Auto Focus
Encyclopedia
Auto Focus is a 2002 American biographical film
directed by Paul Schrader
that stars Greg Kinnear
and Willem Dafoe
. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith
.
It tells the story of actor Bob Crane
, an affable radio show host and amateur drummer who found success on Hogan's Heroes
, a popular television sitcom
about a prisoner of war
camp during World War II
, and his dramatic descent into the underbelly of Hollywood after the series was cancelled.
, an electronics expert involved with the nascent home video market.
Encouraged by Carpenter and enabled by his expertise, Crane — portrayed as a church-going, clean-cut family man (though he really never was) — becomes a sex addict
obsessed with sleeping with as many women as possible and recording those encounters with video and photographic equipment, usually with Carpenter participating. Auto Focus depicts Crane's life from his sitcom success through his post-Hogan's Heroes efforts to sustain a viable career — mostly in dinner theatre — until his murder.
Crane's murder remains unsolved to this day. Although Carpenter was tried and acquitted
of the crime, he remains the subject of suspicion even after his death in 1998.
, the New Orleans Film Festival, and the Bergen International Film Festival
before going into limited release on eleven screens in the US, earning $123,761 on its opening weekend. It grossed $2,063,196 in the US and $641,755 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $2,704,951.
The DVD
release includes a 50-minute documentary
, Murder in Scottsdale, delving into the initial murder investigation and the reopening of the case some 15 years later.
... there is [a] severe, powerful moralism lurking beneath the film's dispassionate matter-of-factness. Mr. Schrader is indifferent to the sinner, but he cannot contain his loathing of the sin, which is not so much sex as the fascination with images ... To argue that images can corrupt the flesh and hollow out the soul is, for a filmmaker, an obviously contradictory exercise, but not necessarily a hypocritical one. There is plenty of nudity in Auto Focus, but you can always glimpse the abyss behind the undulating bodies, and the director leads you from easy titillation to suffocating dread, pausing only briefly and cautiously to consider the possibility of pleasure."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
gave the film four stars calling it "a hypnotic portrait ... pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values ... Greg Kinnear gives a creepy, brilliant performance as a man lacking in all insight ... Crane was not a complex man, but that should not blind us to the subtlety and complexity of Kinnear's performance."
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle
called it "a compelling, sympathetic portrait ... Kinnear undercuts the seaminess of the Crane story, and shows us a man with more dimension and complexity than his behavior might suggest."
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
awarded it 3½ ot of 4 stars and added, "Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver
and the director of American Gigolo
, is a poet of male sexual pathology. Shot through with profane laughs and stinging drama, Auto Focus ranks with his best films."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
called it "one of director Paul Schrader's best films, and like Boogie Nights
ranks as a shrewd exposé of recent Hollywood's slimy underside ... Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor ... Pic overall has an excellent L.A. period feel without getting elaborate about it, and musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti
and a host of pop tunes are tops."
Scotty and his mother had shopped a rival script for a Bob Crane movie biography. The script, alternately entitled "F-Stop" and "Take Off Your Clothes and Smile". The spec script was written up in Variety
by venerable columnist Army Archerd
, but after "Auto-Focus" was announced, interest in Scotty's script ceased.
but lost to Tim Robbins
for Mystic River
.
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
directed by Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
that stars Greg Kinnear
Greg Kinnear
Gregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of...
and Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith
Robert Graysmith
Robert Graysmith is an American true crime author. He was working as a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969 when the Zodiac Killer case came to light. Graysmith attempted to decode letters written by the killer...
.
It tells the story of actor Bob Crane
Bob Crane
Robert Edward "Bob" Crane was an American actor and disc jockey, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E...
, an affable radio show host and amateur drummer who found success on Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
, a popular television sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
about a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and his dramatic descent into the underbelly of Hollywood after the series was cancelled.
Plot
Disc jockey turned actor Bob Crane develops a secret personal life, focusing on his relationship with John Henry CarpenterJohn Henry Carpenter
John Henry Carpenter was most widely known as the friend, and accused murderer, of actor Bob Crane in 1978.-Life:...
, an electronics expert involved with the nascent home video market.
Encouraged by Carpenter and enabled by his expertise, Crane — portrayed as a church-going, clean-cut family man (though he really never was) — becomes a sex addict
Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control...
obsessed with sleeping with as many women as possible and recording those encounters with video and photographic equipment, usually with Carpenter participating. Auto Focus depicts Crane's life from his sitcom success through his post-Hogan's Heroes efforts to sustain a viable career — mostly in dinner theatre — until his murder.
Crane's murder remains unsolved to this day. Although Carpenter was tried and acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
of the crime, he remains the subject of suspicion even after his death in 1998.
Production
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It was shown at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the Helsinki International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film FestivalChicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
, the New Orleans Film Festival, and the Bergen International Film Festival
Bergen International Film Festival
The Bergen International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in October in Bergen, Norway since 2000, and is the largest film festival in the nation in number of films. The 11th edition of the festival in 2010 featured 150 films in the program, a new record...
before going into limited release on eleven screens in the US, earning $123,761 on its opening weekend. It grossed $2,063,196 in the US and $641,755 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $2,704,951.
The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release includes a 50-minute documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Murder in Scottsdale, delving into the initial murder investigation and the reopening of the case some 15 years later.
Cast
- Greg KinnearGreg KinnearGregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of...
