The Thin Blue Line
by Errol Morris
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Harris, Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson, Marshall Touchton, Randall AdamsDirector: Errol Morris
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Cinematographer: Robert Chappell
Writer: Errol Morris
Producer: Brad Fuller
Producer: David Hohmann
Producer: Gary McDonald
Producer: Lindsay Law
Producer: Mark Lipson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Thin Blue Line
Movie Review: Best Documentary ever
Summary: 5 Stars
This film changed the style of documentaries forever. Before this docs were just talking head movies, with some historical footage added for context. Morris uses so many elements to tell the story, and he never tells the names or titles of the people he interviews, and he is never seen or heard. This is a chilling film, witha haunting soundtrack--true classic. A revolutionary film that should be studied by film classes for a good time to come. Just be warned, that many of the conventions used in this film have become commonplace and cliched in many true crime docs you see on Dateline or 20/20, but know that this is where they originated.
Summary of The Thin Blue Line
Academy Award?(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)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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