The Wrath of God is a 1972 film directed by Ralph Nelson, adapted from a novel by Jack Higgins.
The setting is an unnamed Central American country in the 1920s. Emmet Keogh, an Irishman in the Americas for no obvious reason (trouble relating to The Irish Revolution, maybe?) gets basically forced by a disreputable fellow named Jennings to drive a truck of bootleg whiskey north to the United States. On the way, he stops at a cantina, where a bunch of soldiers loyal to warlord Col. Santilla are about to rape a drop-dead gorgeous native woman named Chela. Emmet saves Chela from being raped only to immediately get grabbed by the soldiers. They're about to rape her and hang him when they both are saved by Rev. Van Horne (Robert Mitchum). Rev. Van Horne is either a fake priest or just a criminal priest, but either way he busts out a Thompson submachine gun from his trunk, massacres the soldiers, and leaves with Emmet and Chela.
They head north but all three are eventually captured by Col. Santilla's men. Also captured is Jennings (Victor Buono), who was actually smuggling guns to the rebels, not whiskey. Rather than execute the three of them, Santilla gives them a job: infiltrate rebel territory and assassinate the rebel leader, Tomas de la Plata (Frank Langella in one of his first movie roles).
Tomas de la Plata's mother is played by Rita Hayworth in her last film role. Hayworth had terrible trouble remembering her lines; it was an early symptom of the Alzheimer's disease that eventually killed her.
Not to be confused with Aguirre, the Wrath of God, an acclaimed Werner Herzog film released the same year.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear just what Father Van Horne's deal is, and specifically, whether or not he's a real priest. A lot of people think he's faking; Sgt. Delgado makes him take his cassock off because he has a brother who's "a real priest." And of course he is obviously a bank robber and bandit and he travels around with a fearsome amount of weaponry. On the other hand, he has a pretty strong knowledge of Catholic liturgical rites. One speech from Van Horne indicates that he used to be a priest but was defrocked and excommunicated for being too radical.Jennings: You should have been a military man instead of a...whatever you are.
- And Starring: Rita Hayworth gets "And Rita Hayworth as Senora de la Plata" in big letters at the end of the opening credits.
- Badass Preacher: Van Horne is a Catholic priest (maybe? probably) who offers the full package—confession, marriage ceremonies, baptisms, all that good stuff. He is also a bandit and bank robber with at least two submachine guns, a stash of grenades, and a crucifix that is really a switchblade.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The "good" guys are Jennings the smuggler, Emmet the rogue, and Van Horne the bank-robbing, heavily armed renegade priest. They get captured by brutal warlord Col. Santilla, whose men seem to really like rape and murder. Then they wind up working on his behalf to take out Tomas de la Plata, another warlord who has a violent hatred for the Catholic Church and has no problem murdering small boys to get what he wants.
- Boxed Crook: Van Horne, Jennings, and Emmet are all set to be shot by firing squad when Col. Santilla intervenes. He offers them their lives if they murder Tomas de la Plata on his behalf.
- Briefcase Blaster: Father Van Horne's best friends are the Thompson submachine guns he carries in his large trunk.
- Briefcase Full of Money: The other half of Father Van Horne's trunk is filled with cash in several different currencies.
- Brownface: Frank Langella is slathered with a lot of brownface to play a Central American warlord. (Amusingly, his mother Rita Hayworth isn't.)
- *Click* Hello: How Emmet greets the hoodlum that creeps into his room on Jennings' orders.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Emmet is about to be killed by Delgado and his goons when they get distracted by Chela. As the goons have Chela on a table and are clearly about to rape her, Emmet quietly steals out the front door of the cantina—and then comes back to save Chela.
- Conversation Cut: When explaining his plan for how to defend the church, Van Horne says that Emmet will be perched in the organist's booth with a machine gun. Then he says "For those who prefer to worship out of doors—", and the movie cuts to the bell tower where Van Horne is saying "You, Mr. Jennings," as he tells Jennings that he will be posted there with the grenades.
- Death of a Child: Van Horne has had enough and is packing his bags to hightail it out of town. Then Tomas's goons return and produce Van Horne's altar boy, little Pablito. They shoot him. Van Horne then plans and executes the attack on Tomas's base.
- Flyaway Shot: Ends with the camera flying away from the hilltop mission where Tomas and the good guys fought it out.
- A Glass in the Hand: Tomas is polite enough to Emmet and Jennings but he haaaaaaaaates priests. Upon being told that they came in the company of a Catholic priest, Tomas tells them that the priest will conduct no ceremonies or rituals and must leave the area immediately. While telling them this he clutches his wine glass so hard that it shatters.
- I Am Big Boned: The obese Jennings says "My size is due to a glandular condition, Mr. Keogh."
- Last Breath Bullet: Averted at the last second. Tomas has been left on the ground, shot several times, but he raises his pistol with a wobbly hand and aims it at the good guys. Father Van Horne has been tied to a cross, but the stone cross is cracked and crumbling. He manages to wrench the cross off its pedestal and bring it and himself down on Tomas, finishing him off.
- Left Hanging: It seems as if Van Horne, who has been badly wounded, is dying. Then he starts laughing loudly, and says "Well I'll be damned! It's the gospel according to Van Horne!" Then the film ends. Did he live or die?
- Letting the Air out of the Band: The band in the restaurant gradually stops playing as Emmet enters with Chela—they don't admit native people. A brawl between Emmet and Tomas's dragon Jurado ensues.
- Mathematician's Answer:Emmet: When will the colonel be here?
Sgt. Delgado: When he arrives. - Pin-Pulling Teeth: Jennings is mortally wounded but grapples his killer, Jurado—then brings up one hand holding a grenade. Grinning into the other man's horrified face (at about four inches), he says, "Life is just full of surprises!" before pulling the pin with his teeth and holding the grenade alongside their heads. Boom.
- Sword Cane:
- Jennings' cane, as revealed when he whips the sword out after an enraged Emmet attacks him.
- Father Van Horne takes an interesting spin on this trope when his crucifix is revealed to also be a switchblade.
- Taking You with Me: A mortally wounded Jennings grabs Jurado and pulls the pin on a grenade, killing them both.
- Tempting Fate: As Emmet, Rev. Van Horne, and Chela zip along the road, Emmet cheerfully says "That Col. Santilla isn't so smart. His soldiers would have to get up very early to catch us now!" Immediately after he says this they turn a corner and drive directly into an armed camp of Santilla's men.
- Time-Passes Montage: An amusing sequence of cuts to the clock in the bell tower, as Emmet and Chela roll around in bed, indicates that they spent three hours having sex.
- Title Drop: Van Horne promises to bring "the wrath of God" down on Tomas de la Plata and his men.
- The Voiceless: Chela has not talked since seeing her parents murdered by banditos when she was a child.
