"The Thin Blue Line" subverts the style of traditional documentary films, using a semi-documentary method that reproduces the facts to track an unjust police murder, and successfully uncovers the truth of the incident.
The main purpose of the new documentary film is to actively advocate fictional narrative strategies to express reality and advocate "replay". It is difficult to restore the lost truth that belongs to history. Documentary is not the same as history itself. "The Thin Blue Line" slowly enters into the secret inner world of everyone (criminals, judges, policemen, witnesses) and gradually reveals it. The first is Adams, Harris and the police officer who hold their own opinions, and it is difficult to distinguish the true and false case, then the defense lawyer's case analysis, and then the most classic part of the film: three eyewitnesses tell three versions of the crime scene. . And whether the "truth" in their eyes is the truth may only be known by the dead police officer Wood and the murderer. This complicated judicial case serves as a wake-up call for viewers who believe in the reality of superstitious images.
The thin blue line, the blue line refers to the police, and the red symbolizes a breakthrough in this social authority. Harris used his seven crimes to provoke "justice" in the United States, and the so-called incarnation of justice - the police and the judge confidently threw an innocent person into prison. The symbols of authority and fairness in the legal system are actually just tools to satisfy the selfish desires of some people. This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the people who firmly believe in the American judicial system.
Another feature of the film's narrative is the intertextual structure in which the present and the past are intertwined. Character interviews alternate with crime scene reenactments. Near the end, a passage of Harris' childhood memories is suddenly interspersed, which seems to have nothing to do with the case, but lays the groundwork for later revealing the reasons for Harris' crime. Morris cared about the trauma behind the crime with the method of psychoanalysis. In this, the director did not have any directional judgment. He used his calmness and deepness to let the moral and value tendencies of the interviewer be revealed naturally, so that the audience can understand the facts of the case. It's time to take a more humane care and learn to think.
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