Is Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye based on a novel?

The Netflix film The Pale Blue Eye is based on a 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard.

The film adaptation stars Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and several others.

The story is set in the early 19th century in New York where veteran detective Augustus Landor solves a gruesome murder with the help of a cadet named Edgar Allan Poe.

Let's take a closer look at the novel The Pale Blue Eye is adapted from.

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Some aspects of Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye are based on reality

Even though The Pale Blue Eye is a fictional story, there is some historical truth to it. The cadet that Augustus Landor associates himself with is none other than the legendary writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was one of the pioneers of the horror genre and is often considered one of the greatest writers of all time.

But before Poe took up writing, he was in the United States Military Academy. He served in the army for several years before joining the academy at the age of 21. The author once said that despite being in the army before, he struggled with harsh discipline at the academy. In 1931, he was court-martialed and found guilty of gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders.

He claimed that he did it on purpose so that he could be released and focus on his other interests. That was what kicked off his monumental writing career. He went on to write The Raven and short stories like The Pit And The Pendulum, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, and The Tell-Tale Heart.

In an interview with Tudum, the film's director, Scott Cooper, spoke about the story of The Pale Blue Eye and its clash with real life. He said that the book is a work of fiction and added that the events of the film shaped Poe's worldview and helped him become the writer.

The events the director is referring to are the recurring themes that deal with the questions of death, the effects of decomposition and the reanimation of the death and mourning. Cooper said that all of this is considered a part of Poe's "dark romanticism."

Speaking about Christian Bale's character, Det. Augustus Landor, and said:

"I needed a detective, somebody who could be Poe’s mentor and father figure as they solved this crime together."

He continued to say that the name of the detective came from a character named C. Auguste Dupin, a detective from Poe's stories The Murders In The Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter.

Meanwhile, the last name Landor originated from Poe’s short story, Landor’s Cottage from which the original novelist was even inspired to create the detective’s home.

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What is The Pale Blue Eye about?

Directed by Scott Cooper, The Pale Blue Eye follows the story of a skilled detective, Augustus Landor, and his partner, a young Edgar Allan Poe, who solve a series of gruesome murders in West Point, New York, in 1830.

The film's synopsis, according to its YouTube trailer, reads:

"West Point, 1830. A world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe."

The Pale Blue Eye was released in select cinemas on December 23, 2022, before its streaming release on January 6, 2023, by Netflix.