Auto Focus

Released 2002
Stars Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello, Rita Wilson, Ron Leibman, Michael E. Rodgers
Directed by Paul Schrader

Auto Focus is the story of the rise and fall of actor Bob Crane. Just about everyone in America is familiar with Crane, or, more precisely, with his television alter-ego, Col. Hogan of "Hogan's Heroes". If every actor has a defining role, Crane's was unquestionably that of Hogan. The series opened on CBS during the 1965-66 TV season and was an immediate success. (Ironically, Crane almost turned down the part, fearing that his participation in a TV show with "funny Nazis" would be a "career killer".) "Hogan's Heroes" lasted for six years before taking its 180+ episodes into syndication, where it continues to play on cable stations to this day - 24 years after the tragic, unsolved murder of its lead actor.

There are countless rumors about what happened to Crane, all of them unsubstantiated. The purpose of Auto Focus is not to solve the murder, but to explore the conditions leading up to it. The movie suggests a suspect, but, as in real life, it does not offer a definitive conclusion. Veteran director Paul Schrader (the writer of Taxi Driver and the director of Affliction) has a penchant for looking at the dark side of human nature, and the opportunity to study Crane's success story gone wrong provided him with a perfect arena.

Summary by James Berardinelli

The late comedian Bill Hicks observed anyone could be a bum. All it takes is the right circumstances and the right friends, because your friends will christen your dumpster for you. That's just what happened to Bob Crane when John Carpenter walked into his life. Bob had a good thing going with his career and was a solid family man until he met John. Then he went through two divorces and ended up taking a dinner theater production around the country for the rest of his life. It wasn't all bad, though, because he had an endless stream of anonymous beauties and orgies that he and his (only) friend videotaped. I never understood when people talked about sexual addiction, because I couldn't think how that could be a problem. Now I know. This movie does an excellent job of showing Bob as a decent person who finds someone to feed his demons. It struggles a bit at the end when it uses camera tricks to try to show Bob hitting rock bottom, but it's very entertaining with a few insights into a different form of addiction and denial.  --Bill Alward, April 10, 2003