This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The spaghetti western is/was a very specific genre, and by the standards of the day, they were a huge departure. The first several - A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, to name a few - all in the unique hands of director Sergio Leone - are classics. Those that came after - including this one, Diamante Lobo (God's Gun) - not so much. The problem starts with the script, which leaves a lot to be desired. In Leone's films, he realized that he was working with a lot of actors for whom, however good they might or might not be, English was not their first language, if in fact they even spoke it at all. So he wisely devised an approach that required very little dialogue, depending mainly on action, atmosphere, style and - yes, violence. A lot of it. In Leone's hands, this combination spoke volumes. When it came to Gianfranco Parolini (aka Fred Kramer), the magic touch just wasn't there. For Diamante Lobo/God's Gun, the script was just awful - clichéd situations, cheesy dialogue, bad continuity. This saddled some of Hollywood's most reliable actors with a difficult assignment - making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. To a great extent, they were constrained by the director, and they fell back, as actors will, on their shtick, to get them through. For some (Sybil Danning, Jack Palance, Leif Garrett), it worked better than others (Lee Van Cleef, Richard Boone). For Van Cleef, the spaghetti western was familiar territory. But playing sort of against type in such familiar surroundings - good an actor as he was - just doesn't ring quite true. Boone, in one of his last films and probably already in poor health, in addition to being miscast, was just plain disappointing. Palance chews up the scenery, as he was wont to do in many films before and after - too broad, and yet it worked. Garrett, one of Hollywood's most promising young actors at the time, hit most of the right notes. Danning - well, she didn't have much to do, but she handled it quite well. The production values were inadequate. The town looked very well turned out for a dusty old stage stop. The post production just made things worse - bad dubbing, in some cases laughable voice replacement, second-rate scoring, editing that worked against the script (although perhaps in spite of it - who knows?). In short, there was a film in there somewhere, but it didn't have a chance to show itself. Two final thoughts: Although Van Cleef was a veteran of the genre, he wasn't the best choice for role(s). Leif Garrett was quite good when allowed to be. Too many reviewers just hate on child actors as a matter of course. And quite a few deserve it. They may be cute, but they are not good. But some are genuinely talented. Garrett was among them until the music thing overtook him. One can only wonder what might have happened had he not gone the teen idol path. As an actor, he sure had the chops.

"God's Gun", along with the following year's "Kid Vengeance" was the last time Lee Van Cleef appeared in the western genre. (The two movies were probably filmed back to back.) In this western, Van Cleef is supported by a once in a lifetime supporting cast, with Sybil Danning, Leif Garrett, Jack Palance, as well as Richard Boone (though Boone's appearances barely make up one solitary minute of the running time.) You might think a western with this cast would be a lot of fun, but for the most part it isn't. Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus obvious didn't command polishing of the screenplay, since the finished product is filled with questions that aren't answered for a long time (like with Garrett's character becoming mute for a long time), or aren't answered at all (when Van Cleef's preacher character has the drop on the bad guys early on, why is only one of them put in jail? And when Garrett's character flees the area on horseback later, why is he later without a horse?) The biggest problem with the screenplay, however, is that there is a lot of obvious padding. Had the movie been shortened here and there for fifteen to twenty minutes, it would have run a lot smoother. The musical score isn't bad, but you don't watch a movie just for the music. In the end, the movie is strictly for Van Cleef and/or spaghetti western fans, and even they may be annoyed by the movie's shortcomings.

okay, as a movie this isn't the best... BUT the message this movie has... THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE! EVER!! EVVVVEEEERRRR!!! for me.... its because the righteous man, not intending true violence, only to eliminate the evil doers is protected by god and eliminates the enemy with psychological forces, with "magic warfare" if you will... THIS IS NOW.... MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF AAAAAALLLL TIME!! ... (i just saw it last night for the first time) I love when LeeVanCleef stands in the street with the fire in front of him, and the guy tries to shoot, and although he might be a good shot, god, and Lee's passionate fire makes it impossible for the man to hit him, the bullets just hit all over the ground.

Once I saw this was a Golan and Globus production, I knew I was in for some real action. I didn't even know they did westerns, and I was initially thrown off by director Gianfranco Parolini's pseudonym of Frank Kramer. But closer inspection reveled this to be a spaghetti western done with Italian and Israeli casts and crews. What was I in for? The cast was the main attraction: First, there was two-time Oscar nominee and Oscar winner (City Slickers) Jack Palance. Now I know there is going to be some major league craziness here, and I wasn't disappointed. he was off the charts with his comic gunslinger. Then, we have Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) playing a duel role. You might have even thought this a zombie western - the bad guys certainly did.We mustn't overlook Sybil Danning (Chained Heat) who managed to give us a peak at her right breast as she was recalling a rape that produced her son (Leif Garrett). There was some real excitement as we wondered if Johnny would find out who his father was.Richard Boone ("Have Gun Will Travel") was a drunken sheriff, and Pnina Rosenblum was a strange dance hall girl named Chesty, who provided some adult conversation. I say strange as she was a Member of Knesset in Israel until a couple of years ago. Do they know her past? It doesn't have a great script and the production values are typical of spaghetti westerns, but it was an interesting story and we just don't see too many adult westerns.