Auto Focus

Starring:Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman, Bruce Solomon, Michael E. Rodgers, Kurt Fuller, Christopher Neiman, Lyle Kanouse, Donnamarie Recco, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean, Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Don McManus, Sarah Uhrich, Amanda Niles, Kelly Packard, Jeff Harlan, Kevin Kilner
Director: Paul Schrader
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

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Auto Focus captures the scandalous private life of Bob Crane, star of the German P.O.W. camp sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Greg Kinnear plays the affable comic actor, who nursed an obsession with sex--pornography, strippers, swinging, domination, and especially the videotaping of his own sexual exploits. His behavior led to the downfall of two marriages and enmeshed Crane in a strangely symbiotic relationship with a video equipment salesman named John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe); Carpenter provided the technology, and Crane (through the power of his fame) provided the girls. Their friendship ultimately wore thin and may have led to Crane's gruesome death. Auto Focus is a lot like an episode of Behind the Music, but with sex in the place of the usual downfall-causing drugs; though elegantly filmed, it doesn't delve too deeply into Crane's joy, and so never gets a genuine feel for his pain either. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Deeply disturbing.......2007-05-22

When I took a trip to see my relatives recently, I noticed with some interest my grandfather's fascination with old television programs. He doesn't get around as much as he once did, so he spends a lot of time parked in front of the television set watching shows on DVD. He has quite a collection. During the time I was there, he played "Hogan's Heroes" on a perpetual loop. I haven't seen the series in years, and most of the shows hold up pretty well. Colonel Klink's endless confusion still garners a few guffaws, Sergeant Schultz still knows nothing, and the prisoners led by the indomitable Colonel Hogan as played by Bob Crane still make the Germans look like buffoons. Of course, anyone with knowledge about Bob Crane's extracurricular activities can't really watch the show without looking for clues to the man's real nature. I'm not sure whether my grandfather knew what Bob Crane did when he wasn't filming episodes of "Hogan's Heroes". And you know what? I couldn't bring myself to tell him that the show he loves so much starred a man with a serious sexual addiction. I'm definitely NOT going to send him a copy of "Auto Focus".

This movie, helmed by veteran Hollywood director Paul Schrader, examines the schizophrenic life of Bob Crane without flinching away from all the unpleasantness. We see little to worry about in the first part of the film. We learn that Crane (Greg Kinnear) has a lot going for him. He owns a wonderful home, complete with swimming pool, and has a beautiful wife named Anne (Rita Wilson). Moreover, he's got a lot of children that seem to make him happy. Our hero also has a great job as a popular disc jockey at a Los Angeles radio station. His work brings in a lot of stars who like the publicity Crane gives them. They also like Crane as a person. What's not to like? Our man comes across as one of the most affable people you would ever want to meet. He's charming to a fault, a charm that eventually helps him attain the lead role in a new television series about Allied prisoners in a German POW camp. Thus was born "Hogan's Heroes," a show that went on to make Bob Crane a star and a household name. We see his ascendancy to fame and fortune in great detail here.

Alas, behind the good looks and the outgoing personality, Bob Crane harbored terrible secrets. We see hints of his addiction in the first part of the film, when his gigs as a drummer in various Los Angeles nightclubs give him access to numerous beautiful women. Still, he doesn't seem out of the ordinary--a lot of guys would cheat on their wives a couple of times given the opportunity. It's when Crane meets John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), an electronics salesman, that his problems seem to escalate. Carpenter, a real sleaze with a craving for the celebrity lifestyle he can never have, homes in on Crane like a missile. He shows Bob a new device called a video camera, and before too long both men start prowling around town looking for women they can film during their various exploits. The two men, helped greatly by Crane's status as a television star, soon amass hundreds of videos. Women like going to bed with a star, and Crane is only too happy to oblige them. But when "Hogan's Heroes" goes off the air, when his personal relationships start to tank, the only thing left in our hero's life is his sick relationship with John Carpenter. Disaster will inevitably follow.

