Search - Philip Glass :: The Thin Blue Line: An Errol Morris Film

Great music, but stop yakking!

Scott Andrew Hutchins | Bronx, NY, USA | 09/11/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is the only Glass CD I have that I don't listen to on a regular basis. This is the worst possible way to make a soundtrack album. The film is brilliant, the music is brilliant, but the album is like someone shortened the film down and laid down the entire audio track. I hate soundtracks like this and only give it as many stars as I do because of how much I like the music and film. Only the opening titlte is only music, and some tracks have no music at all. If this were reissued without the dialogue and sound FX, I would but it in a heartbeat and sell this one off. Morris's non-fiction films are too stylish to want to hear the dialogue without the visuals, and Glass's music is too good not to be able to hear it apart from the rest of the audio track. If the spoken word were done poetically like in _Einstein on the Beach_ or _Hydrogen Jukebox_, I would recommend it, but because it isn't, I can't."

Dialogue

Max Blouin (max_blouin@brown.edu) | Providence, RI | 03/02/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Just so you know: This CD consists almost entirely of dialogue from the movie, with Philip Glass's music in the background. If you don't go for that sort of thing, then don't buy it. For true Glass fans, though, it's worth it."

"The kid scares me..."

N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 11/13/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Be aware that this is not your typical soundtrack album, and those looking for Phillip Glass' isolated score will not find it here.Rather, this is 30+ track disc that plays like an encapsulated version of the film for your ears. Nearly every single track has dialogue and sound effects from the film, with Glass' subtle, minimalistic, menacing and hopeful music all around.The Thin Blue Line is far from your typical documentary, and the dramatization of some events and the use of music throughout are part of what separates it from the rest of the pack. The film is the true story of the murder of a Dallas police officer in 1976 and the rapid railroading of a 28 year-old drifter named Randall Adams through the court and onto Death Row. The film helped overturn Adams' conviction in the late 1980s. The other main player in the case, lifelong criminal David Harris (just 16 at the time of the shooting) is interviewed throughout, and his chilling statements at the end were disturbing at the time the film appeared (since the 'truth' is finally revealed). Today Adams is free and Harris sits on Death Row for crimes other than those depicted in The Thin Blue Line.You can actually listen to this whole disc without having seen the film, but you would be doing yourself a severe injustice. When you put faces to voices and see the reenactments and get a sense of the situation Adams was in, the whole picture opens up.Unless you really hate soundtracks with heavy dialogue and sound bites from the film, this is a highly recommended disc for Glass fans and fans of the great film."