God’s Gun / Diamante Lobo (Gianfranco Parolini, 1976)

[tomas]

I watched it and learned.
Now, let me use the blueprint of @stanton’s critique to save some time.

@stanton

No, it is a total bore, a film as bad as many Fidanis.

Well, I must say, I haven’t find a single boring scene in it. Fidanis wise, I have seen only 1 and 1/2 fidani, so I’m not that qualified to judge this, but those were a lot worse than Diamante lobo.

Next:

@stanton

The best part about the film was … that I watched the wonderful opening scene, with the puppet theatre and the laughing kids accompanied by great music, again and again.

Yes, a great opening scene, I agree, pity, that it lasts for about 30 seconds.

@stanton

The rest of the film is a helpless mess with most of the participants giving their worst.

I disagree on this. Why mess? It follows a certain story, yes, there are some elements that could be told better, but I didn’t have any problem knowing what’s going on.

@stanton

Not easy to decide what’s the worst aspect:

The unimaginative directing?

It’s not that bad imo, there’s a lot of ideas which are imaginative. LVC’s revenge without using any weapons, just the tricks to push the enemies against themselves. The flashbacks are also interestingly directed. The relationship between kid and LVC No.1 & LVC No.2 works well for me. The 70s hairdos. Kid killing a bandit in Treasure Island fashion. Palance murdering his men.

@stanton

The dull acting?

Come on. Israeli hippies tried as hard as they could.

@stanton

The unatmospheric sets and costumes?

Yes, costumes are a bit of a letdown. But landscape is fine by me. I especially like setting in which LVC No. 1 surprises sleeping bandits.

@stanton

The lousy photography?

It could be better, yes, but lousy is a bit too strong in my opinion.

@stanton

The shitty action scenes?

Well, it’s 50/50. Some shitty, some good. Okay, maybe 60/40.

@stanton

Jack Palance?

I’m really sorry for Jack Palance, who at this time was maybe at the nadir of his career, and he seems to know it, only indifferently repeating his evil grinning baddie routines, walking through the film like a zombie.

But he always walks like a zombie.

@stanton

And what’s about Richard Boone? He simply disappears after 20 min

Actually, he disappears after 33 minutes. Gotcha.

@stanton

Then there’s the kid.

Yes, I like these type of kid roles as much as most of you do, even if this one is by far not the worst of them.

Kid’s alright, didn’t mind him. I know. How surprising of me.

@stanton

Lee van Cleef. Oh, he’s ok, quite ok. Only in the wrong movie.

No. It’s wrong movie in Lee Van Cleef.

@stanton

I liked the main theme of the score.

Yes, good theme, I like that too.

@stanton

Have I mentioned the lovely opening scene?

Certainly.

Oh god, I can’t believe I actually wrote all this.

[The_Man_With_a_Name]

God’s Gun is definitely not boring for me. On a technical level, it’s extremely flawed but I think it has enough to please spaghetti western fans. Obviously it can’t please us all because it comes down to personal taste at the end of the day but it’s a decent enough film. Tomas’ opinion is final. Sorry, Stanton.

[GoldWorshiper]

I think this ones a really entertaining film. You can’t deny that its production value seems really low and the lack of LVC’s voice for the dubbing makes it really tough to listen in parts but you get used to it. I didn’t find any part of the film boring, I admit there’s a 15-20 minute period where the story gets lost and nothing happens but overall the LVC twin thing and Palance’s jovial bad guy performance makes this film fun and entertaining. The final scene where LVC throws down his coat to reveal his gun, his beady eyes staring down Palance is classic Van Cleef, I also enjoyed the showdown of the ‘ghostly’ LVC vs the bad guys. I got real Treasure Island vibes with the Frank Zappa look-a-like being thrown from the bell tower and Palance’s character giving his best Long John Silver impression towards the end. I think score is really cool as well. There are a few terrible performances from some of the supporting cast and Van Cleef’s wig is atrocious. I’d have to give this one a 6/10 it’s much better than some people’s reviews.

