with no particular excellent qualities, save for the chemistry of Terence Hill & Bud Spencer. While far from being their most successful film, it is the one that started it all, as 'GFID' is the first of the many Terence Hill & Bud Spencer 'Spaghetti/Trinity' collaborations. Very light on comedy, 'GFID' is a much darker & grittier collaboration in comparison to their future endeavors. Ultimately, this particular DVD version has been characterized by sub par quality digital transfer. Recommended for the die-hard 'Spaghetti Western' lover while highly recommended for Terrence Hill fans, but tepidly recommended for the casual 'Spaghetti Western' enthusiast. For variations on similar theme consider: 'A Fistful of Dollars' (1964); 'Duck, You Sucker' (1971); 'My Name is Nobody' (1974); 'Boot Hill' (1969); 'For a Few Dollars More' (1965); 'Ace high' (1969); 'They Call Me Trinity' (1971); 'Trinity is Still My Name' (1972); 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966); 'Hill's Trinity' (1971); 'Django' (1966); & 'Renegade' (1987). Also consider: 'Super Fuzz' (1980); 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968); 'Crime Busters' (1976); 'Mr Billion' (1974); 'Hannibal' (1959); 'Watch Out, We're Mad' (1974); 'Last of the Renegades' (1964); 'Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure' (1981); 'Support Your Local Sheriff' (1968); 'All the Way Boys' (1972); 'March or Die' (1977); 'Django, Prepare a Coffin' (1968); & 'Cyberflic' (1997).

Before he became a film director, Giuseppe Colizzi served as Federico Fellini's production manager on "The Swindlers." The short-lived Colizzi helmed four of his six films with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Nevertheless, Colizzi belongs to a select handful of distinguished Italian western directors, such as Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Tonino Valerii, and Gianfranco Parolini--who imbued their oaters with an unmistakable aura of flair and style, doubling not only as director but also as writer. The first entry in an overlooked and underrated spaghetti western trilogy, Colizzi's "God Forgives, But I Don't" boasts the numerical distinction of pairing Hill and Spencer together for the first time after a foot injury forced lead actor Peter Martell off the picture. "Ace High" and "Boot Hill" followed. Hill and Spencer went on to achieve greater fame in Enzo Barboni's two "Trinity" features. Before Hill capitalized on comedy westerns and later modern day adventures, he proved himself as gunslinger Cat Stevens, a pistolero who found it just as easy to cross the line between good and evil as fire up a cheroot. Bronzed like a tawny Greek god with a deep masculine voice dubbed in by another actor and displaying admirable restraint in the stoic tradition of Clint Eastwood, Hill proved equally adept at portraying sober dramatic protagonists as well as lightweight, comic leads. Hill and Spencer are evenly matched by seasoned Spaghetti western villain Frank Wolff who resembles Harpo Max with mutton chops."God Forgives, But I Don't" seizes your attention from the start. A crowd awaits the arrival of a train at the railway depot with a brass band. The train trundles into the station, breezes past the surprised on-lookers, and crashes into a barrier at the end of the siding. A dead man with a bullet hole in his forehead tumbles out of the freight car when the door is thrown open. Colizzi presents a swift montage of bullet-riddled bodies and faces to highlight the enormity of the massacre. During the excitement, a wounded passenger stumbles off the train and flees without attracting attention. Eventually, we learn that the murderous outlaw chieftain Bill San Antonio (Frank Wolff of "A Stranger in Town") and his gang of despicable bandits held up the train and stole $100-thousand in gold.Colizzi shifts the action to a poker game. Cat Stevens (Terence Hill of "The Leopard") looks as cool as ice as he gambles with a quartet of hardcases. A dispute arises over who won and a brawl breaks out. Cat whips his adversaries with his fists but in the process trashes the premises. Cat's trademark gesture is pushing a cheroot up and down with his fingers. Later, Cat's friend Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer of "The 5-Man Army") finds him at a remote waterhole and tells him about the MK&T train robbery. Hutch found the sole survivor of the train massacre. Before the passenger perished, he told Hutch about Bill San Antonio's role in the robbery. Hutch describes Bill's clever plan. The outlaws rode 150 miles to the halfway point between El Paso and Canyon City and then rode in circles to make their presence known at that point. The gang turned south then galloped back to El Paso, saw the gold loaded onto the train, bought tickets, and waylaid the train 20 miles from the Mexican border. After they robbed the train, they killed everybody on board and sent the train onto Canyon City.Initially, Cat refuses to believe Bill could have planned and participated in the hold-up. Colizzi flashbacks to a scene in a shack where Bill and Cat squared off against each other in a showdown after Bill's henchman Bud (José Manuel Martín of "The Savage Guns") sets the building ablaze. Cat guns down Bill and Bill's men allow him to leave alive. Later, they come after him and try to kill him. Meanwhile, Bill is never heard or seen again until the MK&T robbery. The bank took an insurance policy out on the stolen money and Hutch plans to find the gold and collect the insurance. He wants Cat to team up with him so they can locate the loot. Not only did Bill San Antonio not die in the fire but he also robbed the train. Garrulous desperado that Bill is, he explains what happened and why. The banker and Bill were in cahoots. When things got too hot, the banker recommended that Bill disappear for a spell. Cat sneaks into Bill's hideout one night, blunders into a trap, and gets strung up by his heels. Nevertheless, he manages to defend himself against his opponents. Hutch intervenes and they steal the $100-thousand dollars in gold.Neither Cat nor Hutch has an easy time holding onto the gold while surviving Bill and his gang. Numerous shoot-outs occur with a take-no-prisoners mentality. Colizzi models loquacious Bill San Antonio after Eli Wallach's Mexican bandit Calvera from "The Magnificent Seven." Bill feels responsible for his cronies and wants to take care of them. Blue-eyed Terrence Hill has the stew beaten out of him and nearly drowns in one scene. Hutch displays his Herculean strength both in fistfights and in shouldering a chest packed with gold. The same friendly rivalry that characterized Trinity and Bambino's relationship in the "Trinity" appears to have been foreshadowed by Colizzi. The final showdown between Bill and Cat takes the shoot-out at the beginning to the next level. Good dialogue, rugged laconic heroes, grimy trigger-happy hooligans, atmospheric settings, Alfio Contini's impressive widescreen photography, and the scenic sun-drenched plains of Spain make "God Forgives, I Don't" a solid, satisfying saga, head and shoulders above the average spaghetti western.

