Occasionally, I get follow up comments about my opinion on the audio description for a film that I saw a while back. The first of these was The pale Blue eye, a film I reviewed a few years ago, but could not remember the audio description for it at all. So, my first quality check in a while, is also a second look. The movie stars Christian Bale, is directed by Scott Cooper, and is on Netflix. It would be classified as a dark/gothic mystery, with a tinge of horror.
We get some opening text that is a quote from an author. the first major part of the description features a body hanging from the tree where the branch has bent, and the body is actually touching the ground with the legs bent. While this doesn’t necessarily state anything about how long the body has been there, it is likely the suggestion is… a while. either that or they hung an obese man who was too heavy for the branch they put him on. Either way, he’s dead.
Opening title.
Next, we get some excellent location and character description. We’re told about this river, with a man kneeling and washing his hands off in the shallows. he is white, has a beard, is wearing a suit, including a top hat. Some of his items are not currently on his person, but they are nearby as he washes. He is also dark haired.
Some other men enterr, soldiers. One has gray hair and mutton chops. We also learn the name of the man is Landor.
We transition to Westpoint. “A large stone building.” Then, in an office, a man with curly hair sits behind a desk and sips from a mug. So far, this audio description is excellent. No location has been over described, but we also have moved pretty quickly through each location. What I would say, is that this is a period film, so I’m looking at some point for some recognition of that in the description.
We learn the man who hanged himself was Fry, and he did it last night. So, he must have been too heavy for the branch. In a lab, we see that Fry had his heart cut out.
They are now at the rope, talking to another cadet. Back at the body, it lies in a bathtub. This scene doesn’t have a ton of audio description, but just enough that you get the idea of what Christian Bale’s detective has figured out.
Landor examines a footprint in the snow, when a dark haired cadet joins him. And he’s gone. Back to a man with mutton chops. Landor approaches a bar. Landor sees a man in the bar. I do wish the bar had more description. we seem to be getting great character description, as well as actions, but for a historical film set in the 1800’s, I do wonder if we get any representation of the look of the time. The man he’s meeting is Edgar Allen Poe.
A disemboweled sheep hangs from a tree trunk. We’re in another cadet interview, but the transition audio description could have been better. There are a lot of dark haired cadets around this place. we might need to differentiate them. they get word of the mutilated sheep.
Landor meets again with Poe, and asks him to be his secret assistant. Landor has a photo of a young blonde white woman, and also has a ribbon he kisses. A flashback to the woman twirling as a figure approaches. Landor has a knock at the door. Lots of dialog. That is really blocking the film from having too much description. Landor and Poe realize they are looking for a woman. We have a flashback where Poe watches a young, curly haired woman through a window, and tears stain her cheeks.
Later, Landor lies in bed with Patsy. I don’t remember Patsy getting a lot of description before this scene. Daylight, cadets march, and Landor is walking around on his own. He plays with some ice, sits in a chair, and stares off. Poe approaches a bench and finds a note. The bench had some description about a lion carving. The next scene, Landor goes to a house where butchered animal carcasses hang. He moves slowly through. A black “semi-opaque” substance covers the windows. He goes down a steep staircase. Wintery light shines through. Melted candle wax. Dust and debris. We’re getting a lot of good little visual elements to help shape this building. He touches the floor, revealing a divet.
Poe has joined, an. They approach a stone building. “An old bearded man’. The bearded man is Pepe. They read a book.
Back to another group of cadets. Later, cadets sit around a candlelit table. Good thing they seem to all have dark hair. Ha. They can move as one unit.
Poe drinks with Ballinger. Poe plays cards with the cadets. There’s also someone named Artemis here. Later, Hitchcock finds Poe. I wish this creepy location had more description.
A blond woman frantically rubs her dress, and Landor creeps toward her. It was just a vision of his wife. He finds the dress in a closet, and crumbles. He sees Maddie twirling again in the flashback. We see her funeral. After a funeral a woman gives Landor a small black book. Maybe that was Fry’s funeral. It seems so.
A middle aged blonde woman. The character descriptions here are really solid. This woman, Julia, asks a lot of questions. Later, Poe and some cadets watch a woman playing piano. The girl was Leah. Landor decodes a message. Poe escorts a woman through a graveyard. He gestures to a bench outside a mausoleum. Leah collapses and convulses. Poe leans over her, and Leah is OK. They are walking later. I could not possibly spoil this movie at this point, because I have apparently completely forgotten it. Too many things have happened that I didn’t remember. I don’t remember who “the killer” is.
we get a mention of “dense fog”, and a lantern with Poe. he seems on edge on this dark forest path, and Ballinger attacks him. Landor kicks Ballinger off Poe, and chases him away. Later, Landor is at the pub with Poe. Landor again lies in bed with Patsy.
Artemis and other cadets are at attention, being watched by Landor. Landor answers the door for Hitchcock, who says Ballinger is missing. We get description about the ensuing search party.”A tall jagged cave”. Ballinger hangs, his trousers are down, and there’s a wound on his chest. In the next scene, marquis mentions thatt Ballister was castrated also. Landor gets chewed out, and the Marquis suggest it might have been Poe. Then Landor learns Poe had a “tussle” with Poe. Later Landor sits with Poe. Landor yells at Poe a lot about lying about fry. There’s about an hour left of this.
