Before Serial, The Jinx, and Making a Murderer, there was this Errol Morris documentary.
This isnt a new thing.
How have we come to the belief that we have?
Is justice served by the various mechanisms in our society?
Is the law just?
And on and on and on and on and on.
Real-life tragedy, murder, and how society does or doesnt deal with it.
The films general argument?
Adams was released from jail in 1989.
Morris unique visual style.
The strength ofThe Thin Blue Linelies not only in what is being argued, buthowits being argued.
In his documentary work, Morris has pioneered the use of a camera dubbed the Interrotron.
The result is unnervingly intimate interviews in which the subjects seem to be speaking directly with the audience.
There is no third party.
On television were used to seeing people interviewed sixty-minutes-style.
There is Mike Wallace or Larry King, and the camera is off to the side.
Hence, we, the audience, are also off to the side.
Were the fly-on-the-wall, so to speak, watching two people talking.
But weve lost something.
We all know when someone makes eye contact with us.
It is a moment of drama.
Regardless, its a moment withdramaticvalue.
We know when people make eye contact with us, look away and then make eye contact again.
Its an essential part of communication.
And yet, it is lost in standard interviews on film.
That is, until the Interrotron.
The result is mesmerizing.
You cant turn away.
Its one of the things that makes them unique.
How much did she see?
Where was she positioned when the shooting occurred?
So when we see that reenactment, the reenactment isnt showing us what happened.
Its inviting us tothinkabout the question,Was she in or out of the patrol car?
What could she have seen?
What did she probablynotsee, because of her position at the time of the shooting?
Its a reenactment thats investigative as much for me as it is for someone watching the film.
The best prestige movies and TV not only have high production values, but challenge the viewer.
They demand more of the audience and more of themselves.
And not just that.
What an amazing story!
I should have written it up at the time, and I didnt.
I still should write it up.
InThe Thin Blue Line, you see just the tip of an iceberg.
You dont see the story of the investigation itself, which is one of the most remarkable detective stories.
Its an amazing story, and something I am immensely proud of.
Im proud of the movie, but Im even more proud of the investigation underlying the movie.
People like prestige true crime media because it gives them a role in the investigation.
It makes them feel as if they have a hand in solving the crime and carrying out justice.
Even if they didnt.
That failed to protect us.
If the police come up with a story, they dont look for any evidence that would suggest otherwise.
And if you dont look for evidence, you dont find it.
