In the 1964 film “Behold a Pale Horse,”[1] aftermath from the Spanish Civil War hovers over a handful of exiled rebels who had fought for democracy but lost. They continue to struggle. It is 20-years after the rebels’ defeat in 1939. General Franco’s fascist dictatorship has settled in like a foul and heavy mist. The story builds to its inevitable confrontation—a show down that does not bode well for an outlaw rebel with a price on his head. His enemy is the Army of Spain, and he is alone. He has just learned from a priest that one of his few allies is an informer who has rigged a set up. Now, it is clear. His odds are not long, they are impossible.

The old rebel discovers that the priest and he are from the same village, Lorca. He suddenly feels a neighborly kinship with the priest. They drink a toast.

“Tell me something—how did it happen that a Lorca man turned into a priest?”

“It was during the Civil War. I was 10-years old. Some soldiers came to our farm one night and killed my father.”

“Why’d they kill him?” the old rebel asked.

“We didn’t know. We didn’t belong to either side.”

“Which side killed him?”

“We never found out. It was dark. We didn’t see them.”

“It wasn’t our side,” says the old freedom fighter with a wave of his hand.

“What difference does it make?” the priest despairs. Clasping his hands as if in prayer, he leans forward over the table to ask, “Would either side have the right to take his life?”

They peer into each other’s eyes for eternal seconds until the old rebel shakes his head and looks down. “You better go, priest,” he says. The priest glares at the old soldier, trying to decide what to say, but words evade him. He stands and walks slowly to the door and he leaves.

“Behold a Pale Horse” was filmed in black and white. The priest in this scene utters one perfectly black and white question about war. Does either warring side have the right to steal life from children, elders and bystanders? Haphazardly, fate carries them into the path of bullets. Their lives, if counted, are coldly listed under the cost of war.

Images: Gregory Peck is Manuel Artiguez, Omar Sharif is the priest in these photos from the movie “Behold a Pale Horse.”

[1] See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057879/