Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, unpleasant,soft porn film
Review: I watched this film because it was supposed to be about the murder of Bob Crane. It was supposedly based on the book "The Death of Bob Crane". But, it in reality it was basically a soft core porno film about sex addiction. Greg Kinnear (who gives an excellent performance) states on the comment track of the DVD that body doubles were used for his "sex" scenes and Willem Defoe says he was angry that he did not get to do the "sex" scenes. Seems an indication of the opposite types of men they are. The documentary on the DVD goes into detail about the police investigation and the actual murder and is much more interesting. That was the only thing that saved the DVD for me. Usually I'm a fan of Greg Kinnear but watching him in this film was like seeing a well liked personality like Mickey Mouse play Jack the Ripper.
Rating: 
Summary: A flawed portrait of a flawed man
Review: Greg Kinnear gives one of his better performances as late Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, a man who lost everything from his starpower, to both his marriages, and finally his life because of his sexual addiction. At the center of his addiction is John Carpenter (no, not the director) played by the always excellent Willem Dafoe who provided Crane the technology to film their deeds while Crane provided the women. Director Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and director of American Gigolo) gives a flawed but hauntingly amusing look at Crane's life; whether or not it's all fact can be left up to the viewer, but Auto Focus is carried by the solid performances of Kinnear and Dafoe. The DVD itself has a number of solid extras, including a documentary on Crane's murder and commentaries including one with Kinnear and Dafoe.
Rating: 
Summary: Bizarre.
Review: This is a very carefully made film (as it has to be to drum up sympathy for Bob Crane). But ultimately its just another movie about a guy who was so likeable we're supposed to overlook everything else. This is the same premise as Catch Me If You Can--a much more enjoyable movie. In both cases these guys are charming but totally sleezy. Had he not died in the way he did, brutal and unsolved, no one would even think of making a movie about him. Mild controversy aside, Hogan's Heros is as memorable as My Mother The Car. I love Greg Kinnear but he neither looks nor sounds like Bob Crane. None of the other players fit either, with the possible exception of the guy who plays Werner Klemperer. The Richard Dawson character is totally wrong and Wilem Dafoe doesn't seem like he even lived in that era. Oh by the way, there's nothing funny in this film. How could there be? As for sympathy If Bob Crane ultimately died of a (fulfilled) craving for sex, I hope to go the same way.
Rating:
Summary: A review from a spectator, not the filmmaker
Review: I admire AUTO FOCUS very much. The film is fascinated with moral depravity and self-debasement in the way that Schrader's other films were, but its thesis is much different: PERVERSION IS NORMAL. The normalization of sexual perversity is what AUTO FOCUS is all about (the title resonates with "auto-eroticism," as well as "self-focus"). The film says: Scopophilia is NORMAL. Voyeurism is NORMAL. PERVERSITY is, paradoxically, NORMAL. The film says: there is no contradiction between the smiling, good-natured, all-American persona exemplified by Bob Crane and the voyeuristic pervert with a videocamera. You would be hard-pressed to find a more audacious mainstream American film. Why? This film takes the viewer places to which no other film has dared: into the basement of the pervert, without any kind of moralism or redemptive judgments. The film is unusually claustrophobic and narrow in its focus: it is preoccipied solely with the sexual obsessions of Bob Crane and John Carpenter. When the dream sequences occur, they cast the rest of the film into sharp relief. A work of intelligence that exerts fascination over the viewer from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Hogan! Put the video Camera Down!
Review: Greg Kinnear is winning as Bob Crane and Williem Dafoe shows up to play that seedy guy he's so famous for. Bob Crane was a good family man who didn't drink or smoke, but he eventually became a sex addict through the friendship of Dafoe, or at least according to the filmmakers. Early on we see Crane in church with the family. Later Crane tells us that people have always liked him. The movie's main purpose, I think, was to make Crane and mid-American values suspect to charges of hypocrisy. It's always been a favorite left-wing play to expose normalcy as hidden hypocrisy. The best example is, of course, Death of a Salesman, but it?s been given a new coat of paint every couple of years and re-released as some new revelation. Now having said that, I like the movie a good deal. Kinnear was good coping with his urges and the angels of his better nature. Dafoe brought enough subtlety to the role hat he is always just enough different to consider it acting. The DVD has an interesting documentary about the real-life murder of Crane and graphic photos of the crime scene. The Documentary pointed out that Crane was killed away from his LA home doing dinner theatre, because he thought he was broke. In fact, the producers of Hogan?s Heroes had been embezzling from him. Unlike the other members of the cast, Crane actually owned 25% of the show. By 1990, Hogans Heores was worth $90 million. Had Crane survived, he would have been quite rich. Politics and social statements aside, this is an entertaining film. And Three commentary tracks to chose from. A good bargain for the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Focused drama
