From 'The Jinx' to 'The Thin Blue Line': True crime is hard to top

Like so many people I have been riveted by HBO's docu-series The Jinx, and even more amazed at the real life consequences the show has had.

In this reality television age we live in, people are harder to shock than ever -- even when it comes to true life stories, and yet The Jinx's subject Robert Durst, was too fascinating to dismiss.

For those who are unfamiliar, Durst is an heir to a vast real estate fortune, who has been suspected in not one but three murders. One killing he admits to but claims self defense. 

And while he also admitted to dismembering the body of the man he killed, he was cleared by a jury of his peers.

Now, due to new evidence unearthed by the filmmakers of The Jinx for HBO, Durst has been charged with murder again. 

The filmmakers behind The Jinx are not new to the stranger-than-fiction drama. Their acclaimed 2003 film Capturing the Friedmans took an unconventional behind the scenes look at a truly eccentric family dogged by child abuse allegations.

As riveting as The Jinx was, I may be more partial to the earlier film, which really challenges your perceptions of guilt or innocence, who is believable and who isn't and just the very nature of this very sensitive type of crime.

Seeing these two assured pieces of work inspired me to revisit another acclaimed true crime film, the 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line. That films look at a 1976 police shooting in Dallas where the cops zero in on one man as a suspect even when significant evidence seems to suggest another man is the culprit.

The movie succeeds as not just a compelling mystery but also as a chilling look at how the justice system can railroad seemingly innocent people due to both chance and calculated cruelty.

Audiences have always embraced these kind of stories, from In Cold Blood to Helter Skelter, to a certain extent because of our cultural attraction to the sick and violent side of human nature, but also because they are so fraught with drama and have so much more at stake (often the very lives of their protagonists). They are by their nature more shocking than any traditional narrative film.

Capturing the Friedmans

There are ethical questions these films raise too, particularly the techniques of the editors which may or may not be trying to illicit audience sympathy for one side or another. 

With each of these kinds of movies I am always intrigued to read up on what the film cut out as soon as they're done because I never trust that I am getting a full picture. And every time it turns out we're not. 

And as damning as the footage in The Jinx appears to be for Durst, it may not be the slam dunk many viewers assume it will be.

Still, the undeniable success and power of The Jinx suggest we could be in for a renaissance of a truly macabre and more meaningful dose of "reality" film-making. And I for one applaud that development.