[aldo]

@tomas

The dull acting?

Come on. Israeli hippies tried as hard as they could.

So, I watched it again, and some of the comments on this thread made it a bit more bearable than before … but yeah, it’s a mess. LVC and Palance do what they can - if only they’d had a real director and were in more professional hands this could have been half decent.
I found it hard to believe that this was directed by Parolini ! Regardless of what anyone thinks about the Sabata trilogy and Sartana, those films were professionally produced and have a not inconsiderable artistic flair. The same can not be said of ‘God’s Gun’, or ‘Diamond Wolf’, as the original title translates - WTF is Diamond Wolf all about !??? Did I miss some important plot point ?

The overall feeling I get is that you have 3 professional actors and a supporting cast of amateurs or western appreciation society re-enactors, who have no idea how to move or behave, and just look embarrassingly self conscious, or in the case of the Frank Zappa lookalike, embarrassingly over the top.

Maybe the production was on a very tight schedule, because it looks like it could have been shot in about two weeks … ? Also I’d like to think that Parolini and his director of photography, Mancori also walked off this one … because there is no hint that an experienced professional team are behind the camera.

One scene which had me scratching my head in disbelief is about 20 minutes in … Father LVC, (or LVC 1 as Tomas referred to him) goes to disarm Palance’s gang who have rode out of town and have parked themselves in the middle of the road overlooking the crappy town set. They’ve gone less than a quarter of mile from town, lit a campfire in the centre of the road, drank themselves insensible and have all fallen asleep at the same time, conveniently enough for LVC 1 to collect their guns.
I give up … good luck to those who can enjoy these turkeys, but I find it rather sad that such good charismatic actors ended up making fools of themselves in these lousy productions … Perhaps I’m taking things too seriously, but to me this is the reason the genre died. Greed and apathy

[Dean]

So um… guess I better watch this movie now.

[stanton]

@The_Man_With_a_Name

God’s Gun is definitely not boring for me. On a technical level, it’s extremely flawed but I think it has enough to please spaghetti western fans. Obviously it can’t please us all because it comes down to personal taste at the end of the day but it’s a decent enough film. Tomas’ opinion is final. Sorry, Stanton.

No need to feel sorry, it is as you said a matter of tastes, like for every other film also.

Every thing I write here is only a personal opinion, and everybody else here is of course allowed to view every film different. Even if it is the complete opposite.
I like that. I discus about the differences (if I’m in the mood), but I also enjoy them.

[tomas]

@aldo

One scene which had me scratching my head in disbelief is about 20 minutes in … Father LVC, (or LVC 1 as Tomas referred to him) goes to disarm Palance’s gang who have rode out of town and have parked themselves in the middle of the road overlooking the crappy town set. They’ve gone less than a quarter of mile from town, lit a campfire in the centre of the road, drank themselves insensible and have all fallen asleep at the same time, conveniently enough for LVC 1 to collect their guns.

I actually like this scene. Not sure if they drunk themselves insensibly, they wake up too quickly when surprised by LVC 1. Even bandits have to sleep sometimes. They didn’t expect that someone from town would dare to take action against them, so they decided to take a rest. Who anyway? The old folks? Cowardice sheriff? A kiddo?
And there was also a bandit on a guard, but taken care of by LVC 1. Maybe two or three guards would be better, but let’s not nitpick.

[SCOTTY]

Some of the acting is over the top like tom betts was saying, still with the flaws along with the exaggerations this one for me i still really enjoy .something about it .must say when i first watched it i thought it was bad, but oddly kept pulling it off the shelf. very much like it. Waiting to get a release date from kino.