Review: ***1/2 A cautionary tale of the dangers of sexual addiction, "Auto Focus" shows what can happen when a person attempts to lead a double life - in this case, a straight-laced family man by day and a pornography-obsessed playboy by night. In "Auto Focus," the family man/pornographer turns out to be none other than the well-known actor Bob Crane, the star of TV's "Hogan's Heroes," who was found murdered in a Scottsdale, Arizona hotel room in 1978 under mysterious and sensational circumstances that included the uncovering of tapes Crane had made of his own sexual experiences. The general public was shocked to discover that a man they had invited into their living rooms every week for six years had been living such an unsavory parallel existence - though those who knew him well were apparently far less shocked by the revelation. Drawing on Robert Graysmith's book "The Murder of Bob Crane" for its inspiration and viewpoint, the film, written by Michael Gerbosi and directed by Paul Schrader, chronicles the rise and fall of this handsome actor, from his days as a successful LA disc jockey and his meteoric rise to fame as star of a hit comedy series, to his growing obsession with promiscuity and pornography, which led to the disintegration of both his personal and professional life - and, ultimately, to his death, most likely at the hands of his buddy-in-sleaze, videographer John Carpenter (though he was never convicted of the murder). "Auto Focus" certainly does not shy away from revealing many of the salacious details of this true-life story. Schrader deals head-on with the disturbing nature of a mind so all consumed with the subject of sex that all other aspects of life become obliterated and distorted. What's fascinating about Crane - at least in the way he is depicted in this film - is that he seems to have had some sort of self-destructive death wish, for not only does he risk his career by sleeping with countless women, but he insists on leaving behind the evidence by videotaping many of his encounters, and then flaunting his "accomplishments" to others in the Hollywood community. In a way, such a cavalier attitude only underlines the sickness at the core of Crane's soul - which in a perverse, paradoxical way, actually makes Crane a more sympathetic figure than he otherwise might be. An enormous amount of credit for this also goes to Greg Kinnear who does a superb job of not only replicating Crane's style of acting but of showing us the tortured man Crane became in his later years. He was truly a man driven to madness by the demons within him, and we can all identify in some sense with that condition (our demons may not be sexual in nature, but they probably eat away at us just as ravenously as they did Crane). Kinnear gets outstanding support from Willem Dafoe as Carpenter, the Svengali-like figure who lures Crane into his world of photographed sex, and Ron Leibman, as Crane's well-meaning, caring agent who can do little but stand by helplessly as his client throws his career and his life away to feed this devouring passion. The filmmakers have done an amazing job capturing the sights and sounds of the era in which the film is set. Especially impressive are the scenes recreating "Hogan's Heroes," with Kurt Fuller, in particular, a standout as Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink). It's also fascinating to see the evolution of videotape technology as portrayed in the film. How many of us knew that such equipment existed for home consumption as early as the mid-60's? There's a real sadness to the final stretches of the film, made all the more poignant by having the dirge-like musical score run uninterrupted under the action. The effect is that we really get a sense of the total desolation of Crane's life at that point - as he has lost his family, his career, and his self-respect to the master he chose early on to serve. The loss of his life seems almost de rigueur given all that has gone before. "Auto Focus" is not always an easy film to watch, but for its unflinching look at an often-unappetizing subject, it deserves to be seen.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth is stranger than fiction.
Review: The film "Autofocus" is the story behind the murder of Bob Crane, and believe me, this story is so incredible, it surpasses any Hollywood formula and makes an absolutely fascinating, lurid, and sad film. The film begins with Bob Crane working as a DJ hoping for an acting role that provides him with a big break. He's married to his high school sweetheart and leads a seemingly normal life. But there are faint, distant rumblings of problems on the horizon--mainly Crane's secret stash of pornography that he defends vigorously whenever it's discovered by his wife's marauding forays into the garage. Bob Crane lands the role of Colonel Hogan in the television series, "Hogan's Heroes," and it's on the set that he meets John Carpenter--a video equipment salesman. Crane is fascinated by the video camera, and soon he has one and is showing home-made films to the kiddies. However, his true interest is in making amateur films of his sexual exploits, and it's this habit he begins to indulge with Carpenter and any girls the two manage to pick up in clubs and strip joints. Crane's reputation and boyish charm drew the fans and the groupies like flies, and Carpenter's video-know-how allowed the pair to indulge and record their voyeuristic tendencies and sexual exploits. Inevitably, as with any addiction, Crane's hobby began to interfere with his personal and professional life. Separately, Crane and Carpenter were swingers, but together they proved to be a powerful combination. They needed each other, and they used each other for their exploits. Watching them operate was almost like watching a pair of serial killers who feed each other's need--individually, they are harmless, but when teamed up, they formed a lethal combination. Willem Dafoe plays John Carpenter with suitable, subtle and unexplainable creepiness. Crane is played brilliantly by Greg Kinnear, and he displays the right amount of finesse, charm, and when challenged about his destructive behaviour, he quietly declares that everything he does is "normal." Ultimately, the interest for me is in this eerie relationship between the two men. It's not the sordid details of the life of a sex addict that make this film interesting--it's simply the relationship between Crane and Carpenter that fascinated me. Their relationship was nothing less than bizarre--loaded with latent homosexuality. This was Dafoe's best performance, and whoever selected Kinnear made the perfect choice. The film traced the relationship between the two men--who were opposites in many ways, and nicely explained Crane's initial forays into the seamy underworld of the strip joints. The director, Paul Schrader incorporated the use of the video camera in very subtle ways, and creates and continues the idea of voyeurism throughout the film. The film does include, of course, many scenes of a frank sexual nature--given the subject matter, and the scope of the sheer numbers involved, this should be expected by the viewer. The DVD version also includes a documentary about the crime--including why Carpenter was a suspect, clues at the crime scene, etc--displacedhuman--Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Fast-forward to Depravity
