Directed by Erroll Morris
Featuring Joanna Harcourt-Smith and Timothy Leary
Running Time: 1 Hour and 41 Minutes
Rating: TV-14

by Ian Hrabe

Errol Morris was the first documentarian who made me realize that documentaries could be just as artful and impactful as any feature film. I can’t remember why I watched The Thin Blue Line in high school, but I vividly remember the experience of watching that film. I watched as many of his docs as I could get my hands on at the public library, notably Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, Gates of Heaven, and Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. Morris’s quirky, creative, non-fiction style was a far cry from the documentaries I was used to seeing in the classroom, and though his most acclaimed documentary--2003’s The Fog of War--was way over my head when I saw it, he still set the bar for what I thought documentaries should aspire to.