The Thin Blue Line (1988)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

the3rdman

The banality with which Randall's life is treated by the justice system is terrifying.

12 years 1 month ago

Big A2

Now THIS is how you make a goddamn documentary.

12 years 8 months ago

george4mon

that was great and frustrating i feel so sorry for randall :(

13 years ago

I think this is a much better documentary in retrospect than while watching. The endless repetition of the same Glass song along with the re-enactments (bang bang bang!) grow old quick if you notice them, but the majority of the time my skin was covered in goosebumps from the complete insanity of nearly everybody involved. "Is he innocent?" "Did you ask him?" "He's always said he's innocent" "Well there you go. Criminals always lie."

12 years 10 months ago

Local Hero -- aka MestnyiGeroi

Thank goodness, indeed. Yet if all the anti-Fed, small-govt, states-rights types had their way, the whole country would be run by local, good-ol-boy agencies like those in Dallas County.

11 years 8 months ago

peterskb45

Opened the door to Serial, The Jinx, Making a Murderer, etc...

7 years 6 months ago

Siskoid

The Thin Blue Line is a famous documentary, important because it forced the judicial system to reopen a case and let a falsely convicted man to go free after more than a dozen years in prison. Not that this is part of the documentary; I had to look it up. The film actually plays detective extremely effectively, not really choosing sides in this 1970s murder of a policeman and letting the evidence speak for itself. Regardless of what the original jury heard all those year ago, we get a more complete picture, see all the discrepancies, and whether or not we come to the conclusion that this miscarriage of justice was willfully perpetrated against the convicted man, it shows just HOW law enforcement and the courts can fail us. Which is quite frankly terrifying. It could literally happen to anyone. Knowing that it was sorted in the end, though BECAUSE the film was made, offers some kind of relief. Without it, you'd just be left shouting at the screen about the unfairness of it all. Meticulous documentary film making.

8 years ago

myopia

Morris is an amazing director.

13 years ago

mcmakattack

Flawlessly executed. Gripping storytelling through editing and interviews the whole time. You can see some biases poke through , but they seem almost vindicated or reflected in the biases of the judges and police officers themselves. The convicting judge says himself that one is supposed to be stoic when presiding over the court, but he couldn't help but be brought to tears by the prosecution. The member of the defense council said it best "justice miscarried."

2 years 1 month ago