The Thin Blue Line

source: The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line

Errol Morris does a magnificent job in what I believe is his best documentary. Wonderfully shot and conceptualized, this is more like the greatest Unsolved Mysteries episode ever. Even though the film was virtually all interviews, it really brings out the quirks and the trivial natural of eyewitness reports. Its also a moment frozen in time, a time when racism still shaped the judicial system and the good old boy system extended further than politics. The score by Phillip Glass was also amazing. There are so many little indicators of the individual's personalities within the film, sometimes it appears comical or scary. Quite an achievement for a film which is so confined and claustrophobic.

A stunning documentary by Errol Morris which was absurdly written off as "pseudo-journalism," and "overly-subjective," by the critics at the time. Morris makes no pretense of being "objective," with his topic; in fact, the actual topic of the film is subjectivity. A man is convicted for murder in Texas on extremely thin evidence but the opaque wheels of justice simply crank him into death row without a second thought. Morris worked as an investigative journalist in uncovering the man's innocence, made the film, and eventually got his conviction overturned because of its persuasiveness. Scenes of the crime are reconstructed and dramatized by Morris to fill in the point of view of the interviewee (not to demonstrate the truth), and the film gradually and compellingly puts together the missing fragments of the case, and turns truth on its backside. This is a brilliant documentary, and I'm not employing hyperbole when I say it is the In Cold Blood of the cinematic form.

"The Thin Blue Line" recounts the infamous case of Randall Dale Adams, convicted to a death penalty for a crime he didn't commit. It tells a griping story of a man's struggle to prove he is innocent and the fight against real life American injustice presented in a documentary never seen before or since. A must watch for any amateur sleuth, film fan or aspiring film director.

Along with 1996's Paradise Lost, The Thin Blue Line should be mandatory viewing for those who believe that the criminal justice system eventually convicts only the guilty. It is a stark and shocking look at one man behind bars and the truckloads of evidence that point toward his innocence. Documentarian Errol Morris indirectly argues that, at the very least, this evidence should have presented a "reasonable doubt" to the jury, and near the end of the movie, the audience has little choice but to accept his unbelievable findings. And the film ends with a single scene of just a tape recorder and voices that should be recognized as one of the most powerful endings to a movie, ever. A documentary masterpiece.