La vida de la estrella de televisión Bob Crane y su extraña amistad con el experto en electrónica John Henry Carpenter.La vida de la estrella de televisión Bob Crane y su extraña amistad con el experto en electrónica John Henry Carpenter.La vida de la estrella de televisión Bob Crane y su extraña amistad con el experto en electrónica John Henry Carpenter.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Premios
- 6 nominaciones en total
- Richard Dawson
- (as Michael Rodgers)
- Melissa
- (as Donnamarie Recco)
- …
- Dirección
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- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
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.
Greg Kinnear is definitely in one of his best parts here, as he plays someone who is an actor who keeps his actor-like charms off the set as well. In Hollywood, away from the confines of Connecticut, his Bob Crane lands the lead on Hogan's heroes, but can't resist the first temptations of the night-life. This comes, in an introductory way and then throughout as a tag-along/counterpart, with John Carpenter (not the director, played with the best match by Willem Dafoe of being a creep and alluring at times), who shows him the ropes and hooks him up with video equipment. But as Crane goes deeper into his sexual drives, divorces, marries again and divorces again, his acting career and his livelihood seem to slip away. The themes of being perversely the 'All-American Male' are accentuated by Kinnear's Crane in voice-over as he talks about the unbridled joys of sex, and in an interview with a Christian publication he says 'I don't...make waves'. By the last third of his story, however, into the rot of the 70s, he's lost touch with the reality of his pleasures- or rather necessities.
Auto Focus isn't at times an easy movie to sit through; it's even cringe-worthy in a couple of scenes (notably for me was when he guest stars on a celebrity cooking show, only to keep on his sexually-driven side with audience members). Then there are other scenes (i.e. 'you have fingers up you-know-where', and the genital enhancement) where male masculinity is questioned, and in very peculiar ways between Crane and Carpenter; Crane is homophobic, but then what exactly is Carpenter's function? More than anything, less than being a friend, he becomes a kind of unintentional pusher, where the draw of going out on the town becomes a crux for both of the men. What's just as fascinating then is how Schrader aligns this with his style- the first half is mostly very slick and professional-looking, almost like an HBO bio-pic or something. But then as the characters lose a grip on everything except themselves, there's a hand-held, distorted view to everything. There's lots of nudity and on-screen sex (some blurred out, likely by MPAA request), yet Schrader gets something more shocking, in the mind at least, as Carpenter almost becomes the antagonist in a way as the story winds down (the last phone call marks this most).
Auto Focus has the ideal of the usual biographical drama of a somebody in Hollywood who soon loses himself to becoming a nobody, but there's plenty under the surface that makes it more intriguing. Crane's two sides to his persona- the celebrity one, and the personal 'lifestyle' one- become one and the same after a while, Kinnear being able to make such a near-irredeemable person somewhat sympathetic (or at the least very watchable). And Carpenter's more truthful, emotional, and scary turn is made palatable by Dafoe's equally nuanced performance. It's not great, but it's a near-classic of the tale-of-such-and-such-star when so many don't take in what's deeper into account. A-
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.
A popular star of the hit series Hogan's Heroes, Crane was a sex addict who enjoyed videotaping his sexual encounters. His partner in this endeavor was video expert John Carpenter.
Crane was murdered while doing dinner theater in Arizona. John Carpenter was a suspect in the murder, as were others. Carpenter was ultimately brought to trial and acquitted. The crime scene had been sloppily handled, and by the time Carpenter was arrested years later, evidence was missing. Carpenter died four years after his trial. The film's point of view suggests he was indeed the killer.
Crane had told his son that Carpenter was a hanger-on and he was getting ready to dump him, which police felt was a good motive for anger leading to murder.
Paul Schrader does a good job of directing, and the performances are solid from Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe especially. I do have to say that Kurt Fuller, a favorite of mine, was absolutely fantastic as Werner Klemperer in his role of Colonel Klink - one would have thought he was Werner - the look, the accent, the mannerisms - perfect.
Schrader shows Crane's decline, using both music and atmosphere to create what became the empty life of a man looking for something that he could never find. The DVD has a documentary about the murder on it, and his daughter states when interviewed that Crane was a wonderful father, "very doting." A sad story of the double life of someone who lit up the TV screen in the '60s.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaThe leather jacket that Greg Kinnear wears while playing Bob Crane in the Los héroes de Hogan (1965) scenes of this movie is the one that the real Crane actually wore during the filming of that TV series. Crane's son Robert David Crane loaned the jacket to Kinnear for this movie. Prior to the original "Hogan's Heroes" show, Frank Sinatra wore this exact same jacket in El expreso de Von Ryan (1965).
- ErroresThere is a glimpse of the famous Capitol Records building painted silver. At the time of the film, it was actually painted black to resemble a stack of records.
- Citas
Bob Crane: I think it's perfect for me. I mean, this character Hogan, he's quick on his toes, he's hip, he's a con artist. I don't wanna jinx it, but I think it's what I've been working toward my whole career!
Anne Crane: Really? You've been working towards a Holocaust comedy?
Bob Crane: Ann!
Anne Crane: What, Bob?
Bob Crane: Please, not in front of the children! They look up to me!
Anne Crane: They're small. They look up to everyone.
- Versiones alternativasThe following deleted scenes appear on the DVD:
- Victoria finds Bob's body.
- Hogan's Heroes Montage
- Bob unloads drums and some dirty magazines fall out.
- Anne and Bob talking by the pool.
- Anne in the darkroom.
- ConexionesFeatured in Auto Focus: Featurette (2002)
- Bandas sonorasSnap!
Written by Paul Schrader and Angelo Badalamenti
Performed by David Johansen (as Buster Poindexter)
Produced by Brian Koonin
Selecciones populares
- How long is Auto Focus?Con tecnología de Alexa
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Sitio oficial
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Autofocus
- Locaciones de filmación
- Productoras
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- USD 7,000,000 (estimado)
- Total en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 2,063,196
- Fin de semana de estreno en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 123,761
- 20 oct 2002
- Total a nivel mundial
- USD 2,704,951
- Tiempo de ejecución
- 1h 45min(105 min)
- Color
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.85 : 1