The Blue Line was a good film, but it was honestly one of the harder assigned films to get through this semester. I personally have a harder time connecting and ultimately enjoying older films. I am still searching for a film that will change my opinion on this, but I do think that The Thin Blue Line has done that for me.
Aside from my complaints with it being an older film, I did find the story and structure of the film to be interesting. As an African-American man in this country, I often worry about of situations where I could be wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to prison. All throughout film, I kept thinking about this and putting myself in Randall’s shoes and this increasingly made me frustrated. At the same time, I found it hard to feel bad for Randall himself because he is a white man in an older film. Perhaps, I have some buried thoughts I need to sort through.
Regarding style, I am still a bit unsure about how I feel about noir films. I believe that this film captured that vibe and used it to its advantage. However, I feel like I must see more films like this to really form a strong opinion. I did like use of reenactments throughout the film. I never really thought about this as an aspect of documentary making but it definitely makes sense. Who knows, maybe I’ll even use them in some of my future documentaries.