[Max (Max Stephenson)]

Well, this was certainly…something. What a bizarre and manic trainwreck this film is. I think the only saving graces are Jack Palace and the occasional laughs you get at the absurdity (the hilarious floppy dummy that Johnny knocks out of a tower being one of them). Even Lee Van Cleef couldn’t save this one, thanks to his awful long hair/goatee combo and that goofy sound effect that plays every time he appears.

[LankyGringo (Brian)]

Not even teen idol Leif Garrett could save it.

[Admin (Sebastian)]

This movie’s page in the SWDb has been upgraded to the new 3.0 format. Please check it out and let us know if you see anything that we need to correct or of you can add information, texts, links or images.

[aldo]

@Admin

I bet if there will one day be available a widescreen, uncut print with the original soundtrack remastered and good subtitles, this movie will end up in people’s top 20 lists.

No way! … I realise your comment was ages ago, but it’s a still a stinker in any format

[ozerovocka (AnnJarvinen)]

Turkish poster with same design but with different distributor logo

[Wobble (Timothy Rogerson)]

Finally got round to this. Pretty bad as expected although I did manage to sit through it largely in one sitting. Some observations:

• Everything, sets, people all very clean. Most of the sets looked as if they had just been erected and not lived in. In fact, it looked like a US TV movie.
• Acting of the Israeli supporting cast was very silly and lots of perms and large hairpieces on display.
• The ‘Abilene’ town set for the LVC flashback was so obviously ‘Juno City’ - the town sign was made in an identical style with just a different name which I found funny.
• I have never see outlaws camped out lying across a road asleep before! They had left the town and then go back again to rob the stagecoach which they must have forgotten about
• The boy being turned dumb by seeing the priest die. Ridiculous! In fact, I had to rewind my DVD as I missed how this has happened.
• I loved the ‘he’s in Mexico somewhere’ but the first person (third actually) the kid meets in Mexico knows where he lives
• Parolini’s camera goes bonkers in those latter scenes in the church when LVC acts like a ghost including smoke effects and a door closing itself when he opens an outside door (black in the interior shot yet daylight in the exterior)
• What was Richard Boone doing in this film? The part was worthless and unnecessary, It looked like he’d filmed most of his exterior shots but no interior shots at the time he allegedly walked off.
• The whole sexual assault sequence in the saloon was bizarre. And I assume that’s why this has an ‘18’ rating from the BBFC (although ‘12’ in Ireland and passed unrestricted in Italy in 1976)
• According to The Hollywood Reporter, who give casts lists, this was filmed after Kid Vengeance in Spring of 1976. Kid Vengeance seems to have been shooting in Feb-March and this in April onwards. Kid Vengeance got a UK theatrical release in 1982. This was not released in cinemas but is out on an MGM DVD of reasonable quality.

[Bill_Carson (Christian)]

You’re right Sebastian, I guess. It is not as bad as a Fidani (or a Mauri/Crea) but for a Parolini… unworthy. LVC and Jack Palance are just for the money in that rubbish piece of work. Please don’t kill me, just my two cents.
On the other hand : If this flick were made by Fidani, Crea or Mauri…my rating will be much higher, if you understand my point of view. 2/10

[Wobble (Timothy Rogerson)]

On the production problems for this:

• Parolini spoke about being parachuted in at shooting stage for this one in an interview on the Italian Sabata DVD. He said LVC was very pleased to see him. I haven’t got that DVD so I am relying on hearsay on another discussion forum. He said he was involved at shooting stage - apparently he doesn’t name the original director nor was it clear from the forum posting whether he filmed everything or some stuff had already been filmed.
• Boone was interviewed in Israel in May 1976 when he complained about the chaotic film and director and producer not talking to each other. He says the director was Italian so presumably Parolini. Again, I have not seen a transcript of interview.
• some sources (Wikipedia) claim this was made in 1975 but it seems clear from the Hollywood Reporter listings and the Boone interview that it was made in Spring 1976, probably soon after Kid Vengeance.

[runner]

The main musical theme is very good though, but that wig…