The Thin Blue Line

1988
15
1h 41m

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

27K

YOUR RATING

Official trailer for Errol Morris' 'The Thin Blue Line'

Play trailer2:40

2 Videos

65 Photos

Crime Documentary Crime Documentary

A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

27K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 12 wins & 5 nominations

Trivia
Errol Morris spent 2-1/2 years tracking down the various players in the Randall Adams case and convincing them to appear in the film.

Goofs
David Harris talks about his older brother drowning at the age of four in 1963. He says it occurred "right after President Kennedy was assassinated I believe. Sometime right after that. During the summer". However Kennedy was killed in the third week of November, well after summer.

Quotes
Melvyn Carson Bruder: Prosecutors in Dallas have said for years - any prosecutor can convict a guilty man. It takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent man.

Crazy credits
Drawings from the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test © 1946, American Orthopsychiatric Association Inc. and Lauretta Bender, M.D.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: Moon Over Parador/Eight Men Out/Running on Empty/The Thin Blue Line/Crossing Delancey (1988)

Soundtracks
Metamorphosis
(uncredited)
Written by Philip Glass

User reviews84

Review

Featured review

10/10

An astonishing look at the criminal justice system.

Along with 1996's Paradise Lost, The Thin Blue Line should be mandatory viewing for those who believe that the criminal justice system eventually convicts only the guilty. It is a stark and shocking look at one man behind bars and the truckloads of evidence that point toward his innocence. Documentarian Errol Morris indirectly argues that, at the very least, this evidence should have presented a "reasonable doubt" to the jury, and near the end of the movie, the audience has little choice but to accept his unbelievable findings. And the film ends with a single scene of just a tape recorder and voices that should be recognized as one of the most powerful endings to a movie, ever. A documentary masterpiece.