The Pale Blue Eye
The Pale Blue Eye is a 2022 American mystery thriller film written and directed by Scott Cooper, adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard.[1] The film features an ensemble cast that includes Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall and Robert Duvall. Its plot follows veteran detective Augustus Landor who, in 1830 West Point, New York, investigates a series of murders at the United States Military Academy with the aid of Edgar Allan Poe, a young military cadet.
| The Pale Blue Eye | |
|---|---|
Release poster | |
| Directed by | Scott Cooper |
| Screenplay by | Scott Cooper |
| Based on | The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Masanobu Takayanagi |
| Edited by | Dylan Tichenor |
| Music by | Howard Shore |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 128 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Pale Blue Eye was released in select cinemas on December 23, 2022, before its streaming release on January 6, 2023 by Netflix. The film received generally positive reviews.
Plot
In 1830, retired veteran detective Augustus Landor is asked by the military to investigate an incident at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Landor is a widower who lives alone since his daughter Mathilde "ran off", a couple of years previously.
A cadet, Leroy Fry, has been found hanged. But his heart was removed from his body as it lay in the morgue. The senior officers at the Academy wish Landor to find out who did this and why. Examining the corpse, Landor finds a small fragment of a note clutched tightly in the hand of the dead cadet. Also, marks on Fry's neck and fingers suggest that he did not hang himself, but was murdered.
With the officers' permission, Landor enlists the help of Edgar Allan Poe, another cadet at the academy who has expressed an interest in the case. Poe and Landor deduce from the writing on the note fragment that it was summoning Fry to a secret meeting. After a cow and a sheep are found in the area, butchered and with their hearts removed, it is deduced that the murder could be linked to black magic rituals.
Another cadet, Ballinger, goes missing and is later found hanged, with both his heart and his genitals removed. A third cadet, Stoddard, who was a colleague of the two victims, then disappears, and it is presumed by Landor that this man had reason to believe he was next in line to be killed.
Landor and Poe begin to suspect the family of Dr. Daniel Marquis, who was first brought into the investigation to perform the autopsy on Fry. Particular suspicion is placed on his son Artemus and his daughter Lea (who suffers from random seizures).
Whilst visiting Dr. Marquis's house, Landor finds an old officer's uniform; a man impersonating an officer had been involved in the mutilation of Fry's body. Landor confronts Dr. Marquis, who admits that he had resorted to black magic to cure Lea of her seizures, and initially she appeared to improve.
Poe is enchanted by Lea and volunteers to do whatever she wants. But he is drugged and wakes to find that Artemus and Lea are about to cut out his heart, in accordance with the ritual to cure Lea. Landor manages to arrive in time to rescue Poe, but the building catches fire and Lea and Artemus die.
Thinking that the case is now solved, the military thanks Landor for his service. However, Poe, recovering from his near-death experience, notices that the handwriting on the note fragment found in Fry's hand matches that of Landor. Threading together all the information that he has gathered, it becomes apparent that Landor was in fact the killer of the cadets. Poe confronts Landor with his conclusion.
It transpires that two years previously Landor's daughter Mattie was raped by Fry, Ballinger, and Stoddard after attending her first ball. Traumatised by the experience, she later committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. Landor did not disclose this to anyone, but pretended that Mattie had run away.
Distraught, Landor set out to avenge his daughter. He left the note for Fry, luring him to a lonely spot before hanging him. But a patrol happened to walk by, so Landor was forced to leave the body there. Lea and Artemus later stole the heart for their ritual. After killing Ballinger, Landor mutilated his corpse to make it appear that the cadet had been murdered by the same "madman" who had desecrated Fry's body.
Poe tells Landor he has two notes with handwriting samples that can link Landor directly to the murders, but before leaving, Poe burns them. Landor is later seen standing at the cliff where his daughter leapt to her death. He lets her hair ribbon float away in the wind, saying "Rest, my love".
Cast
- Christian Bale as Augustus Landor
- Harry Melling as Cadet Edgar Allan Poe
- Simon McBurney as Captain Hitchcock
- Timothy Spall as Superintendent Thayer
- Toby Jones as Dr. Daniel Marquis
- Harry Lawtey as Cadet Artemus Marquis
- Fred Hechinger as Cadet Randolph Ballinger
- Joey Brooks as Cadet Stoddard
- Charlotte Gainsbourg as Patsy
- Lucy Boynton as Lea Marquis
- Robert Duvall as Jean-Pepe
- Gillian Anderson as Mrs. Julia Marquis
- Steven Maier as Cadet Fry
- Brennan Keel Cook as Cadet Huntoon
- Orlagh Cassidy as Mrs. Fry
- Scott Anderson as Benny
- Gideon Glick as Cadet Haratio Cochrane
- Jack Irving as Cadet Hamilton
- Matt Heim as Cadet Llewellyn Lee
- Hadley Robinson as Mattie
- Mathias Goldstein as Lieutenant Locke
- Charlie Tahan as Cadet Loughborough
- US Senator of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman and his wife Gisele appear in an uncredited cameo.
