According to Zinnemann, this was because the Spanish Civil War had slipped from the memories of its audience.

Authority was given to them over a fourth of the Earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the Earth. Responding to criticism that Behold a Pale Horse bore similarities to the previous year's Lawrence of Arabia, which featured two of the same lead actors, director Fred Zinnemann said: "I don't feel any obligation to be successful, success can be dangerous—you feel you know it all. The third Horseman rides a black horse and is popularly understood to be Famine, as the Horseman carries a pair of balances or weighing scales (Greek ζυγὸν, zygon), indicating the way that bread would have been weighed during a famine.Red can certainly be associated with blood and the red horse seems to symbolize war so the parallel between the red horse in Revelation 6:3-4 and Matthew 24:6-7 seem to be about the very same thing and that is war and rumors of other potential wars to come. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth. Elliott, with very little reason, follows the Vulgate reading, "over the four parts of the earth;" Isaac Williams also thinks the judgment is universal, since that is the idea that the number four signifies, which, however, is a different thing from a fourth part. Eisenhower of negotiating a treaty with extraterrestrials in 1954, which supposedly allowed the aliens to abduct humans in exchange for technological assistance.

Cooper expanded the speculations of earlier conspiracists by incorporating government involvement with extraterrestrials as a central theme. As many hip-hop listeners attest, this was the first time they’d ever heard of the Illuminati, the malign presence allegedly behind so much of what was wrong with the world. Behold a Pale Horse is a 1964 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn.It remains popular in evangelical circles today, [18] for example with Pastor Billy Graham, for whom the horseman represented the Antichrist or false prophets in general. Elliott points out that Commodus, who had nothing to wish for and everything to enjoy, that beloved son of Marcus Aurelius who ascended the throne with neither competitor to remove nor enemies to punish, became the slave of his attendants who gradually corrupted his mind. Red, for example, often represents Communism, the white horse and rider with a crown representing Catholicism, Black has been used as a symbol of Capitalism, while Green represents the rise of Islam. Niebuhr, Barthold Georg (1844), The History of Rome from the First Punic War to the Death of Constantine, vol. Alford suggests that a reference is intended to the four first seals, each one of which embraces in its action a portion of mankind.

And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. Turning to a reading in Jerome's Latin Vulgate which reads "over the four parts of the Earth," [66] [67] it requires that the Roman empire should have some kind of quadripartition. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.It is a shame that a film made as beautifully as 'Behold a Pale Horse' and that has as much atmosphere in it as this one unquestionably has should be short on dramatic substance and emotional urgency. Indeed, it is difficult to determine just what is going on as characters move about loosely from San Martin to Pau to Lourdes—and then back to the Spanish city for the denouement. Viñolas has learned that Artiguez's mother is dying and sets a trap at the hospital in San Martín to capture Artiguez, presuming that he will go there.

Because of scenes showing Viñolas with a mistress and taking bribes, the Spanish government not only disallowed filming within Spain, but prohibited Columbia Pictures from distributing any of its films in Spain. Cooper linked the Illuminati with his beliefs that extraterrestrials were secretly involved with the United States government, but later retracted these claims.The second carries a sword and rides a red horse as the creator of (civil) war, conflict, and strife.