The Pale Blue Eye

In 1830 at the new United States Military Academy at West Point, a cadet is found hanged, and the case grows more disturbing when his heart is discovered to have been removed from his body. Fearing the effect on the academy's reputation, its leadership brings in Augustus Landor, a former New York constable, to investigate. Blocked by the cadets' code of silence, Landor enlists the help of one of them: an eccentric young man named Edgar Allan Poe, who writes poetry and dislikes military discipline.

Scott Cooper directed and wrote the screenplay, working from Louis Bayard's novel. Christian Bale, who plays Landor, also produced alongside Cooper and Tyler Thompson. The two had worked together before on Out of the Furnace and Hostiles, and this film followed Cooper's Antlers in his filmography. Harry Melling plays Poe, with Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Simon McBurney and Timothy Spall in supporting roles.

The film runs 128 minutes and was released in December 2022. It carries a 6 out of 10 average from 189 critics' reviews, while audiences are somewhat warmer: 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb from about 140,000 votes and 6.8 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller voter base. Against a reported budget of 72 million dollars, these middling scores suggest a mixed reception for the adaptation.