Still one of the best documentaries ever

Erroll Morris's "The Thin Blue Line" (1988) still stands up as one of the best of all documentary films - a powerful yet understated evisceration of the unjust conviction of drifter for the shooting of a Dallas cop in the 1970s. Morris had great access and uses a series of on-camera (and one on-tape only) interview with the convicted guy, with the guy who fingered him (a a 160year-old accomplice who went on a to a long career in crime and eventually murder), the lawyers, investigating cops, prosecutor, the witnesses who so obviously gave false testimony - even the judge. He also uses some archival material (mostly stills - family photos and some news paper clips) and a few scenes of re-enactment, mainly demonstrate how the testimony from the witnesses was obviously concocted. Very basic plot line is that two guys meet up, cruise around, cop stops them (for headlights out), and one shoots the cop in cold blood. The Dallas cops and prosecutors find the car and ID the two guys in it; cops are so eager for a conviction they don't care which guy takes the fall - when the 16-year-old turns on the other guy, the whole system falls in line: they try to get a confession, they put out awards for witnesses (a few come forward, obviously tempted by the $), and ultimately railroad one of the men to a death sentence, later commuted. Guy was not freed till after film was released; should have cost people, including the idiot judge, their jobs. Morris later made the excellent Fog of War, another understated and devastating documentary most done through intense, close-up, on-camera interviews.