The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale and Gillian Anderson, follows detective Augustus Landor as he investigates a series of murders in this 19th-century mystery thriller.
Directed by Scott Cooper and based on the 2003 novel of the same name, The Pale Blue Eye centers on Augustus’ efforts to navigate West Point with the help of Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling).
The Pale Blue Eye has a projected audience score of 73.
The Pale Blue Eye drops on Netflix today. It stars Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, Harry Melling, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall.
Is The Pale Blue Eye a true story?
According to NME, some elements of the film are based on the author’s life, but the bulk comes from the fictional novel written by Louis Baynard.
Poe, who served in the US Army for several years as a young man, enlisted in the US Military Academy at West Point in March 1830 at age 21. However, despite his military experience, Poe didn’t fit the culture and was later court-martialed and found guilty of gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders in 1831.
Poe’s military career was (sorry) nevermore. But some have speculated that Poe purposefully had himself court-martialed and even fired a parting shot on his way out by securing funding for his work in writing with the same organization that was giving him the boot.
The rest is history, as Poe became one of the most well-known and celebrated American authors of the last two centuries with famous poems like The Raven and shorts like The Tell-Tale Heart (which The Pale Blue Eye is based on).
Discussing on film’s historical accuracy, director Scott Cooper said, “Of course, this is a work of fiction. What I’m saying is: these events that occur in our film shaped his worldview and helped him become the writer that he became – with the recurring themes that deal with the questions of death, and the effects of decomposition and reanimation of the dead and mourning – all those things that are considered part of his dark romanticism.”
Bale’s character, Detective Augustus Landor, is an entirely fictional character that Baynard (the novel’s original author) created to give Poe a father figure and mentor in his 2003 novel The Pale Blue Eye.
“I needed a detective, somebody who could be Poe’s mentor and father figure as they solved this crime together,” Baynard said. “The name Gus comes from C. Auguste Dupin, who was the detective in Poe’s stories The Murders In The Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter.”
The Pale Blue Eye drops today on Netflix. Are you excited to see Bale suit up as a different type of detective?
#ThePaleBlueEye was great! Outstanding cinematography, awesome murder mystery story! #ChristianBale rocks as Landor but #HarryMelling steals the show as Edgar Allan Poe. Congratulations to #Netflix, the cast and production team for giving us a great start for 2023. pic.twitter.com/uoBZvdkwRo
— Dennis – La Oficina Geek (@LaOficinaGeek) January 5, 2023