The Thin Blue Line (DVD, 2005)

The Thin Blue Line is a term for police and police forces. The term suggests that a thin line of police officers is all that prevents civilized society from settling into anarchy. The term is sometimes used in the derogatory, against police who cover up criminal activity of fellow police officers.

The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 documentary about the murder of a Texas police officer who had stopped a car for a routine traffic citation. Two suspects, one a underaged boy with a criminal record named David Ray Harris, who bragged that he had murdered a policeman. and the other a 28-year-old drifter with no criminal record named Randall Dale Adams.

Adams was innocent. Adams was convicted.

The film was directed by Errol Morris
Score by Philip Glass

The film was entered into evidence in Adams' federal appeal but since it was marketed as a "nonfiction" film rather than a documentary, it was not entered into evidence in the case itself. For this reason also, the film was disqualified from the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Adams was finally granted a retrial and released after eleven years in prison.

Errol Morris is a genius, this film is a little different then most of his docu- films, but it is still Errol Morris.


willtrib - EasyCityBooks NOLA

I understand that this film was initially intended as documentary exploring the death penalty and a psychiatrist known as Dr. Death whose courtroom testimonies had resulted in an extraordinary number of death penalty verdicts.
It took an unexpected turn for the filmmaker whose interviews/candid conversations during filming elicited what amounted to a confession from a cop killer and the basis for the reversal of a death sentence that had been imposed upon Randall Adams years before and eventually aided in freeing him.
Very riveting to see this unfold in front of you as the viewer and a remarkable example of documentary filming and at the same time, a sad commentary on a system that could very well have succeeded in putting an innocent man to death.
I would also recommend the book Randall v Texas as a companion piece to this film.