God's Gun is a 1976 Spaghetti Western starring Lee Van Cleef and Jack Palance.
One day, outlaw Sam Clayton and his gang attack a small Western town and kill a man. The local preacher, Father John, manages to capture one, but Clayton guns him down on the church steps before taking over the town. However, a young boy named Johnny O'Hara sneaks off to contact John's brother Lewis, a professional gunfighter, to seek vengeance. Meanwhile, secrets brew about Johnny's prior connections to Clayton...
It has been distributed in the US by The Cannon Group, Warner Bros., MGM and Mill Creek Entertainment.
This film contains examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: After cowing the judge into compliance, Sam Clayton stands on the judge's foot while forcing him to announce that Jess' murder of the gambler was self-defence.
- Alliterative Title: God's Gun
- Badass and Child Duo: Lewis is summoned to town by a young boy named Johnny, who accompanies him on his vengeance quest.
- Badass Preacher: Father John's response to a murder committed in his town and the law doing nothing is to hunt the gang down and personally drag one of them to jail. Unfortunately, this gets him killed.
- Big Bad: Sam Clayton, the Outlaw that killed Father John.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: During their final showdown, Lewis shoots Clayton's gun out if his hand,then shoots it several more times while it is in the air.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Jenny rather ineffectively hits Jess Clayton with a chair when the Clayton Gang take over the saloon.
- Child by Rape: Johnny thought his father was dead, but he was actually the product of a prior rape by Sam Clayton.
- Christianity is Catholic: Despite the much greater likelihood of an Old West preacher being Protestant, Father John is in fact Catholic.
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: The Claytons force the town judge to rule their killing of Father John as self-defense.
- Crapsack World: The Old West is a desolate desert where one can go days without food or water just trying to pass through town, gangs of outlaws roam the streets, and the law is enforced by morons.
- Cut Phone Lines: After Taking Over the Town, the Clayton Gang destroy the telegraph lines so no one in Juno City can contact the outside world for help.
- Decoy Protagonist: We start the film following Badass Preacher Father John's battles against a gang of outlaws, but he's killed a half hour in, after which his gunslinger brother Lewis shows up to get revenge.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit: Jess and Zeke shoot what they think id Father John standing in the church, only to discover it a member of their own gang whom Lewis has dressed in Father John's cassock and hat.
- Gambling Brawl: Lewis decided to become a Retired Gunfighter after he shot a man he caught cheating in a gambling game in Abilene, which led to him to killing three other men in a gunfight.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Johnny's mother reveals to Sam that Johnny is his son from having raped her years ago.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Several of the Clayton Gang decide to quit after Johnny escapes Juno City, worried that he is going to bring back the U.S. Marshal. Sam Clayton gives them their share of the gang's loot and escorts them to the Mexican border. He leaves them,then doubles back and kills all of them and takes back the money.
- Outfit Decoy: Lewis and Johnny hang Father John's cassock and hat on a candelabra; tricking two of the Clayton Gang into emptying their revolvers into it.
- Outlaw: The main antagonists are a criminal gang who have taken over a town.
- Police Are Useless: The local sheriff is an alcoholic who actively refuses to go after the Claytons.
- Predecessor Villain: Long before the start of the film, Lewis took down a corrupt gambler and the thugs who went after him in revenge. They had nothing to do with the Claytons and are long dead by film's end.
- Railing Kill: The first member of the Clayton Gang to die in Lewis' Roaring Rampage of Revenge is startled by Lewis' appearance on the roof—thinking him to be the priest's ghost—and falls trough the railing on the saloon roof to his death.
- Retired Badass: Lewis has hung up his guns and become a farmer in Mexico by film's start. However, he takes up gunslinging one more time to avenge his brother's murder.
- Retired Gunfighter: Lewis has hung up his guns and become a farmer in Mexico by film's start. However, he takes up gunslinging one more time to avenge his brother's murder.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A gunfighter returns to his hometown to slaughter the outlaws that killed his preacher brother.
- Saloon Owner: Jenny owns the Jenny Saloon;the only watering hole in Juno City. The number of scantily clad saloon girls she employs implies she mighty be a Miss Kitty as well (although she insists she runs a 'respectable place').
- Same Language Dub: Richard Boone was dubbed by another actor. He already had health problems, and after a drunken argument he walked off the set, and left the location before he had recorded all his dialog.
- Scarecrow Solution: When Lewis starts his vengeance quest, he dons his twin brother's cassock and hat so that the Claytons think it's his ghost.
- Serial Rapist: The Claytons each rape at least one woman in every town they ride through.
- Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: During the final showdown, Sam Clayton thrusts his hand into a money bag he has hanging on a grave marker. Lewis thinks he he is reaching for a gun he has hidden in there and shoots him. It turns out Sam was pulling out a handful of banknotes in an attempt to bribe Lewis.
- The Speechless: Johnny is struck dumb after seeing Father John gunned down by the Clayton Gang in front of his eyes.
- Spit Take: Johnny sneaks a glass of communion wine while Father John isn't looking, only to spit out as soon as the taste hits him.
- Taking Over the Town: Sam Clayton and his gang attack a small Western town and kill a man. The local preacher, Father John, manages to capture one, but Clayton guns him down on the church steps before taking over the town.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Johnny is able to overcome his hysterical muteness and yell out a Big "NO!" when he thinks Clayton is reaching for a hidden gun to shoot Lewis.
- *Twang* Hello: When Johnny tries to run from the saloon to fetch the sheriff, Jess Clayton throws a knife into the door beside his head; stopping him in his tracks.
- Two Shots from Behind the Bar: When Jess Clayton murders the gambler in the saloon, Saloon Owner Jenny grabs a double-barreled shotgun from behind the bar and comes out to try to take Jess to the sheriff. Unfortunately, Sam Clayton takes it off her.
- Villain Opening Scene: The Clayton Gang riding into town guns blazing as their leader rapes a woman.
