The Thin Blue Line

Title:              The Thin Blue Line
Director:              Errol Morris
Producer:            Lindsey Law (Exec), Mark Lipson, Gary McDonald, Brad Fuller, David Hohmann
Cinema:                Robert Chappell, Stefan Czapsky
Editor:                   Paul Barnes
Music:                   Phillip Glass
Year:                     1988 (103 minutes)

Synopsis: The Thin Blue Line is the fascinating, controversial true story of the arrest and conviction of Randall Adams for the murder of a Dallas policeman in 1976. Billed as “the first movie mystery to actually solve a murder,” the film is credited with overturning the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood, a crime for which Adams was sentenced to death. With its use of expressionistic reenactments, interview material and music by Philip Glass, it pioneered a new kind of non-fiction filmmaking. Its style has been copied in countless reality-based television programs and feature films.

Review: Now, 21 years after the release of The Thin Blue Line, it would be easy to dismiss Errol Morris’ film as nothing more than a 48 Hours-type mystery. The film follows the formula that is used today to investigate and report crime, war, politics, etc. But the truth is that the formula that is used today didn’t exist 21 years ago. It was Morris’ The Thin Blue Line that created the formula. That, in and of itself, makes the film worth seeing.

The Thin Blue Line does an incredible job of investigating the murder of a Dallas police office and the conviction of the wrong man for the murder. Morris then does an incredible job of documenting the evidence through interviews and re-enactments. The finished product not only became an award-winning documentary, but also served to free an innocent man from prison.

Had I seen The Thin Blue Line when it was released in 1988, I have no doubt that I would have been enthralled. Today, investigative docu-dramas are fairly commonplace. In fact, in comparison to today’s docu-dramas, The Thin Blue Line seems a little slow and methodical. But to judge it against newer documentaries would be unfair. The Thin Blue Line was groundbreaking when it was released and it continues to hold up well more than two decades later.

(3.5 out of 5.0)

The following is not a trailer for The Thin Blue Line. Instead, it is a film clip of several different documentary film directors, including Errol Morris, talking about The Thin Blue Line.