Watching Behold A Pale Horse today, I’ve found that the most compelling aspect of the film is the onscreen relationship between Peck and Sharif, both of whom are, in a sense, playing quintessential Zinnemann-type heroes in the film. The film’s central question (why doesn’t Peck shoot Quinn at the end?) is not a very compelling one.
The same cannot be said for Behold A Pale Horse, in which the hero fails not because of bad aiming, but because of his own stupidity it doesn't make for very exciting cinema, nor does it do much in the way of inspiring intelligent critical perspectives. The Day of Jackal (1973), arguably Zinnemann's richest masterpiece, is another film that ends with the hero getting killed immediately after failing his mission, but at least in that film the hero has an excuse: he simply misses his target. Most importantly, the dying actions of the protagonist were not in the least sympathetic. It failed to deliver on the promise of the film's earlier, greater sequences. The ending was bad for a variety of reasons. The movie's ending was not a happy one, but that's not the only reason why audiences didn't take a liking to it. Instead, Peck wastes his ammo on a former friend-a “traitor”-and dies in a hail of bullets, while Quinn walks off scot-free. Shortly before his death in 1997, Fred Zinnemann admitted, “The film didn’t really come together… it was interesting, but it did not really feel right except in a few spots.” Zinnemann may have been ruminating over the film’s disappointing finale, in which Peck-portraying an aging Spanish assassin-walks out to San Martin for a final showdown with Anthony Quinn, who plays a military police captain. If Behold A Pale Horse has been all but forgotten today, it’s easy to see why. Advertised as a reunion between Peck and Anthony Quinn after The Guns of Navarone (1961), and also as a reunion between Quinn and Sharif after Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Behold A Pale Horse promised audiences an action-packed Hollywood vehicle and gave them, instead, a moody, meditative morality play. The movie, a political thriller about the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, was made at a time when Franco was still in power in Spain the Spanish government was reportedly so offended by the film’s subject matter that Columbia was even forced to sell its Spanish distribution business.
#BEHOLD A PALE HORSE 1964 TRAILER MOVIE#
But now Peck and Sharif have finally been brought together, and suddenly we're drawn in.Ī $3.9 million movie headed by a strong director with an impeccable cast, Behold A Pale Horse was a notorious box office flop in the summer of 1964, grossing a mere $900,000 and embarrassing Columbia Pictures’ reputation in international cinemas overseas. Up until now, we haven't been too involved in the movie. He shoves Sharif into the car with two other people, interrogates him, mocks him and-at one unexpected moment-smacks him hard across the face.
“Beg your pardon?” Sharif asks, confused. Angry and impatient, he grabs Sharif by the arm.
We see Omar Sharif, dressed in a black priest’s robe, walking peacefully down a road in the French countryside when a car suddenly pulls up beside him, and Gregory Peck steps out. 1964 7 7 Behold a Pale Horse 1969 8.2 Army of Shadows 1965 6.8 Battle of the Bulge 1960 6.9 The Alamo 1966 7.7 The Sand Pebbles 1965 7.9 The Hill 1961 7.3 El Cid 1968 5.7 The Green Berets 1958 7.9 Ashes and Diamonds 1959 7.4 The Diary of Anne Frank 1966 7.8 Closely Watched Trains 1960 6.8 Exodus 1959 8.1 Ballad of a Soldier 1960 7.9 Two Women 1969 6.7 The Bridge at Remagen 1967 7.9 Chimes at Midnight 1965 7.3 In Harm's Way 1970 7.3 Waterloo 1964 8 I Am Cuba 1965 7.4 Shenandoah 1969 7.6 The Damned 1958 7.3 The Young Lions 1966 6.9 Khartoum 1962 6.7 The 300 Spartans 1959 7.8 The Bridge 1960 7.2 Sink the Bismarck! 1967 7.3 The Night of the Generals 1970 8.4 Michael the Brave 1966 7.1 The Blue Max 1962 7 Hell Is for Heroes 1970 8 White Sun of the Desert 1965 6.5 The Heroes of Telemark 1965 8.1 The War Game 1966 7.9 War and Peace 1970 7.5 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1963 6.8 55 Days at Peking 1963 7.4 Le Petit Soldat 1959 8.6 The Human Condition I No Greater Love 1965 7.2 Ship of Fools 1968 6.8 The Devil's Brigade 1966 6.9 Is Paris Burning? 1958 7.9 Ice Cold in Alex 1964 7.4 The Americanization of Emily 1970 6.9 Cromwell 1958 7.3 The Inn of the Sixth Happiness 1959 8 Fires on the Plain 1959 7.1 Pork Chop Hill 1967 7.5 King of Hearts 1965 6.6 Operation Crossbow 1959 8.6 The Human Condition II Road to Eternity 1961 8.There is an unforgettable moment in Behold A Pale Horse when Fred Zinnemann brings two of Hollywood’s greatest action stars together at last, in an unforgettable sequence of unrelenting tension.
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