Stimulating cinema: A documentary double feature

Movie: The Thin Blue Line
Year: 1988
Director: Errol Morris

and

Movie: Harlan County, USA
Year: 1976
Director: Barbara Kopple

There is nothing that gets me thinking, wondering and questioning the world around me quite like a good documentary. And both of these fit the bill (in fact, "Harlan County, USA" might be the best documentary I've ever seen). Often times in reviews of a documentary, you will see the reviewer raise questions regarding the filmmaker's objectivity. Or, more specifically, there are often charges of manipulation. I don't mind being "manipulated" in this way--not at all. For me, the trade-off of being exposed in great detail to something new is worth it. I don't pretend that documentary filmmakers should play it right down the middle--everyone has his biases and to expect otherwise is kind of naive.

In "The Thin Blue Line," Morris (who is regarded as one of the finest documentarians out there) is clearly on the side of Randall Dale Adams and after watching the movie, I am too. But Morris' film didn't hit me over the head so much as allow me to make up my own mind.

A plot summary, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The film concerns the November 28, 1976 murder of Dallas police officer, Robert W. Wood, during a traffic stop. The Dallas Police Department was unable to make an arrest until they learned of information given by a 16-year-old resident of Vidor, Texas who had told friends that he was responsible for the crime. The juvenile, David Ray Harris, led police to the car driven from the scene of the crime, as well as a .22 caliber revolver he identified as the murder weapon. He subsequently identified 28-year-old Ohio resident Randall Dale Adams as the murderer. Adams had been living in a motel in Dallas with his brother. The film presents a series of interviews about the investigation and reenactments of the shooting, based on the testimony and recollections of Adams, Harris, and various witnesses and detectives. Two attorneys who represented Adams at the trial where he was convicted of capital murder also appear: they suggest that Adams was charged with the crime despite the better evidence against Harris because, as Harris was a juvenile, Adams alone of the two could be sentenced to death under Texas law.

Maybe I am naive, or perhaps I am not the most sophisticated movie watcher, but I really wasn't sure where I stood on the question of Adams' guilt/innocence for a long time. He seemed fundamentally an honest, if not a little scuzzy, and pretty much always looked directly into the camera when he spoke. He had specific answers (for example, remembering that he watched the "Carol Burnett Show" and then about 15 minutes of the 10 o'clock news before hitting the sack on the night in question. Harris, meanwhile, was more shifty from the get-go and peppered his answers with "whatevers" and "I thinks." ("We went to the store or whatever." "I think it was Tuesday or whatever.") But still, I just wasn't sure.

But what turned me towards Adams' side was the revelation of the witnesses the prosecution banked much of its case on. The main one, a woman named Emily Miller, was quite obviously a money-grubbing opportunist willing to say anything for a price (at best) or completely crazy (at worst). And a man's fate was pretty much sealed because of her. It's shameful and if I was manipulated by Morris, so be it. It's what happened and the sad thing is that it was completely preventable.

I think the one criticism of the movie is its use of re-enactments to illustrated particular scenes. Many reviewers thought it distracting and I agree, but the overall power of the film, the palpable sense of frustration and the outrage really comes through. See this one if you can.

And then see "Harlan County USA" about five times because it is truly a treasure. Kopple's chronicle of striking coal miners in Kentucky takes you into a world for two hours and never lets up. The most amazing thing is the access that Kopple was able to get during the filming. She was there for funerals, meetings, pretty much everything that went down. And like a Kentucky native pointed out to me, those are not the type of people who easily or willingly open up to strangers.

Kopple's work here is darn-near perfect. The use of old labor songs throughout is haunting and the images she catches are mesmerizing (in particular the fog-shrouded shots of early morning picketers and the squalid conditions the miners have to live in). It's sometimes hard to believe that this is "real life," because something presented so perfectly would almost have to be scripted. This is a just a "wow" movie. See it, see it, see it!