Editorial Review:Description:Academy AwardÂ(r)-winner* Errol Morris broke new ground with the 'riveting' (LA Weekly) film that dramatically reenacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas. So powerful and convincing that it helped free an innocent man from prison, The Thin Blue Line is 'one of the finest documentary features ever made' (Boxoffice). On November 28, 1976, when drifter Randall Dale Adams was picked up by teenage runaway David Harris, his fate was sealed. That night, a police officer was shot in cold blood. And though all the facts pointed to Harris, a sociopath with a lengthy rap sheet, Adams was convicted of capital murder. Was Adamsguilty? And if not, can Morris unlock the secrets of this baffling case? *2003: Documentary Feature, The Fog of War (with Michael Williams)
Amazon.com:This landmark award-winning documentary, which revolutionized the form and helped acquit an innocent man of murder, came about almost by accident. Errol Morris had already directed such offbeat documentaries as
Gates of Heaven (concerning pet cemeteries; a favorite of Roger Ebert's) and
Vernon, Florida, which touchingly portrays the small town's eccentric inhabitants. He'd intended to travel to Texas to make a film about the criminal-psychiatry expert James Grigson, or 'Dr. Death' as he came to be known for his frequent testimony against defendants, who were often then sent to death row. When Morris discovered that the doctor was involved in the trial of Randall Dale Adams, a man who, it seemed, had been falsely accused of the highway murder of a police officer, he decided that Adams's story was the real one to tell. Morris's innovative use of repeated dramatization, multiple points of view, talking-head and phone interviews, and symbolism--in concert with Philip Glass's haunting music--establishes that a combination of communitarian zeal and overly eager testimony persuaded the jury to find Adams, a 'drifter' from the Midwest, guilty of the crime, instead of his underage (and, for the death penalty, ineligible) acquaintance, David Harris, who had a criminal record. The 'thin blue line' of police officers separating the public from chaos--as the judge, quoting the D.A. in the case, has it--destabilizes in Morris's world and puts people at risk of injustice as often as it protects them. After serving time for a sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Adams was freed, making Errol Morris his most talented advocate.
--Robert Burns Neveldine
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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My Favorite Documentary EVER
Should be required watching for all those "law and order" types in favor of capital punishment.
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Beware, It CAN happy to YOU
this is a must see documentary! investigative reporting at its best! this story assisted in setting Randall Adams, an innocent man, free. I can't help but think that Errol Morris also wanted to point out how our system has become a big game of wins and losses at any and all expense. unfortunately we have forgotten this lesson all too soon. speaking from experience. Get this documentary and beware. It could happen to you too!
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Awesome film and music
Stylistically incredible film. At the end of the film I was shocked but not surprised that things can get so twisted. The obviously guilty man is set free while the innocent man gets punished. By the way, the score by Philip Glass was the first taste I had of his music. I was hooked.
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The Thin Blue Line
Excellent. Best documentary I have seen. Very effective way of doing all the interviews just by getting comments without interviewer present asking questions. Don't have to get the interviewer's spin through the questions on the topic. Just the facts, ma'am.
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Early Errol Morris film still packs a wallop
Errol Morris' documentary works are unique in that one often remembers the story telling and film making techniques employed as much as the subjects being examined. Here, for example, there's a moody Philip Glass score, artful slow-motion dramatizations of witness testimony, and- in what has evolved into a typical Morris trademark- inserts of props and old movie clips to underscore what interview subjects are saying. In one scene, for instance, we see a haunting image of a swinging watch on the end of a chain when one of the subjects discusses how the female police officer on the scene was ultimately hypnotized to help her recall details of the crime. To his credit, however, Mr. Morris never quite lets his showmanship, as memorable as it can often be, upstage the subject at hand. As a result, "The Thin Blue Line" ultimately resulted in an innocent man being set free.
Unfortunately, viewers won't learn that fact from this DVD, which includes just the movie and no further information about the wheels that were set in motion after the film was released. The only "extra" here is a 27-minute episode of Mr. Morris' "First Person" TV interview program, which features an interview with a man who is an expert on "extreme evil". The interview subject spends the show enthusiastically talking about lovely folks like the Boston Strangler and Hitler, then- in the best moment of the show- suddenly gets tongue tied and is at a loss for words when Morris asks him, "Now, what do you think there is about you that makes you so interested in heinous crimes and truly evil acts?" It's a hoot.
In any event, the TV episode is an interesting little addition to the DVD, and it does tie in somewhat to the theme of "The Thin Blue Line", but I would have preferred some specific, after-the-fact information about the movie itself rather than a sample of Mr. Morris' TV show.
Still, aficionados of true-crime stories and documentary film making shouldn't hesitate to pick up this DVD. More than fifteen years after the fact (yes, it's already been that long since this movie was in theaters), "The Thin Blue Line" remains powerful and engrossing, making you truly care about both the specific case in question and the larger criminal justice issues the case illuminates.
