Plot Of The Thin Blue Line
While the actual impact of some of the films on this list is hard to calculate, there’s no denying that director Errol Morris’ famed documentary The Thin Blue Line actually made a difference, if only in the life of one man. Originally released in 1988, the film tells the story of Randall Dale Adams, a man who was incorrectly sentenced to death for the murder of a Dallas police officer.
Using extensive research and a number of stylized reenactments, Morris used his film to illustrate that eyewitness testimonies of the crime were unreliable, and that a number of other witnesses in the trial had committed perjury. As a result of the publicity that surrounded the release of The Thin Blue Line, Adams was eventually given a chance at a retrial, acquitted of the murder charge, and given back his freedom. The film is now regarded as a classic of the documentary genre, and its style of crime scene reenactments was hugely influential on subsequent films and television shows.
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