The best One in this trilogy of films!!!
agreed. as they progressed, the quality decreased. but i still like the others
I went in with pretty high expectations after reading various comments here but i felt utterly dissapointed when i watched the end credits roll.
I really looked forward to seeing Hill & Spencer in a more serious role. But unfortunately this wasn´t the movie i had hoped for. The main problem was the snail-like pace of the movie. It just took forever to get going and even then so little stuff happens. It´s just alot of flashback scenes and Terence Hill riding around in search of the gold with his amigo Spencer. I was waiting for some shootouts or maybe some good fistfights but i took more then an hour before anything remotely interesting happenend. I also found Frank Wolff grosly miscast as the gang leader he should have stuck to playing more good guy or comical characters. He just felt so out of place as the bad guy. Just the whole vibe and and atmosphere of the movie rubbed me the wrong way somehow.
I sure hope that the other two Colizzi´s are better although judging from most comments it only went downhill after this one. Oh yeah, and what was up with that horrible soundtrack? I´ve rarely heard such an inappropriate soundtrack in a SW movie. I though “Keoma” and “Mannaja” had akward soundtracks but this one takes the cake IMO.
Maybe you’re the first one who thinks that Frank Wolff ain’t good as Bill San Antonio. If not to say brilliant.
He acts well in the role but his role is too talky. The film overall is basically people having long conversations with each other. I have a similar problem with Eli Wallach’s role in Ace High, his acting is brilliant as usual, but he talks too much.
Exactly, to quote Eli himself “When you have to shoot, shoot, don´t talk”. That basically sums up this movie to me. ;D But i seriously i found this movie indeed to be too talky. You have these endless dialogue scenes which really amoung to nothing in the end and which just make this movie a drag to watch.
As for Frank Wolff, i probably prefer him in less serious roles because that how he became known to me. I´ve rarely seen him in a serious role besides “Once Upon a Time in the West” and this one. To me his mostly known for his more light hearted roles. He´s definitly not an bad actor but he just felt out of place as the bad guy in this one IMO.
For me he was one of the best bad guy actors in SWs. I don’t like him that much in other roles.
And the “talking” scenes are mostly the highlights in God Forgives. The ones with Wolff are fascinating. That’s what makes the film working.
For me Bill San Antonio is one of the Great Villains, along with, for instance, Ramon, Sentenza, Tigrero and Frank. I like him even more than El Indio or Major Jackson. I like Wolff as an actor, by the way. He seems to lack the right appearance for a spaghetti western (too big, not the right face, a bit clumsy in his movements etc.), but somehow his presence ‘works’. He has played a variety of types, Irish, Mexican, villains, a sheriff etc. and to me he’s convincing in all roles, even the sheriff in The Great Silence (I know some don’t like him in that movie). However, Bill san Antonio is his best part (but he’ll always be remembered of course as that stubborn Irishman)
Like his role in The Great Silence as the bumbling lawman the best so far.
Yeah, great actor in probably his best role (anyone surprised?)
I also prefer him in villain roles, another great one is in Last of the Badmen.
I think Wolff makes a great villain in GOD FORGIVES–I DON’T! (and I agree with Bill San Antonio that he is great in LAST OF THE BADMEN, as well!).
I am sure I have said this before, but…
In my opinion, GOD FORGIVES–I DON’T! is the best of Colizzi’s films. I like the fact that it has an in-your-face grittiness to it that his other Westerns, ACE HIGH and BOOT HILL, lacked.
I don’t know if anyone will understand what I am trying to say with this, but I think the story in GOD FORGIVES… is like something Dashiell Hammett might have written, if he had written an outright Western in his pulp days.
Since Hammett is my favorite author, I mean that as a sincere compliment to Colizzi’s film.
Yes, Wolff makes the film into what it is… A top film.
He steals with his performace, Spencer and Hill the show.
Just a pity that he died so early. And unfortunately, under tragic circumstances.
Haven’t seen this one for a long time saw it first the VHS days, remember that back then when I rented didn’t like that much, but you know how youth is unwise and reckless, saw the DVD when I bought it, it was also a few years ago, but with a few years over me older and wiser, I appreciated more than in the first view, unfortunately my DVD it’s fullscreen, got a widesreen copy but it’s only in Italian.
