The Thin Blue Line

Synopsis

It's not often that a film tries to affect real change, but Errol Morris's crusading documentary attempted to overturn a gross miscarriage of justice. In 1976, a Dallas traffic cop was shot dead after flagging down a car. The chief suspect was a 16-year-old called David Harris. However, Harris claimed that hitchhiker Randall Adams was the actual murderer, and Adams was sentenced to death (although this was later commuted to life imprisonment). Morris takes up the case in his 1988 film, using testimonies from both men and reconstructions of the events leading up to the killing to create a compelling picture of how flimsy the conviction was.