Later, some of the surviving cast have a discussion. Artemis, Julia, Landor. Julia smashes a plate. It is very heated. Leah is also present. Landor eyes a book with an animal skin on the spine. They sit in a pair of armchairs. Artemis basically describes that Leah has dealt with seizures her whole life, just medical science being what it is, they have no clue what is going on. Just a sickness. Poe watches Leah with rapt attention. Upstairs, Landor carries a small lamp into a dark room. He opens a drawer. Landor finds a suspicious book. Landor looks to a closed door to his right and steps toward it. Really good description of the action in this house. It’s actually amazing how much dialog is in this film, which is somewhat prohibiting extra description of the setting.
Poe is having a deep talk with Leah. “Falling sickness”. Love that. Old timey medicine. Landor confronts Marquis with what he has figured out, asking if his daughter, Leah, speaks with the dead. We really had no idea what we were doing back then did we? Like, what’s scary is that laws are still on the books based on people who believed in falling sickness and talking with the dead. Oh snap! Leah has a human heart! Is it Poe’s? Is this how Edgar Allen Poe died? Landor keeps yelling about Marquis for his ignorance.
Julia, Artemis, and Leah begin a ritual.
Landor gets there in time. Landor disarms Artemis, but they fight on anyway. Leah is hit by a falling beam.
A new day at the snow covered campus. We get a wrap up of what happened to everyone. Later, Landor is at home, and Poe arrives. they go inside and drink some pale liquor. Poe had an amazing revelation about who wrote the notes. We learn of how Maddie died, being gang raped by cadets. So, the killer is obviously… well… spoiler. I’m shocked that there is 24 minutes left. Of what? Credits? How are they going to stretch this ending? The flashback featuring Maddie is actually pretty long. She dealt with depression after the attack, apparently surviving. later, killing herself. Our lead men cry. This flashback sequence of how everything in the past happened is a lot longer than i gave it credit for. We see how Fry was attacked and hung. this ending is actually pretty inventive, though Poe talks a lot, so the description is a little light. Poe is upset, even though he would literally be dead without Landor. Landor shows Poe a silver necklace. The two men slowly part. Very emotional. This is why the ending was 24 minutes.Landor later goes to where Maddie killed herself and lets the ribbon go. Fade to black.
international Digital Center
Written By Dakota Green
Narrated By Liz Gutman
Very weird to do a quality check on a film I did see a long time ago, especially with this powerhouse team doing the narration.
Quality Of Narrator: I never had a problem with Liz doing the narration. this film really isn’t dark enough or scary to warrant a deeper or rougher tone. It is a mystery. Everything was pronounced well. She doesn’t do overly performative description, but it also isn’t flat. It seems to perfectly walk the line.
Grade: 10/10
Quality Of Sound mixing/Engineering: Perfect as far as i could tell. I never had a problem hearing the narration, nor did I ever catch that weird audio ducking that happens when the movie itself has to dramatically change volume to accommodate the AD track.
Grade: 10/10
Description Of Characters: Overall, really pretty good. We didn’t ever get a notice that anyone in the cast was not white, but all the actors I’m familiar with (Christian Bale, Robert Duvall, Timothy Spall, Lucy Boynton) are white. Based on historical accuracy, it would likely be an all white cast. Westpoint wasn’t integrated at this time. There were some costume descriptions, and even hair and style. Some men had beards. the character description was pretty damn perfect, except for the amount of “dark haired cadets”.
Grade: 9.5/10
Description Of location/Scenery: this is where i felt like I wanted more. though, we got a lot of props/objects, and things that were part of the mystery at hand. but the buildings themselves felt plain, interiors felt limited, and there really was nothing to indicate the time period except for things the cast verbally said. The exteriors were done well in setting the moods of foreboding forests, but I would say that with that in mind, this film has a ton of dialog. I do wonder if there weren’t a few choices that Dakota could have made slightly different to help define the actual look of the whole piece, in terms of it being from the 1800’s. I also really didn’t catch any wasted time. it’s maybe the thing that disappointed me the most, but at the same time, I’m not sure how much the needle could have moved. And with it being a mystery, all the clues were there.
Grade: 8/10
Genre Specific Description: this is primarily a mystery. As I already established, the clues all seem to be there. Nothing was revealed too early, or tipped the hat too much in one favor.If I used sub-genres, like dark, gothic, horror, or period, it met all of those with varying results. Yes, there’s a darkness, and the audio description finds it when it is there. It lacks a bit of the period flare, as I mentioned, and it is barely a horror film, but the few times ‘gore” is present, we did get a description of it. like, those eviscerated sheep.
I liked the movie more than I remembered, and I thought the audio description track worked on almost every single level except perhaps some locations, and time period. But, I didn’t see how much could change, since the script itself is so dialog heavy. I’m not sure why I needed to take another pass on this. Maybe I was unfair to it the first time. i don’t like revisiting my reviews, because films improve and also decline sometimes with multiple viewings. I thought the end was clever, and while not Christian Bale’s best work, it is a strong film.
Fresh: Final Grade: B+
Audio description Grade: (47/50) A
Thanks for joining me on this endeavor.
