191. Web-Series Reviews – 43

More documentary reviews…

The Thin Blue Line – Details from Wikipedia...

The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 American documentary film by Errol Morris, about the trial and conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Texas police officer Robert Wood. Morris became interested in the case while doing research for a film about Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist known in Texas as "Dr. Death" for testifying with "100 percent certainty" of a defendant's recidivism in many trials, including that of Randall Adams. The film centered around the "inconsistencies, incongruities and loose ends" of the case, and through his investigation, not only comes to a different conclusion, actually obtained an admission of Adams' innocence by the original suspect of the case, David Harris. The "thin blue line" in the title "refers to what Mr. Morris feels is an ironic, mythical image of a protective policeman on the other side of anarchy".

The film won many awards, but was a controversial film among documentary film critics, who felt the use of reenactment had no place in the documentary format. For this reason, the film was not nominated for an Academy Award, though it won several other awards for best documentary.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

This is an extraordinary documentary in which film maker Errol Morris shows how an innocent man was convicted of murdering a policeman while the real murderer was let off scot free by the incompetent criminal justice system of Dallas, Texas. The amazing thing is that Morris demonstrates this gross miscarriage of justice in an utterly convincing manner simply by interviewing the participants. True, he reenacts the crime scene and flashes headlines from the newspaper stories to guide us, but it is simply the spoken words of the real murderer, especially in the cold-blooded, explosive audio tape that ends the film, that demonstrate not only his guilt but his psychopathic personality. And it is the spoken words of the defense attorneys, the rather substantial Edith James and the withdrawing Dennis White, and the wrongfully convicted Randall Adams that demonstrate the corrupt and incompetent methods used by the Dallas Country justice system to bring about this false conviction. Particularly chilling were the words of Judge Don Metcalfe, waxing teary-eyed, as he recalls listening to the prosecutor's summation about how society is made safe by that "thin blue line" of cops who give their lives to protect us from criminals. The chilling part is that while he is indulging his emotions, he is allowing the cop killer to go free and helping to convict an innocent man. Almost as chilling in its revelation of just how perverted and corrupt the system has become, was the report of how a paid psychologist, as a means of justifying the death penalty, "interviewed" innocent Randall Adams for fifteen minutes and found him to be a danger to society, a blood-thirsty killer who would kill again.

The Imposter – Details from Wikipedia...

The Imposter is a 2012 documentary film about the 1997 case of the French confidence trickster Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated Nicholas Barclay, an American boy who disappeared at the age of 13 in 1994. The film was directed by Bart Layton. It includes interviews with Bourdin and members of Barclay's family, as well as archive television news footage and reenacted dramatic sequences.

Bourdin, who turned out to have a long record of impersonating various children, real or imaginary, embellished his claim to be Nicholas Barclay by alleging that he had been kidnapped for purposes of sexual abuse by Mexican, European and U.S. military personnel and transported from the US to Spain. His impersonation fooled several officials in Spain and the U.S., and he was apparently accepted by many of Barclay's family members, even though he was seven years older than Barclay, spoke with a French accent, and had brown eyes and dark hair rather than Barclay's blue eyes and blonde hair. The impersonation was eventually discovered as a result of the suspicions of a private investigator, Charles (Charlie) Parker, and an FBI agent, Nancy Fisher. Bourdin subsequently made a full confession, and in the film he elaborates on the various stages in his impersonation.

Layton said of Bourdin: "He invites sympathy. He has this childlike quality about him, and he can be very charming. And at other times he can be quite repellent, because he can be remorseless and you're reminded about what he did. So as a filmmaker, I was asking: how can I find a way of getting the audience to experience a bit of that?"

My Take – An excellent film not be missed to see how gullible people could be, including the government officials!!

Kemper on Kemper: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer – Ed Kemper, also known as the Co-Ed Killer, murdered and dismembered 10 people, including his own mother. Former FBI agent John Douglas takes us through his extensive interviews with Kemper, which became the backbone of modern criminal psychology.

A review from Letterboxd.com...

For those of you who don't know or haven't seen Mindhunter, Ed Kemper is the Co-Ed Killer, he murdered 6 female college students after which he murdered his mother and one of her friends. Oh yes, and at the age of 15 he killed his grandparents.

This film uses footage of Kemper talking candidly about what he did and why he did it, his confession tape, a documentary from 1984 and interviews he did for a University study.

It also throws in reconstructions and interviews with people who were involved in his case at the time, including people from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit who to this day use the insights Kemper gave them to profile serial killers.

He is a fascinating character, by all accounts friendly, charming, affable and intelligent. But he shows no remorse whatsoever, although he knew what he was doing was wrong and ultimately turned himself in. However, these are the traits which made him so useful to his interviewers, he was apparently able to recall every detail of the murders and to provide huge insight into how his mind worked.

It's a pity then that too often in this documentary the other voices are allowed to butt in, even to pre-empt what Kemper himself is about to tell us, and being made for television there is a repetitive air about, providing wholly unnecessary recaps after breaks for ads.

If you've seen Mindhunter and Cameron Britton's uncanny take on Kemper, you aren't going to learn anything new here.

Cheers till next time! 😊

Today’s Observation

No one can make you feel more humble than the repairman who discovers you have been trying to fix it yourself! 😊