''God's Gun'', also known as ''Diamante Lobo'', is a 1976 Italian-Israeli

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

cowritten and directed by Gianfranco Parolini (credited as Frank Kramer) and starring

Lee Van Cleef Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of spaghetti Westerns, particularly t ...

, Jack Palance,

Leif Garrett Leif Garrett (born Leif Per Nervik; November 8, 1961) is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He worked as a child actor, then in the 1970s became famous as a teen idol in music. He later received much publicity for his drug ...

, Richard Boone and Sybil Danning. Palance plays the head of a malicious group of bandits and Van Cleef plays a double-role of brothers: a priest and a reformed gunfighter.

plays the main character in the film as Johnny, a fatherless kid who brings the reformed gunfighter to town to avenge his brother's murder. Instead of being filmed in Italy or Spain as most Spaghetti Westerns were, ''God's Gun'' was filmed in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and produced by

Menahem Golan Menahem Golan (; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israelis, Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He co-owned The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid ...

and

Yoram Globus Yoram Globus (; born 7 September 1943) is an Israeli–American film producer, cinema owner, and distributor. He has been involved in over 300 full-length motion pictures and he is most known for his association with The Cannon Group, Inc., an ...

, two years before they bought

Cannon films The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that investe ...

. The main cast's dialogue was dubbed: at least in the case of Lee Van Cleef and Richard Boone (who walked out of the film before the production was finished) it has been claimed in several reviews that both actors did not dub themselves in

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

, and the same thing has been said of Jack Palance's voice.

Synopsis

One day Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) and his gang arrive in the small town of Juno City, where Father John (Lee Van Cleef) is the priest of the local church. The gang wreaks havoc in town, raping a woman and knifing a man in the back. They leave town, only to be caught by the fearless but unarmed Father John. After that, the gang member responsible for the murder is broken out of jail by Clayton and his gang. Vowing revenge, the gang ambushes and guns Father John down on the steps of his church, and then the outlaws take over the town while waiting for the arrival of the next

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

with money. However, Johnny O'Hara (Leif Garrett), a local boy, manages to escape town with a couple of their horses and rides off to Mexico in the hope of finding the priest's gunfighter

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother Lewis (also Van Cleef). After the two meet they set off back across the border to clean up Juno and avenge Father John's murder. Meanwhile, Sam Clayton discovers that he is Johnny's father and it is revealed that some fifteen years earlier, during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Jenny O'Hara (Sybil Danning) had been one of Clayton's victims, adding to the mystery of Johnny's paternity.

Cast

as Father John / Lewis * Jack Palance as Sam Clayton * Richard Boone as The Sheriff * Sybil Danning as Jenny *

as Johnny * Robert Lipton as Jess Clayton * Cody Palance as Zeke Clayton * Ian Sander as "Red" Clayton * Pnina Rosenblum as Chester "Chesty" * Zila Carni as Juanita Lewis * Heinz Bernard as Judge Barrett * Didi Lukov as "Rip" *

Ricardo David Ricardo A. David, Jr is a former Armed Forces of the Philippines, Chief of staff of the Philippine Armed Forces. He was the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command chief. On June 30, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III picked David as his AFP chief. On ...

as George "Angel George" * Chin Chin as Willy * Rafi Ben Ami as Mortimer

Production

Leif Garrett and Lee Van Cleef starred together in two Westerns, ''Kid Vengeance'' (1976) and ''God's Gun'', which were both filmed in 1975 in

. Both films would be the last of Van Cleef's Westerns. Although ''Kid Vengeance'' was filmed and completed before ''God's Gun'', the latter movie was actually released before ''Kid Vengeance'': ''God's Gun'' was released on March 1977, while ''Kid Vengeance'' was released on August 1977. Chronologically speaking, ''God's Gun'' was Van Cleef's last Western film. After finishing ''God's Gun'', Van Cleef and Garrett stayed in Israel and filmed another Western Kid Vengeance Filmed before Lee Van Cleef's final western Diamante Lobo (1976), but released afterwards. Richard Boone walked off the film before it was completed, leaving his role to be dubbed by another actor. In an interview with

Cleveland Amory Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998) was an American author, reporter, television critic, commentator and animal rights activist. He wrote a series of popular books poking fun at the pretensions and customs of society, start ...

in Israel in May 1976, Boone told Amory: "I'm starring in the worst picture ever made. The producer is an Israeli and the director is Italian, and they don't speak. Fortunately it doesn't matter, because the director is deaf in both ears."

Home media

''God's Gun'' was released on

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

in the Region A format by

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art film, art ho ...

on February 8, 2022. A prior VHS release carried the title ''A Bullet from God''.

References

External links

* * {{Internet Archive film, id=Gods_Gun.avi, name=God's Gun (English version)
God's Gun
– at the ''

Troma Entertainment Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production company, production and film distributor, distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz (producer), Michael Herz in 1974. They are the longest running independent film ...

'' movie database 1975 films Israeli drama films Films shot in Israel 1975 Western (genre) films 1970s Italian-language films Spaghetti Western films Films directed by Gianfranco Parolini English-language Israeli films English-language Italian films Golan-Globus films Troma Entertainment films Italian films about revenge Italian vigilante films 1970s exploitation films Films produced by Menahem Golan Films about twin brothers 1970s Italian films