The Thin Blue Line
1988 filmWikipedia
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14
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14
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Search complete. 16 mentions across 14 episodes found for "The Thin Blue Line".
Oct 19, 2026
John RoderickHOST
I just
Merlin MannHOST
rewatched The Thin Blue Line this weekend, which I can promise you I saw in the theater in Sarasota in 1988.
Merlin MannHOST
And that documentary is such a big deal for so many people in so many ways.
Merlin MannHOST
He did so many things that now are like table stakes for documentaries.
Abe WalkerGUEST
And of course, that's also a long tradition.
Abe WalkerGUEST
But the film that sort of invented the genre, as we know it today, is Errol Morris' Thin Blue Line, which maybe we'll get to later.
Abe WalkerGUEST
But you can't see everything is engaging quite explicitly with this Hulu crime series made about Elizabeth Holm called The Dropout.
Abe WalkerGUEST
So when we watch the dropout, we have interviews, we have reenactments, and they're all edited and strung together in a way that confirms the filmmaker's version of events.
19 MINS LATER
MattHOST
it seems, you know, just reading a bit about the production story, the origin story of the film that, it was Elizabeth Holmes's idea first to do this documentary.
MattHOST
And Abe, you, like you were saying, one of the people that she had initially had been working with was Errol Morris.
MattHOST
And it's interesting that you set out, you know, the thin blue line because the thin blue line is this famous kind of documentary that becomes this sort of vindication of, you know, the criminality or the legal system of these people who were convicted, but, his film sort of later proves them to be innocent.
MattHOST
And that's clearly not what Nathan's doing, right? And maybe that's why Elizabeth Holmes sort of sets herself up to be part of this kind of project or something.
Dylan ReeveGUEST
Yeah.
Dylan ReeveGUEST
And I think it's interesting 'cause if you look back at the history of documentary, right, there was a historic documentary by Errol Morris called The Thin Blue Line, which was the first documentary in mainstream to use recreations, and that caused massive controversy when it came out because pe- people went, "It's not really documentary." Māori in Australia is a, an example of that.
Dylan ReeveGUEST
It's like it's the same kind of root idea that the GC was getting at, but an incredibly different treatment.
Colin PeacockHOST
And Phil, even though you're not a fan, when these things are produced here in New Zealand, and if they're popular, they, you know, they're dynamic in that it is something the public end up discussing, do you, do you see a value in it beyond just the show [laughs] on screen, which might be not to your taste?
Jeremy WorkmanGUEST
Like, wow, look at this.
Ben SteinbauerHOST
The Thin Blue Line.
Jeremy WorkmanGUEST
Yeah, exactly.
Jeremy WorkmanGUEST
Um-
Addie MorfootGUEST
behind a story and just like they always say, you know, it's stranger than fiction.
Addie MorfootGUEST
So we grew up watching all Errol Morris, Thin Blue Line.
Addie MorfootGUEST
I was probably too young to watch that, but I had older siblings, so we did.
Addie MorfootGUEST
And I'm trying to think what other, just like, I just, everything.
SeanHOST
I talked about Errol Morris a few weeks ago, the Gates of Heaven documentary about the pet cemetery.
SeanHOST
I watched his other really b- really big documentary, probably the one that he's most known for, The Thin Blue Line.
SeanHOST
This one's a 1988 film.
SeanHOST
It investigates the 1979 murder of a Dallas police officer named Robert Wood, and the wrongful conviction of, of a guy that got sent to prison.
Rob ClarkHOST
Now, we do have a clue as to kind of how things, uh, used to go down in Dallas in the '60s, and '50s, and '70s.
Rob ClarkHOST
Um, go watch The Thin Blue Line.
Rob ClarkHOST
But ...
Rob ClarkHOST
And we also have the testimony of Buell Frazier, although it didn't come out at the time, it came out later, that Fritz pretty much threatened him, uh, with physical violence if he didn't sign a typed up confession of being an accomplice of Lee Harvey Oswald's in the complicity of the murder of the president.
Matt NegliaHOST
And if you're going to if you feel the need that photos don't do enough of a job, we have 80 plus years of documentaries.
Matt NegliaHOST
I mean, talk to Errol Morris, my guy, like this guy was doing this from the jump, right? Like Thin Blue Line like is a masterclass and what you can do when the when the physical material is not enough for you to still evoke audience.
Matt NegliaHOST
Right.
Matt NegliaHOST
Like I think it's just seriously a bummer that this film is their closing night.
Colin PeacockHOST
Māori in Australia, which is the same idea, like how are these younger Māori people coping with, with the lives in Australia? And it's very much a different treatment, isn't it? So that's like the more sober end of documentary rather than, as you say, trying to extract the drama of people's lives who are happy to be in front of the camera.
Dylan ReeveGUEST
Yeah, and I think it's interesting 'cause if you look back at the history of documentary, right, there was a historic documentary by Errol Morris called The Thin Blue Line, which was the first documentary in mainstream to use recreations, and that caused massive controversy when it came out because pe- people went, "It's not really documentary." Māori in Australia is a, an example of that.
Dylan ReeveGUEST
It's like it's the same kind of root idea that The GC was getting at but an incredibly different treatment.
Colin PeacockHOST
And Phil, even though you're not a fan, when these things are produced here in New Zealand, and if they're popular, they're, they're dynamic and that it is something the public end up discussing, do you, do you see a value in it beyond just the show [laughs] on screen which might be not to your taste?
Miles BryanHOST
Mm
Pamela ColloffGUEST
... called The Thin Blue Line, which I cannot-
Miles BryanHOST
Yes
Pamela ColloffGUEST
... urge listeners-
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