The Thin Blue Line

In 2015, in post-Ferguson America, it is easy to understand why somebody might have some trouble trusting the police. Many police involved shootings of unarmed suspects have tainted the reputation of the police in many communities. This is not to say that all police officers are racist and corrupt, but there certainly are enough to cause noticeable harm, as has been demonstrated throughout our nation's history. Although unrelated to race, the controversy at the heart of the film The Thin Blue Line (1988), directed by Errol Morris, does not improve the image of police officers for many viewers. I do not wish to dwell on this aspect of the film, however, though it pervades throughout much of the narration. I would, however, very much like to address the unique style of presentation and the importance of sound in the film.

The Thin Blue Line is the story of Randall Dale Adams, a man wrongfully convicted of the murder of a Dallas police officer in November of 1976. Adams and his brother had recently moved to Dallas from Ohio. Adams got a job shortly after arriving and shortly before he met 16 year old David Ray Harris, a troubled youth from the town of Vidor, Texas. It was this night that Harris would murder Dallas police officer Robert Wood, only to later frame Adams for the crime.
The film presents the complex and convoluted story of Adams' conviction through a series of actual interviews with the Adams, Harris, and the witnesses in the trial, and a series of reenactments of their sworn accounts. Sound plays an important role throughout these accounts and in the eventual clearing of Adams after the films release.

The first role that sound plays within these accounts is the obvious. The witnesses stories are heard while showing their interview. As the interviews progress into the reenactment, however, and the sound design is expanded. The narration remains clearly audible throughout, sometimes covering the action on screen sometimes cutting out until another visual cut to the interview. We then hear a detailed soundtrack of the events on screen, including cars, boots on asphalt, and gunshots. As the suspense builds (sometimes absent of the reenactments, sometimes paired) a haunting symphonic soundtrack, marked by a dark descending bass scale, adds to the intensity. This musical soundtrack is especially ominous and fitting for a story in which the truth is concealed, despite the many obvious holes in the prosecution's case.

At the end of the film, sound becomes the primary method of communicating the story, as Morris' camera broke down the day of the final interview with Harris. The scene is quiet except for the slightly fuzzy voices of Morris and Harris, adding to the somewhat creepy factor of the line of questioning. Further adding to this effect is Harris himself, and the cryptic ways in which he answers Morris' questions. When asked if Adams is innocent, Harris explains "I'm sure he is...Because I'm the one that knows." When asked if he was surprised when the police blamed Adams Harris states plainly "They didn't blame him. I did. Scared sixteen year old kid. He sure would like to get out of it if he can." In his most direct admission of guilt, Harris says "I've always thought about...if you could say why there's a reason that Randall Adams is in jail, it might be because of the fact that he didn't have no place for somebody to stay that helped him that night...landed him where he's at. That might be the reason."

This audio sequence proves to be crucial not only to the film, but to Randall Adams himself as it, along with the problems in the investigation that it brought to light, lead to his eventual release from prison. To me, this is a demonstration of both the power of film to affect the real world, and the power of sound in general. While the soundtrack initially plays an aesthetic role, adding to the enjoyment factor in viewing the film, it eventually becomes essential to the plot and the filmmaker's mission in producing the film. There's a thin blue line between chaos and order (or something like that) and this film holds that line to a higher standard.