Portrait Of a Serial Arsonist: the Paul Keller Story

Considering the massive popularity of "true crime" books by writers such as Ann Rule and Jack Olsen (to name just two authors in my neck of the woods), it's a wonder that the video market isn't flooded with gruesome, blood-dripping videos of cannibal killers and bizarre love triangle (or quadrangle or pentangle) murder/suicides. Portrait of a Serial Arsonist: The Paul Keller Story, parts of which aired on Dateline NBC to major audiences, is a disturbing (in several ways) documentary about a young Washington man who set nearly 100 fires during a six-month spree during the latter half of 1992 and early 1993. Hosted by Grant Goodeve (Eight Is Enough, Northern Exposure), the film combines interviews with members of the Arson Task Force that struggled for months to identify the arsonist, Keller's family (his father George turned him in), and Keller, himself (who saw no correlation between his obsessive interest in firefighting--as a child he had a scanner and would bike to the scene of the fire, often arriving before the fire truck--and his activity as an arsonist). Do we discover what makes Paul Keller tick? Nope. Do we learn something from his family? Not really (except for the fact that many, if not most, people will gladly spill their guts if you turn on a camera). Is the documentary compelling? Yep. Aside from some annoyingly melodramatic scripting, the story is well told, with narrative hooks planted early in the program (like, why did Keller target several churches?) which pay off later. Why we sit and lap up stories about other people's woes is beyond the scope of this review (though, if you recall the Christians and the lions, it's hardly a modern phenomenon): the simple fact is, we do. Patrons will definitely want to check this out. Recommended. (R. Pitman)