I didn't know very much about Bob Crane (or even about "Hogan's Heroes") when "Auto Focus" came out, but the story shocked me. More than simply looking at his obsession with snuff films, the movie itself is like two movies. At the beginning, everything looks all rosy and idealistic, but by the end, everything is grim and outright bleak. We might say that this represents not only Crane's lifestyle, but the world around him: when "Hogan's Heroes" debuted, our nationwide mentality was still one of innocence and optimism; by the time that the show ended, we were living in a world of cynicism. The movie does a good, if unpleasant, job showing that.
As for the movie itself, Greg Kinnear is intense as Crane, showing him starting out as a nice family man (at least he appears to be),but becoming very screwed up as time goes by. Willem Dafoe, as Crane's partner-in-porn John Carpenter (not the horror director),has a role as nasty as the Green Goblin, and makes the most of it. Also starring are Rita Wilson as Crane's first wife Anne, Maria Bello as the woman who co-starred on the show, and also Ron Leibman, Ed Begley Jr and Michael McKean.
Pretty good.
Auto Focus
2002
Action / Biography / Crime / Drama
Auto Focus
2002
Action / Biography / Crime / Drama
71% - Critics
61% - Audience
6.6Keywords: based on novel or bookbiographybased on true storybased on a true story1970s
Plot summary
In 1965, Bob Crane, who had achieved some earlier success as a television supporting actor, was working as a successful morning radio DJ at KNX Los Angeles. Despite enjoying his work, photography (especially of the female form) and drumming, Crane wanted to be a movie star. So it was with some reluctance that he accepted the title starring role in a new television sitcom called Hogan's Heroes (1965),a WWII POW comedy. To his surprise, the show became a hit and catapulted him to television stardom. The fame resulting from the show led to excesses and a meeting with home video salesman and technician John Carpenter, with who he would form a friendship based on their mutual interests, namely excessive sex (for Crane, purely heterosexual sex) and capturing nude females on celluloid. His fame allowed Crane to have as much sex as he wanted, which was incongruent to his somewhat wholesome television friendly image, and the way he portrayed himself to almost everyone except Carpenter and his extramarital sex partners. His sex addiction was somewhat known but ignored by his high school sweetheart/first wife Anne Crane née Terzian, but well known by his second wife, Patti Olson, better known as Sigrid Valdis, his Hogan's Heroes co-star. Especially after the end of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, this incongruence and his friendship with Carpenter, with who he would have a continuing love/hate relationship, would contribute to both his professional and personal downfall.
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focus yourself on a very sick man
The Weird Story Of Bob Crane
As anyone who is reading this knows, this was the story of TV's Bob Crane, star of "Hogan's Heroes," a popular show in the 1960s. The story of Crane, the one that makes him a subject of a major motion picture of his life, are two things: 1 - the good-guy TV hero was, behind the scenes, a huge sex addict; 2 - he was murdered, with no one ever convicted of the crime. To this day, it is still unsolved.
The movie hints very strongly that the killer was Bob Carpenter, played here by Willem Dafoe. Carpenter was a close friend of Crane's. Greg Kinnear does a credible job of portraying the television star.
However, the part about Crane's murder is only dealt with in the final minutes of the film! That was very disappointing and I was hoping to find out something or at least be given more information. They just kind tacked this on the end of the film.
Most of the film was about Crane's and Carpenter's escapades with women.....lots of women, beautiful and big-chested women, which you see in abundance in this film. Dafoe is the sleazy friend who introduces Crane to the beginning of the VCR age. That led to a whole bunch of sex-on-film and really whetted Crane's big sexual appetite.
Anyway, for people who watched "Hogan's Heroes," and there were plenty, this is a bio of him and perhaps, for those who know nothing about his death, who killed him.
sad portrait
Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) is a radio DJ in Hollywood looking for acting work. In 1965, he gets an offer for an unconventional project. It's a comedy in a Nazi POW camp. Hogan's Heroes becomes a big hit. He befriends home video salesman John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) in a strip club. Unlike his public wholesome image, his interests in strippers, sex, and home video are heightened by Carpenter and his state-of-the-art cameras. It's a toxic friendship of easy women, sexual proclivity, and hidden videos. In 1970, he divorces his wife Anne (Rita Wilson) and marries his co-star Sigrid Valdis, real name Patricia Olson (Maria Bello). Crane and Carpenter's friendship based on their sad common interest degenerates.
Director Paul Schrader often dives into the darker side of humanity. It's a sad portrait well delivered by Kinnear. On the other hand, the movie is not always great at delivering the danger and tension. For half of the movie, Bob Crane is not threatened with discovery. This keeps the tension low. It's got a chipper tone which is weird. It would have been nice to speed up the first half. It takes too long to get to his downfall. Willem Dafoe is equally strong and necessary for this movie to work. There is interesting work here but this should be more intense.