The Pale Blue Eye movie storyline. West Point Academy, 1830. With the lifeless body of a troubled trainee found hanging from a tree branch, grief-stricken former New York constable Augustus Landor arrives at the wintry military post.
As the suspicious suicide case pulls the able crime-solver out of his profound depression, Landor embarks on a challenging, time-sensitive mission to collect clues. After all, the dead can speak. But faced with the students’ impenetrable silence and blood-chilling evidence of corpse desecration, the grizzled investigator will need all the help he can get to shed light on the mysterious death. Does mournful Cadet Edgar Allan Poe know more than he lets on?
The Pale Blue Eye is a 2022 American mystery thriller film written and directed by Scott Cooper, adapted from the 2006 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. 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 in 1830 West Point, New York, as he 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 was released in select cinemas on December 23, 2022, before its streaming release on January 6, 2023, by Netflix.
About the Story
In October 1830, alcoholic retired detective Augustus Landor is asked by the military to investigate the hanging of Cadet Leroy Fry at the United States Military Academy. Landor is a widower whose daughter Mattie ran off a few years ago.
After Fry was hanged, his heart was removed from his body. Examining the corpse, Landor finds a small fragment of a note in Fry’s hand. Marks suggest that he did not hang himself but was murdered. Landor secretly enlists the help of Edgar Allan Poe, another cadet at the academy. Poe and Landor deduce that the note was summoning Fry to a secret meeting. After a cow and a sheep are found butchered with their hearts removed, it is suspected that the murder could be linked to black magic rituals.
Another cadet, Ballinger, is found hanged with his heart and genitals removed. A third cadet, Stoddard, disappears; Landor presumes Stoddard had reason to believe he was next in line to be killed. Landor and Poe suspect the family of Dr. Daniel Marquis, who performed the autopsy on Fry. Particular suspicion is on his son Artemus and his daughter Lea, who suffers from random seizures. Landor confronts Dr. Marquis, who admits that he resorted to black magic to cure Lea of her seizures.
Poe is drugged and finds Artemus and Lea about to cut out his heart in accordance with the ritual. Landor rescues Poe, but the building catches fire and Lea and Artemus die. Thinking that the case is solved, the military thanks Landor for his service. However, Poe confronts Landor with his realization that the handwriting on the note fragment in Fry’s hand matches that of Landor. It becomes apparent that Landor was the killer of the cadets.
Two years earlier, Landor’s daughter Mattie was raped by Fry, Ballinger, and Stoddard after attending her first ball. Traumatized, she killed herself by jumping off a cliff. Landor pretended that she ran away. Distraught, he set out to avenge his daughter. He left the note for Fry, luring him to a lonely spot before hanging him. A patrol happened to walk by so he was forced to leave the body there. Lea and Artemus stole Fry’s 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 desecrated Fry’s body.
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Starring: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Hadley Robinson, Timothy Spall, Robert Duvall
Screenplay by: Scott Cooper
Production Design by: Stefania Cella
Cinematography by: Masanobu Takayanagi
Film Editing by: Dylan Tichenor
Costume Design by: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Set Decoration by: Jane Madden
Art Direction by: Michael E. Goldman, Troy Sizemore, Corey Sweazen
Music by: Howard Shore
MPAA Rating: R for some violent content and bloody images.
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: December 23, 2022 (United States), January 6, 2023 (Netflix)
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