NOT OUR SON
US, 1995, 92 minutes, Colour,
Neil Patrick Harris, Gerard Mc Raney, Cindy Pickett.
Directed by Michael Ray Rhodes.
Not Our Son is based on incidents which happened in Seattle in the early 90s. It was considered the worst case of serial arson in the United States. The background facts are true while the film's screenplay weaves a fiction to communicate to the wide television audience.
The film focuses on an ordinary Seattle family, father and mother, two sons and a daughter. They all work together in an advertising firm. It emerges, however, that their son Paul has a violent temper, flares up, is unable to accept responsibility for mistakes. He has also been through a divorce. It soon emerges that he is the arsonist. As time goes on, the members of the family realise that he is responsible and they have to make a decision about going to the police and collaborating with them. Their sense of responsibility sends them to the police. It is a strain as they have to go along with Paul, dissembling until the police have enough evidence for an arrest. This gives a very personal dimension to the story of an arsonist, seeing him in the context of his family and their trying to understand what has gone wrong. The screenplay opts for a medical condition, a defect suffered at birth by the baby, that is responsible for the erratic behaviour.
While the film is a study of family relationships, especially in the context of considering their responsibilities towards the public and their feeling of betrayal towards their son, the film shows the impact of a serial arsonist in an American city.
Neil Patrick Harris gives one of his best performances as Paul Keller, the arsonist. Gerard Mc Raney gives a very sympathetic performance as the father faced with moral responsibilities. Cindy Pickett is his mother. The film was directed by Michael Rae Rhodes, a director of television films who collaborated with Father Bud Kiser on such films as The Fourth Wise Man and Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story.
1. The film based on a true story? The facts of the case? The fictional story to communicate to the audience?
2. The Seattle and Washington State settings? The city, homes, offices, courts and prisons? The fire sequences and the range of buildings, warehouses, office buildings, the church and the burning crucifix? Musical score?
3. The title, the reference to the parents and their attitudes towards their son? Their trying to bring him up well? His tantrums and angers? Their frustrations? Their having to take responsibility towards the public? Their love for their son?
4. The opening and the setting of the arson situation, the range of fires? The damage, loss of life? The fire fighters? The police and their investigations? The clues, the bewilderment on the part of the police, the investigation headquarters, maps, clues?
5. Paul in the context of his family, his age, experience, divorce, his father caring for him, the new apartment? Getting him the lease of a car? The work situation, the client and the campaign, Paul taking an aggressive tone, relying on the Godfather films for the campaign? Its success? His success? His surface respectability? The contrast with his angers, unable to take responsibility for mistakes, his strong aggression towards his sister, Ruth? His father having to control him? Moving into his new apartment? His travels, the audience realising that he was the arsonist? His having been seen, the composite for identity? The witnesses?
6. The portrait of his family: the father and the successful business, concern about his son, reprimanding him, loving him, even spoiling him? His mother and her place in the firm? Love for her son? Ben away at college? His visits and concern? Ruth and her being the accountant, the clashes with her brother, her exasperation? Her husband? The running of the firm, the campaign?
7. The growing realisation that Paul was the arsonist? Seeing the television, the concern about his whereabouts, Ben and Ruth looking up the records? George and his accepting the reality? Telling his wife? Their moral responsibility, their decision? Having to cover up when Paul was about? His being in the office, the strain on all of them? The collaboration with the police? The final dinner, Paul's presence, the range of happy memories of the past? His mother on the phone persuading him to come to the dinner?
8. Paul, his being followed, seeing the pursuer, confronting him? The quick thinking of the surveillance man? His going to Oregon, his mother persuading him to come back? His being sick, seeing the papers? How much did he suspect his parents of knowing? At home, the arrest?
9. The police, the plans, the meetings, the Chief and his dominance, the head of investigation and his measured pace? Getting the evidence? Bringing Paul in, the photos, making him have a sense of family, his father meeting him? Urging him to tell the truth? His calm reactions, his talk, accepting some responsibility? The explanation about his illness at his birth, the information for his parents and their wondering what better they could have done in bringing him up?
10. The conclusion, his arrest? The role of the law? The film as giving some background to try to understand the psychology of the perpetrator? The consequences for those who know and love him?
