When I first started watching The Thin Blue Line (Morris, 1988) I was caught off guard because I had never watched a movie like this before. I thought it was interesting how there were scenes of actors recreating the crime scenes. That made it partially fictional to me. However, I also enjoyed it because I was able to see what went down from different perspectives. In A New History of Documentary Film, by Betsy A. McLane, it mentions how Morris has answered ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to his films being documentaries. I like how he doesn’t fit them into one category. Morris further discusses his style,” I investigated a murder with a camera – an oddity in and of itself, it was not telling a story about a murder investigation, it was the investigation – and evidence was accumulated with that camera.” (page 344) That accurately describes the movie, because it makes you question who’s the real murder as you find out new evidence through interviews. Instead of presenting facts like a story about an investigation it keeps bringing up new evidence which makes the film the investigation.
I also enjoyed the pictures and B-roll used to show the story. For example, for B-roll they zoomed into the Dallas map or the clock hand swaying back and forth. It added character to the story and the interviews. Also, the music guided us on how we should feel and it added to the drama of the story. The music, B-roll, and pictures helped carry the narrative. It took what could’ve been a boring film with back to back interviews to something exciting, and entertaining,
By the end of the movie, I was confused/annoyed/outraged that Randall Adams was in jail. It didn’t make sense because Harris seemed like the murderer based on the film. It also left unanswered questions about what happened to the woman police officer who kept changing her story? Does nothing happen to her? What made her change her story? Some parts were ambiguous. The Thin Blue Line (Morris, 1988) made me further appreciate the endless possibilities of documentary and how there are always new ways to make a film.