..... Bob CraneBob CraneRobert Edward "Bob" Crane was an American actor and disc jockey, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E... - Willem DafoeWillem DafoeWillem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
..... John Henry CarpenterJohn Henry CarpenterJohn Henry Carpenter was most widely known as the friend, and accused murderer, of actor Bob Crane in 1978.-Life:... - Rita WilsonRita Wilson-Early life:Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimoff in Los Angeles, California.Her father, a Bulgarian who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece. Before immigrating to the US, he had lived in Bulgaria and Turkey....
..... Anne Crane - Maria BelloMaria BelloMaria Elena Bello is an American actress and singer known for her appearances in the movies Coyote Ugly, The Jane Austen Book Club, Permanent Midnight, Thank You for Smoking, A History of Violence, Payback, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. For television she is known for her role as Dr...
..... Patricia Olson/Patricia Crane/Sigrid ValdisSigrid ValdisSigrid Valdis was the stage name of Patricia Annette Olson, an American actress. She was best known for playing Hilda on Hogan's Heroes.-Early life and career:Valdis began acting in the late 1950s... - Ron LeibmanRon Leibman-Career:Leibman was a member of the Compass Players in the late 1950s. He has appeared in many films such as Phar Lap; Where's Poppa?; The Hot Rock; Slaughterhouse-Five; The Super Cops; Up the Academy; Norma Rae; Romantic Comedy; Zorro, The Gay Blade; Garden State; and Rhinestone...
..... Lenny - Kurt FullerKurt FullerKurt Fuller is an American character actor. He has appeared in a number of television, film, and stage projects. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California in 1971.-Career:...
..... Werner KlempererWerner KlempererWerner Klemperer was a comedic and dramatic actor, best known for his role as Colonel Klink on the CBS television sitcom, Hogan's Heroes.-Early life:... - Christopher Neiman ..... Robert ClaryRobert ClaryRobert Clary is a French-born American actor, published author, and lecturer, best known for his role in the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes as Corporal LeBeau.-Early life and career:...
- Ed Begley, Jr.Ed Begley, Jr.Edward James "Ed" Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St...
..... Mel Rosen - Roderick L. Mccarthy.....Bartender
Critical reception
The film met with a largely positive reception from critics. A.O. Scott of the New York Times said the film "gets to you like a low-grade fever, a malaise with no known antidote. When it was over, I wasn't sure if I needed a drink, a shower or a lifelong vow of chastityChastity
Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....
... there is [a] severe, powerful moralism lurking beneath the film's dispassionate matter-of-factness. Mr. Schrader is indifferent to the sinner, but he cannot contain his loathing of the sin, which is not so much sex as the fascination with images ... To argue that images can corrupt the flesh and hollow out the soul is, for a filmmaker, an obviously contradictory exercise, but not necessarily a hypocritical one. There is plenty of nudity in Auto Focus, but you can always glimpse the abyss behind the undulating bodies, and the director leads you from easy titillation to suffocating dread, pausing only briefly and cautiously to consider the possibility of pleasure."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave the film four stars calling it "a hypnotic portrait ... pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values ... Greg Kinnear gives a creepy, brilliant performance as a man lacking in all insight ... Crane was not a complex man, but that should not blind us to the subtlety and complexity of Kinnear's performance."
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
called it "a compelling, sympathetic portrait ... Kinnear undercuts the seaminess of the Crane story, and shows us a man with more dimension and complexity than his behavior might suggest."
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
awarded it 3½ ot of 4 stars and added, "Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
and the director of American Gigolo
American Gigolo
American Gigolo is a 1980 crime drama film, written and directed by Paul Schrader. It is informally considered the second installment in his "lonely man" trilogy, following the Martin Scorsese directed Taxi Driver and preceding Light Sleeper .-Plot:Julian Kaye is a male prostitute in Los Angeles...
, is a poet of male sexual pathology. Shot through with profane laughs and stinging drama, Auto Focus ranks with his best films."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called it "one of director Paul Schrader's best films, and like Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s...
ranks as a shrewd exposé of recent Hollywood's slimy underside ... Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor ... Pic overall has an excellent L.A. period feel without getting elaborate about it, and musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive...
and a host of pop tunes are tops."
Criticism by Scotty Crane
Bob Crane's son, Scotty, bitterly attacked the film as being inaccurate. In an October 2002 piece he wrote on the movie, Scotty said that his father was not a regular church-goer and had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, which included his own funeral. There is no evidence that Crane engaged in S&M and director Paul Schrader told Scotty that the S&M scene was based on his own personal experience. Scotty also claims that his father and John Carpenter did not become close friends who socialized together until 1975. Also, Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star, who started recording his sexual encounters at least as early as 1956.Scotty and his mother had shopped a rival script for a Bob Crane movie biography. The script, alternately entitled "F-Stop" and "Take Off Your Clothes and Smile". The spec script was written up in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
by venerable columnist Army Archerd
Army Archerd
Armand Andre "Army" Archerd was a columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.-Life and career:Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York, and...
, but after "Auto-Focus" was announced, interest in Scotty's script ceased.
Awards and nominations
Paul Schrader was nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Willem Dafoe was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Chicago Film Critics AssociationChicago Film Critics Association Awards 2003
The 16th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were presented in 2004. The awards were originally going to be cancelled because the 2003 screener ban but when a judge ruled against it and the studios started to send out screeners again the awards were held...
but lost to Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
for Mystic River
Mystic River (film)
Mystic River is a 2003 American drama film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Emmy Rossum. The film was written by Brian Helgeland, based on Dennis Lehane's novel of the same...
.