Film: The Thin Blue Line

Director: Errol Morris
Genre: Documentary
Source: USA (1988)
Rating: NR
Location/Format: Netflix Streaming
Grade:C

The Thin Blue Line is one of those films that occasionally makes its way onto "Great Films" lists (or at least "Great Documentaries" lists), in part for the way it advanced the art of nonfiction film. Unfortunately, I watched this film in the complete wrong setting, so I will have to take a major portion of the blame for the fact that I was never fully drawn into the story. I know there's a lot of fascinating information here--perjury, racial bias, police misbehavior, legal loopholes, and so on and so forth--but somehow when I split my focus between the film and work/gym time, I just couldn't get enthralled enough to remember much about it. It may  also be the case that the film's style, complete with crime scene recreations totally reminiscent of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries from 1988 (the year of the film's release), threw me off a little. Again, that's my fault, but it is what it is. I loved that should when I was younger.

That said, there is a lot fascinating here, in part due to the after-effects of the film. The apparently-wrongfully-convicted Randall Adams had his case re-examined and overturned. He was freed from prison about a year later. So I guess documentary films do have the power to change the world at times. 

Alternate Film Title: "Hitchhiking: Still a Bad Idea"