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The Thin Blue Line Review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 4.0
    79

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally favorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 100

    out of 100

    Variety

    A mesmerizing reconstruction and investigation of a senseless murder. It employs strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews.

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  • 100

    out of 100

    USA Today Mike Clark

    The most provocative miscarried-justice movie ever. [26 Aug 1988]

  • 50

    out of 100

    Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

    It is an intriguing subject, though so far all that Morris has brought to it is a combination of the morbid and the cruel; he needs to develop some sympathy, too. [16 Sept 1988]

  • 70

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

    Morris pulls off a genuine shocker to cap his film, but his method exacts its price. It takes fully a third of the film's 109 minutes to become involved in it, thanks to Morris' deadpan tone and the initially jarring effect of his intercutting between straightforward talking heads and his B-movie reenactment of the crime. [2 Sept 1988]

  • 88

    out of 100

    Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

    Morris' visual style in The Thin Blue Line is unlike any conventional documentary approach. Although his interviews are shot straight on, head and shoulders, there is a way his camera has of framing his subjects so that we look at them very carefully, learning as much by what we see as by what we hear.

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  • 90

    out of 100

    The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

    Morris has fashioned a brilliant work of pulp fiction around this crime. [26 Aug 1988, p.C6]

  • See all The Thin Blue Line reviews at Metacritic.com

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