Films › Documentary
The Thin Blue Line
Directed by Errol Morris, 1988
Morris used stylised reenactments, a Philip Glass score and interviews shot straight down the lens, which was heavily criticised and then universally adopted. Repeated reenactments show contradictory testimony rather than asserting a single truth. The film directly caused a conviction to be overturned, which is worth studying alongside its methods. Its visual grammar defined the modern true-crime documentary. Cinematographer Robert Chappell shoots the reenactments with heightened, near-noir lighting and slow motion, marking them visually as constructed testimony rather than fact, a distinction the courtroom drama genre usually blurs. Editor Paul Barnes cuts between contradictory accounts of the same event without favouring one visually, forcing the audience to do the analytical work. Screenwriters and editors working in true crime should study how formal repetition, not narration, builds the case.
What to watch for
Watch the reenactments and note that each one is attributed to a specific unreliable account.
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