God's Gun

Father John (Lee Van Cleef) is a man of peace. But he wasn’t always. Trained at a young age to handle a gun, he gave up a life of taking souls in order to save them. When gunhand Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) rides into town after a major score with his gang and starts terrorizing the locals; peaceful Father John ends up on the wrong end of a bullet. But John has a twin brother Lewis (Lee Van Cleef), and he isn’t as peaceful as the dealy departed - and is faster with a gun than anyone. 

Ever watch a movie that is desperately trying to be like another movie to the point you can visualize the filmmakers' scribblings notes in a darkened theater about what they think makes the film great? That’s God’s Gun. Before Golan and Globus turned Cannon into the churn and burn action movie machine, they tried their hands at making a wide range of films. As the era of classic Spaghetti Westerns was coming to a close, they decided to toss their hands into the ring. They got some memorable stars of the sub-genre - Lee Van Cleef and Jack Palance. They even hired director Frank Kramer a.k.a. Gianfranco Parolini of Sabata, Adios Sabata, and Return of Sabata to helm the ship. By all accounts, this movie was a mess from the first day of shooting.

Cast and crew regularly quit the film so characters that were previously established simply disappear. Depending on which version you get, either Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, Richard Boone, or all three of them are dubbed terribly or blather about in Italian even though everyone else is speaking English. In this particular case, it’s Jack Palance that’s very clearly dubbed over - and it’s just odd to hear someone else’s voice coming out of that face. It's extra strange since it sounds like someone doing a bad Palance impersonation. Even weirder is it sounds like there are some scenes where it is Palance's voice but then that very odd out of place dubbing comes right back. 

The first half of the film starts out strong enough and builds to a compelling story for revenge. Lee Van Cleef is his usual badass self. Even if it’s not his voice Jack Palance looks like he’s having a good time as the man-in-black villain. Where the film goes off the rails is when Palance’s Clayton suddenly becomes the main character. Revelations about his past, an old flame, a son he didn’t know about, and growing conflict with his gang give Palance more to do than being a simple bad guy. But then right when the film remembers it’s a revenge film and Van Cleef was the star, half of Clayton’s gang just disappears and the show goes in a pretty weird direction for its climax. Granted it's a lot of fun to watch Van Cleef do his revenge thing dolled up like his ill-fated brother, but more often than not you'll be looking at this film with a look of quizzical disbelief than astonishment at the film's plot twists and execution.

Not altogether terrible, God's Gun is just the bizarre outcome of an out-of-control production. It’s trying to do way too much for its own good and only succeeds in small areas with a few choice scenes. You can see the production struggle as characters come and go with incomplete scenes that just collapse into the next edit. Van Cleef gives enough of the steely-eyed stare to prove he’s still a badass, but even playing two characters he has long stretches with little to do. I’m always game for a Western, I love discovering new gems I never knew existed. Sometimes you get some real stinkers that don’t live up to potential. Then you get oddballs like God’s Gun that make no sense but you can’t look away. Don’t expect greatness, embrace the confusion, and enjoy the odd dubbing! 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
God’s Gun arrives on Blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Pressed on a Region A Locked BD-50 disc. The disc is housed in a standard case with reversible insert artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with traditional navigation options.