[HorrorScience] The Academy Murders - The Pale Blue eye (2022)

Reading time: 8 minutes

YEAR

2022

DIRECTOR

Scott Cooper

SCRIPT

Louis Bayard (original story), Scott Cooper

DURATION

128 minutes

DISTRIBUTION

Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall and Robert Duvall

I have always found thrillers (or suspense) very interesting, since they tend to be the kind that catch you and make you think about theories about how they will end, which in turn invites you to finish the movie to see your level of detective skills.

I became interested in this genre by watching the films of Alfred Hitchcock, as the famous director focused on it to create his filmography, while adding small elements of comedy or romance to make the story more digestible for the majority audience.

By chance, I discovered a movie calledThe Pale Blue Eye(translated asThe crimes of the academyin Spanish), which is based on the book of the same name, written by Louis Bayard and published in 2003.

The synopsis of this movie was basically that a detective (played by Christian Bale)He had to solve a murder that was happening at a military academyand, to achieve it,He would receive the help of the writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe.

When I read that Edgar Allan Poe was a character in the movie I raised my eyebrows and thought, how ridiculous! Why would anyone want to use a real character in a work of fiction? But at the same time alsoI got carried away by curiosity,Since in my adolescence I read quite a few Poe stories and I doubted whether in the film we would see something related to them that would justify their presence.

The beginning of the film shows us Augustus Landor traveling through the mountains during what seems to be the beginning of winter, until he unexpectedly meets two officials from a nearby military academy who were looking for him. Landor has a great track record as a researcher and because of this,The military requires your attention in a delicate matter, because one of the students has appeared hangingof a tree

Although he does not seem too interested in the idea, Landor decides to investigate the case, only to realize that it is much more macabre than it initially seemed, since when he sees the body he discovers that his chest has been cut open to extract the heart and, in addition, he has remains of a note between his fingers, which could lead to the murderer.

[HorrorScience] The Academy Murders – The Pale Blue eye (2022)

The soldiers urge Landor to be discreet and quick, but they also tell him that he must give up his habit of drinking during the investigation, something that Landor will completely ignore, since the cantina will be one of the places he will frequent the most during the following days. This will help youmeet a young military academy cadet named Edgar Allan Poe,who proves insightful enough to gain Landor's trust.

Due to limited progress in research, Landorhe is forced to trust Poe to investigatewithin the academy if there is a group of cadets who are in some type of cult, a mission that Poe will gladly accept, despite knowing that not only is he putting himself at risk, but he will also not receive merit or financial compensation.

The discovery of a new body and the disappearance of a third cadet, both friends of the victim of the case that Landon was investigating, will only complicate things, since the academy begins to question Landon's methods, and he begins to see that some pieces of the puzzle do not fit. For his part, Poe has begun to rub shoulders with some more popular cadets, which leads him tomeet the sister of one of them and fall in love with her charms, thus keeping him away from his task of investigating.

The crimes of the academyIt is a simple film in its approach: a detective (and his young assistant) investigate a case that becomes complicated and twisting until they manage to reach one or more conclusions. It is nothing new, it is a common approach in the genre, which, if carried out efficiently, usually catches the viewer. Looking at the different reviews (both positive and negative) that this feature film has had, I see thatthere is some division about the film, especially with regard to the end of it, sinceIt can be somewhat unsatisfying, depending on your opinion of the protagonists.

Christian Bale is not a bad actor and I think he plays the role of Landor well, a man who lives in isolation and prefers to spend his free time drinking or reading, rather than interacting with other people. We're not talking about the actor's best performance, in fact I'd almost say he just does it well, but that's more than enough to push this film in the desired direction.

Harry Melling plays Edgar Allan Poe, a character who in some ways ismore convincing or interesting than Landor himself, although that is perhaps a bit unfair, since the best scenes of the characters are when they are together. Poe is represented as someone intelligent, romantic, nostalgic, with a touch of madness and who seems to adore even the most disastrous landscapes (an image that fits quite well with the one we usually have of the writer on whom he is based). It seems extremely strange to me to see a real character in a fantastic story (and in fact, I don't understand what need there is for the character to be Edgar Allan Poe, when he could have been called something else and kept the same script), but I'm not going to lie, Poe fits into this story mainly because of his aesthetics and tone.

The rest of the characters are those that we could call “passing by”, except perhaps the members of the Marquis family,who constantly go from allies to suspects. In that same family,we will meet the actress Gillian Anderson(who many will know for having played Dana Scully inThe X-Files) playing the disturbing role of the mother, which has a couple of interesting scenes.

The film takes place in isolated environments,cubiertos de nieve, con árboles negros y retorcidos o frías estancias para, de vez en cuando, dar paso a la calidez de algun hogar o el interior de la cantina. La frialdad se encuentra en el paisaje, en la academia, en los militares y en el mismísimo Landor. En el momento en el cual Poe conoce a Lea Marquis, se añade un componente romántico, que se usa paradarnos escenas que podríamos llamar de “romance gótico”. A nivel visual, la película me ha encantado pese a que, como digo, prácticamente estemos aislados en un ambiente oscuro y nevado durante la mayor parte del tiempo.

En lo que respecta a la investigación, puestenemos bastantes tópicos que pueden dañar a la películadependiendo del gusto de cada uno, como que el segundo asesinato parezca estar hecho por un imitador o que, cuando parece que todo está resuelto, en realidad no es lo que parece. A mí me pareció una película interesante y sus giros de trama finales no me han desagradado, pero puedo entender que haya personas que hubiesen preferido un desenlace distinto.

Los crímenes de la Academia(The Pale Blue Eye) está disponible en Netflix, así que creo que todos los amantes de las películas de suspense y aquellos que sientan cierta predilección por Edgar Allan Poe y todo lo que le rodea, deberían darle una oportunidad.

Curiosidades de Los crímenes de la academia

Edgar Allan Poe asistió realmente a la academia militar de West Point, igual que en la película.
El título original de la obra (The Pale blue eye) hace referencia a una descripción incluida en un relato de Poe (The Tell-Tale Heart, conocida en español comoEl corazón delator)
Scott Cooper quería hacer esta película años antes, pero consideraba que Bale era demasiado joven para hacer el papel protagonista y demasiado mayor para hacer de Poe, de manera que el proyecto se retrasó hasta que consideró oportuno retomarlo.