I have this problem with Colizzi films never know if I really like them or not, I don’t seem to come up with some sort of conclusion a final statement about them, anyway this one from the triology it’s my favourite, a SW with lot’s of grinta pure SW in it’s essence, even if with some Fellinesque touch which just adds to the quality of the film.
Frank Wolff gives a great performace even if with some influence in style from Eli Wallach (or is just me?), good story fine characters, and some cool scenes …too many people here BANG BANG…For me four stars stuff with no issues.
Love this film. Frank Wolff gives his best performance and the music is great. The plot is riveting enough to keep you focused.
I wonder if Heath Ledger (RIP) was inspired a little bit from Wolff for the Joker role in this film? I kinda got that feeling as I just watched it again for the first time since I’ve seen ‘The Dark Night’. Hmmm…
4 very solid stars for this one.
I finally watched this one, which was the only one missing from the Colizzi trilogy (I actually saw them in reverse order: Boot Hill first, then Ace High and now God Forgives). I’m still not sure if it’s the best, it dragged a bit and felt too talky sometimes but it had a nice atmosphere and great performances. It’s pretty much a tie with Boot Hill for me.
After I finished I went to see Colizzi’s IMDB and found he didn’t get to make many movies before dying which is a shame. I would’ve liked to see what he would’ve done in the 80s, he certainly had talent.
that was also my secret wish - at least he should make another western instead of Piu forte ragazzi
This is probably my favourite SW ever…I really grew up with the Colizzi’s trilogy as well as “A five mans army” and "One reason to live and one to kill"
What to say? I always felt that “God forgives…I don’t” is a gothic, dark movie. I am talking of the italian version that has an incredible, amazing dubbing that is the real magic touch of the movie.
Also somebody feel this movie is very slow…this adds this sense of darkness all over the plot.
It’s a strange feeling, I don’t know how to describe it but it looks like a macabre dream, a grim faiytale (beside the flashback the whole movie is a long trip back in the memory, back to the past, when Terence Hill and Bill Santantonio were friends and buddies)
from the very beginning when the train arrives with its charge of dead bodies (and the continuity becomes faster and faster and you drown into this macabre atmosphere since the very beginning) up to the flashback when Hill meets Wolff.
I always found that Colizzi’s movies are dark, gothic…all of them are mainly shot in the night or have the main actions/events in the night. If you see “Aces high” the whole second part, when they decide to challenge the casino is shot in the night, also “Boot hills” is mainly shot in the night or in dark environments (the circus, where the final scenes are shot is totally dark)…
Dark and slow paced action, along with macabre humor and an original construction of dialogues: talky but concentrated in certain moments only, otherwise carachters are pretty monosyllabic…
Yes…more than many other SW, I really think Colizzi’s trilogy is a very good example of gothic/grim fairytale
Not sure if I would call them gothic, but they surely are dark and grim. Especially God Forgives, but the other 2 also.
God Forgives, I Don’t is one spaghetti western I didn’t want to be disappointed by, but damn I was. I think this was my first Terence Hill & Bud Spencer film, they were fine, but they didn’t exactly win me over. My problem is not with the acting anyway. Three things ; the pacing, the music and more importantly the hodgepodge storytelling. A simple story, not very well told, messiness annoys me. I haven’t read much of the thread, so I don’t know what’s the consensus on it, but I felt the music, while not bad, often progressed in a very jarring way within the same scene and sometime felt out of place altogether, I watched it with a friend and he felt the same way. Not a bad film and I can’t understand why it’s well liked, it’s gritty, violent, atmospheric and the direction is good, but it left me cold.
Frank Wolff was fucking great, though.
actually i find those three things you mentioned as a positives
i saw God Forgives among first SWs and at that time i thought it was good, but nothing special
my rating has raised up after i watched Ace High and Boot Hill (yes, i’m a member of a crazy secret colizzi clan here on SWDB) now all three movies are in my TOP 20
i think i’ve seen God Forgives five or six times now, and i’m never tired of that movie