The Thin Blue Line

Name: The Thin Blue Line
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1988
Duration: 101 min
Cast: Randall Adams, David Harris, Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson, Marshall Touchton

Errol Morris19881h 41mDocumentary

Why we chose it

Can a film save a life? This one literally did, when Errol Morris’s investigation cleared Randall Adams, who was serving life for killing a police officer, a crime he didn’t commit. Set to Philip Glass’s music, it has a chill that gets under your skin.

Synopsis

In Dallas in 1976, someone shot a police officer who had pulled over a car driving without its lights on, and he died on the spot. Randall Adams was sentenced to death, though a teenager was also in the car and the whole prosecution rested on his testimony. Twelve years later, detectives, lawyers and a judge go back over that night, and so do both men from the car, but none of their accounts fit together.