Review: As the years went by after "Hogan's Heroes" ceased production, actor Bob Crane didn't achieve very much, until he was brutally murdered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Suddenly, he was elevated from being a mere TV Trivial Pursuit answer. His unsavory death, which revealed a sideline in orgy sex, multiple infidelities, and secretive videotaping, transformed a onetime television star into a world-class sex addict. For someone who earned his dollars by being likable and irrascible, the real Crane was driven by demons, emotional instability, and sexual malfunction. In real life, he was abetted in his photography and clandestine videotaping by a "gentleman" named John Carpenter. In the film, Carpenter is scripted as being more than just a tech-savvy guy who has a streak of larceny and petty corruption in his heart. Here, played by Willem Dafoe, Carpenter is the physical manifestation of evil. He ensnares Bob Crane in his libertine lifestyle. At first parading an interest in hi-fis, martinis, and chasing skirts as an extension of Hugh Hefner's PLAYBOY credo, Carpenter eventually enables Crane to turn his back on two supportive wives and children. Crane, an overtly religious man at the movie's start, is tempted and then surrenders to his all-too-weak flesh. Paul Schrader, the director, hails from a very religious family background, so he understands the temptations that befall people who try to be active Christians. (See "Hardcore," Schrader's excellent look at his Calvinist faith as it collides with pornograhy.) Here, we see as Crane doesn't just lapse from being a Catholic, he leaps into a pit of moral and physical decay. Greg Kinnear is a marvel in this role. There were times when I had to remind myself that this wasn't the real Bob Crane. The former "Talk Soup" host is light of manner and believably square before his meeting with Carpenter. Afterward, he is a wreck of a man with a dissipated appearance, a lost look in his eyes, and a creepy, disturbing way of expressing himself. There's a scene in the film where Carpenter and Crane whisper to one another about who gets the blonde and who gets the brunette. They are seen through the arch of a dining-room pass-through and Carpenter is pouring a drink, his head slightly bowed. It is an electrifying moment because it superbly mirrors a penitent seeking advice in a confessional. And, sadly, that is what Carpenter became to Crane: father confessor, best friend, liberator, rival, Lucifer, and finally murderer. One of the detractions from this film is that it details--a little too repetitively--so much of the day-to-day grind of the sex addiction--the choosing of the girls, the duping of them, the covert filming. The Crane story was actually shown on the E! cable network as a documentary, and the Schrader film follows this documentary "religiously." If one is familiar with the Crane saga, no new information is gleaned. Rather than learning motivations or understanding the depravity better, we just see it being acted out and interpreted. The acting is excellent; set designs are first rate; the production is sleek and applaudable. Only the actor who is cast to play Richard Dawson comes across as not quite "right." The DVD is filled with lots of extras--multiple commentary tracks, deleted scenes, trailers, featurette, documentary about filming--and is worth renting and then holding out for extra days. Or better yet, even buying if you want to savor every last morel. It's a terrific film if you are just stumbling across the pathetic end of a middling, marginally talented "good guy." It's less satisfying if you are already familiar with Crane's fall from grace. Either familiar or a neophyte, one can't help but be stunned when the murder--which you know is coming--finally does occur. It hit me almost as hard as the Eric Roberts implosion/explosion in "Star 80." "Autofocus" is not a perfect film, but it does bring into sharp detail the beasts, the demons, the unlikable personalities, that incubate in even the most ordinary fellas. There truly is a banality to evil.
Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian story
Review: This is a biography of Bob Crane's career, the apparently famous star of the American series "Hogan's Heroes", who was also a womanizer. The first problem is that the story wasn't that interesting at all. So Crane was into pornography. He played the drums in strip clubs. He had lots of sex. Big whoop. He obviously doesn't think he has a problem, so we're wondering, what's the problem here ? Are we just following this guy's life ? He's interesting, but not that interesting.
The re-enactions of the sixties and Hogan's Heroes are interesting too, but ultimately lead nowhere. The other problem is that the camerawork is wobbly and even out of control at some points, for no stylistic reason whatsoever. It's too distracting to pass under the radar. In short, good actors caught in a pedestrian story which is badly shot. Some other movie critics have told me that I was missing the point of this movie. When I pressed them on it, they couldn't tell me what was so profound about this movie. The praises for this movie seem like artistic conceit, nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: Schrader does it again.
Review: Very well crafted yarn that delves into the issues of sexual morality. Well filmed, well acted, and well written. If you liked Schraders other work (Taxi Driver, American Gigelo, Hardcore) you will love this.
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