AllMovie

As good as his previous two films were (Vernon, Florida and Gates of Heaven), director Errol Morris caught a lot of people, including his fans, by surprise with The Thin Blue Line. Morris had shown affection for quirky people in Vernon and Gates, both of them filmed in an unadorned style. But his third feature displayed not only a seriousness of purpose but also proved to be a technical coming-out party for him. He had developed a camera system which allowed him to talk with his subjects while they looked directly into the lens, connecting them much more strongly to the viewer. That was crucial here, because The Thin Blue Line is, in part, about the reliability of two men: Adams, the accused killer, and David Harris, the real killer. Morris also made the bold decision not only to stage a reenactment of the crime, but to play it over and over from different angles. In this way, he demonstrated how witnesses to the crime might have misinterpreted what they thought they saw; in essence, the viewer becomes a football referee reviewing the videotape of a disputed play from several different angles to render a fair judgment. And this is one documentary where the composer made a significant contribution; Philip Glass' hypnotic score reinforces the sense of sifting and re-sifting the evidence to get at the truth.