Crime · Documentary
American
1988 · Directed by Errol Morris · 103 min
In Dallas in 1976, a police officer is shot dead during a routine traffic stop, and a man is sentenced for the crime. Errol Morris returns to the case years later, interviewing the people involved and staging repeated re-creations of the night. The tone is cool, hypnotic and investigative.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of the late-1980s documentary shift away from observational realism toward constructed, openly authored nonfiction, and a founding text of the modern true-crime documentary.
Watch with intention
Treat every speaker as a narrator with a motive, and watch how the film arranges their accounts.
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