Production
In February 2021, it was announced that Christian Bale would star in the thriller film The Pale Blue Eye, written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on Louis Bayard's novel of the same name, and produced by Cross Creek Pictures. It would be Bale and Cooper's third film together, after Out of the Furnace and Hostiles. Bale and Cooper were also set to produce with John Lesher and Tyler Thompson.[2]
On March 6, 2021, it was announced that Netflix pre-bought the rights to the film for around US$55 million at the European Film Market.[3][4] In June 2021, it was reported that Harry Melling would star as Edgar Allan Poe.[5]
Filming began on November 29, 2021 at the historic Compass Inn in Laughlintown, Pennsylvania.[6] In December, filming took place at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.[7] That month, additional cast members were announced, including Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Timothy Spall, Fred Hechinger, and Robert Duvall.[8]
Senator John Fetterman and his wife Gisele are extras in a scene in the film. They became friendly with Bale and Cooper in 2013 while they were filming Out of the Furnace in Braddock, Pennsylvania, where Fetterman was mayor at the time. Bale stated, "John's got this fantastic face, hulking figure... So I said to Scott, 'We've got to have him in the tavern... That's a face that fits in the 1830s.'"[9]
Release
The Pale Blue Eye was released in select cinemas on December 23, 2022, before its streaming release on January 6, 2023, by Netflix.[10]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Pale Blue Eye holds a rating of 66% based on 122 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Pale Blue Eye lacks its source material's piercing gaze, but this well-cast mystery is just intriguing enough to investigate."[11] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12]
Matthew Monagle of The Austin Chronicle wrote, "The Pale Blue Eye holds together remarkably as a gothic piece of horror... right up to the point that it doesn't," and that it "seems to lose its nerve in its final minutes, when Cooper's script reverts to a procedural story and reshuffles our relationships to both main characters, relying too heavily on red herrings – and ugly tropes of sexual violence – to bring the narrative home. Indeed, the entire film damn near falls apart."[13]
James Verniere of the Boston Herald called it an "over-acted, badly written, murder mystery dud."[14]
See also
References
- ^ Zee, Michaela (December 7, 2022). "'The Pale Blue Eye' Trailer: Christian Bale Teams With Edgar Allan Poe to Investigate a Grisly Murder in Netflix Thriller". Variety. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
- ^ Galuppo, Mia (February 26, 2021). "Christian Bale & Director Scott Cooper Re-Team On Cross Creek's 'The Pale Blue Eye' – EFM". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Wiseman, Andreas (March 6, 2021). "Netflix Strikes EFM Record $55M Worldwide Deal For Christian Bale Thriller 'The Pale Blue Eye'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ Scott, Roxborough (March 6, 2021). "Berlin: Netflix Signs $55 Million Global Deal for 'The Pale Blue Eye'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
- ^ Kroll, Justin (June 9, 2021). "'Queen's Gambit' Alum Harry Melling To Play Edgar Allan Poe Opposite Christian Bale in Scott Cooper's 'The Pale Blue Eye'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Axelrod, Joshua (December 2, 2021). . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
- ^ Sirianni, Pete (December 9, 2021). "'Cool to see': Filming for Netflix movie starring Christian Bale transforms Westminster College campus". The Tribune-Democrat. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
- ^ Grobar, Matt (December 1, 2021). "Scott Cooper's Netflix Pic 'The Pale Blue Eye' Adds Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Timothy Spall, Fred Hechinger, Robert Duvall & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Tornoe, Rob (December 12, 2022). "John Fetterman is in a new Netflix crime drama starring Christian Bale". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
- ^ Malhotra, Rahul (August 30, 2022). "'The Pale Blue Eye' Introduces Christian Bale's Grizzled Look in Eerie First Image". Collider. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "The Pale Blue Eye". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
- ^ "The Pale Blue Eye Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
- ^ Monagle, Matthew (December 23, 2022). "The Pale Blue Eye - Movie Review". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
- ^ Verniere, James (December 22, 2022). "'The Pale Blue Eye' spies a badly written mystery flop". Boston Herald. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
External links
- The Pale Blue Eye at IMDb