"Auto Focus" is an amazingly grim film for mainstream Hollywood. What we see here isn't pretty, not by a long shot. You only need to witness the scene between Dafoe and Kinnear, the one discussing the placement of a certain finger, to know that you're walking through a film that refuses to play nice. Watching Bob Crane deteriorate into a zombie whose only function in life revolves around sexual conquest is disturbing in the extreme, almost as disturbing as a place like Hollywood making a movie taking someone with a sexual addiction to task. Hollywood? C'mon! Half the people living there are Bob Cranes, and the other half are the ones sleeping with them. Aside from that little problem, the movie works on a number of levels. One, the acting is excellent. Willem Dafoe turns in a great performance as the scuzzy John Carpenter, and Greg Kinnear practically morphs into the deeply troubled Crane. The two had great chemistry together, and their descent into total immorality was never less than totally believable. Two, I got a kick out of the scenes recreating "Hogan's Heroes". Kurt Fuller playing Werner Klemperer playing Colonel Klink did an incredible job! Three, and finally, I thought the film did an amazing job recreating 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles.

Expect a DVD packed with extra features. The "Auto Focus" disc contains three commentary tracks. One has Willem Dafoe and Greg Kinnear, another one features director Schrader, and the third has the writer and producers commenting on the film. You'll get plenty of information about all aspects of the movie if you listen to these three tracks. Good stuff! Other supplements include five deleted scenes with optional commentary from Schrader, a making of featurette, and a documentary about the death of Bob Crane called "Murder in Scottsdale". This last extra is a must see, as it offers up lots of information about the actor's horrific murder in an Arizona hotel and the subsequent investigations into who committed the crime. If you're in the mood for a movie that likes to walk on the dark side, pick up a copy of "Auto Focus". You'll never look at "Hogan's Heroes" the same way again.

i wonder what klink & schultz were up to ..........2007-03-21

a wonderfully bizarre take on the rise & fall of actor bob crane, a straight-laced suburbanite who is besotted with sexual perversity. in watching reruns of "hogans heroes" these days, its easy to see the truth beneath the leering lechery of colonel hogan (btw, the recreations of the tv series are dead-on perfect), and greg kinnear continues his unsung career as one of the best actors in hollywood, in a role on a par with sam rockwells take on chuck barris in "confessionsof a dangerous mind". the movie might have been improved by a bit of judicious editing, but it captures a slice of time perfectly.

sad but good film.......2007-02-12

filmed very well,well written but a sad film but also a very good film thank you

Surreal Film about another victim from Hollywood Babylon .......2007-01-24

The film is nearly accurate.What the film does not show is why the Scottsdale DA dropped the air-tight case.I would not be surprised if a powerful Hollywood friend of his underling John Carpentier,had pressured the DA to drop the case.The evidence was overwhelming against the sleazeball dixie dreg,John Carpenter.So why drop the case? The Japanese camera equipment was the very first pricey prototype imported ,dealing with home recordings and home video.Kung-fu icon ,Bruce Lee , also bought one of the first models,from John Carpentier.Was John Carpentier involved in 'snuff films' and asian drug dealing?There are many questions still unresolved and may have been taken to their graves.Excellent film,nevertheless.

A tragic tale of one mans addiction..........2006-12-13

I wasn't expecting too much when I picked up `Auto Focus'. It had received less that admirable reviews and sported a cast that included the dreadful William Dafoe, but I was pleased to see that, Dafoe aside, there really wasn't too much about this biopic I didn't like. I didn't know anything about Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) except that he was Hogan from `Hogan's Heroes', a show I loved as a kid. This film of course exposes his lust for adult entertainment, showing his slow but steady decline into practice that pushed him out of two marriages and away from his very own children.

Kinnear is brilliant here, truly capturing the essence that was this man with enough smug sarcasm and delightful screen presence that he seems a natural. As was brought out by `The New Yorker', Defoe is maybe `too' creepy here to be believable, I mean who would want to be around this guy let alone sleep with him? Maria Bello and Rita Wilson are wonderful as his two wives, Maria giving a much needed boost to the second half of this film.

Crane's story is one to be told, of how something as natural as sex could turn ugly and Kinnear does so much justice to the role it's sad that he wasn't recognized more for it. I think too many people saw this as camp when in actuality it was a very serious side of reality for this man. While it's not for younger viewers and does contain some explicit footage, `Auto Focus' tells the story of a man we all could know because what brought him down was the same thing that all of us enjoy!

Average customer rating:

Auto Focus
Starring: Greg Kinnear
Director: Paul Schrader
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 1404908722
Release Date: 2007-07-24

Average customer rating:

Deeply disturbing
i wonder what klink & schultz were up to ...
sad but good film
Surreal Film about another victim from Hollywood Babylon
A tragic tale of one mans addiction...

Auto Focus [Region 2]
Starring: Greg Kinnear , Willem Dafoe , Rita Wilson , Maria Bello , and Ron Leibman
Director: Paul Schrader
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video