God Forgives...I Don't! (1967) ** (out of 4) Incoherent but violent Spaghetti Western has a train pulling up to a station but everyone on board has been shot and killed and there's also $100,000 in gold missing. Soon Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (their first film together) are trying to track down the gold, which has been buried somewhere in the west. Apparently there are at least two versions of this film out there and the one I watched was the AIP version, which got a theatrical release here in the States back in the day. The studio was known for editing and rearraging foreign films and I'm curious if that's what they did here because the film was really incoherent and didn't make too much sense as if some of the scenes were either edited or moved. Since I haven't seen the foreign version I'm not sure what the case is so I can just review what I watched. As for the film, outside it not making too much sense, it really isn't as bad as some of the reviews that I've read. This is the only film I've seen from the Hill/Spencer team, although I've got more sitting here to watch. I think the two make for an interesting duo but I've read the majority of their films together are more comedy than anything else. This one here is certainly played straight as there are very few laughs and a lot of violence. The opening sequence on the train is wonderfully done as is the following scene where Hill is playing poker against three cheaters. The violence really keeps the film moving even when the story doesn't make too much sense. This isn't the best spaghetti I've seen but I'm sure there are worse out there.

This film is one of many films with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer that I can see over and over again without getting bored. It has a dark attitude and the acting is more serious than the Trinity films but have a light comic touch over it anyway. As all English version of a "Spagetti Western" the voices are dubbed afterwards, with or without the original actors voices. I first saw this film for the first time in the 70's and didn't pay so much attention of the dubbed voices then.When I saw it again for maybe the third time in the late 80's on my VCR, I suddenly realized that it wasn't Terence's voice at all, but a voice of an other actor I've heard many time over the years.Of course it is just a qualified guess from a movie freak, but I'm pretty shure that Terence's voice is replaced by the voice of the English actor Roger Moore.It is the sharp S'es and other characteristics in the voices that is giving him away.There is also some poor attempts to hide the English accent with a vage tone of American-Western dialect.I haven't seen any information yet that says that it is Roger Moore's voice but then again, I haven't seen any information that says that it isn't.If you have "God forgives, I don't" on video cassette or DVD, see it again, close your eyes and picture Roger Moore face/acting instead.What do you think now ?