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Auto Focus (Widescreen Special Edition)
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Genre | Drama |
Format | Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Anamorphic, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen |
Contributor | Willem Dafoe, Pat Dollard, Greg Kinnear, Paul Schrader, Good Machine, Inc.; Propaganda Films, Larry Karaszewski, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Todd Rosken, Alicia Allain, Brian Oliver, Scott Alexander See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 46 minutes |
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Product Description
Academy Award(r) nominees Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) and Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire, Spider-Man) star in a provocative drama about the colorful life and mysterious death of legendary television actor Bob Crane. Bob Crane (Kinnear) became well known as the star of the hit comedy series"Hogan's Heroes." With an abundance of fame, wealth and success, Crane dove headfirst into the darker, destructive side of the celebrity lifestyle. He eventually teamed up with a video technician (Dafoe) who helped him to systematically document his copious sexploits with beautiful young women. Butwhen the fast living and hard loving got out of control, the end result was a brutal murder that remains one of the most scandalous unsolved mysteries in Hollywood history.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 3.2 ounces
- Director : Paul Schrader
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Anamorphic, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Run time : 1 hour and 46 minutes
- Release date : March 18, 2003
- Actors : Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello
- Dubbed: : French
- Subtitles: : English
- Producers : Brian Oliver, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Todd Rosken, Pat Dollard
- Language : French, Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- ASIN : B000087F7Q
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #14,694 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #2,308 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States
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I'm a baby boomer and when I was a teenager in high school, I just loved Hogan's Heroes and I was such a big fan of all the cast members. Sadly, as I write this, only one remains alive and that one is Robert Clary. The producers did such a great job of putting this team of talent together when the show aired back in the 1960s, and as I returned home as a volunteer soldier in Vietnam, I was devastated that the show was gone from the airwaves.
I bought Auto Focus and I have to say, although I didn't really enjoy it (because of the tragic down-spiral of Bob Crane) I'm glad I bought the DVD and watched it. It was well produced and the sets are right-on to the period of the 60s... everything from the hair styles, down to the furniture, was for me, like walking back into my days as a teenager. I remember the news when Bob was found dead in the summer of 1978. I thought to myself then "Say it isn't true" because I liked the guy so much, but I obviously liked Bob Crane the actor and not Bob Crane the sex addict. And when details started surfacing about Bob's lifestyle soon after, again I caught myself saying the same thing again. Watching this movie now, 35 years later, I feel I have a better idea of who Bob Crane was (even though I don't want to believe any of it.)
Bob Crane was a gifted comic and to see in this movie the possible/probable way he may have rehearsed his character with Colonel Klink on the first readings of the original first script (and then given some guidance by the director of the original show) was interesting as Hogan's character was born and developed.
Although, fans of Bob Crane justifiably will and can find good reason to not watch this film, I can say that I wasn't disillusioned about the Crane the actor, but Crane the man. But I suppose, addicts generally feel they don't have a problem with the substance or activity that they abuse, and addictions are human foibles that plaque some people. As an actor, I still hold him as one of my all-time favorites. I certainly can't applaud his personal choices in life, his dark and devious side, but the man was just so darned likeable and I think Auto Focus does a good job on revealing this aspect of Bob Crane (as well as his weaknesses.)
Each of us have our own personal demons I suppose and it is sad that Bob's addiction to this devious activity lead him down a dark path... ruined two marriages, his career. We can't change history and as I have read other reviews about Auto Focus, some people refuse to see Bob Crane in any light other than favorable... even though there indeed might be inaccuracies, inconsistencies in this film - while I didn't like it, I suppose I am glad I viewed it - if nothing else, but to fill in the gaps. The other sad aspect, as it comes out in this movie, is the fact that it seems his second wife accepted his perversion as she did, until late in their marriage.
I don't know if you can call it a "docu-drama" or what, but to me, the film has some validity of being like a docu-drama. It strongly suggests that Carpenter was the man who killed Bob Crane. The film also suggests to me that the Scotsdale police did a lousy job of investigating this crime and that critical evidence was overlooked and/or tainted.
Bottom line, a lot of us who were fans of Hogan's Heroes lost someone we really admired as an actor (despite his personal faults) but I'm glad I bought Auto Focus and watched it. The film fills in voids after his death that were missing for me although I admit I don't want to believe what I saw in Auto Focus, at the same time, this film is entirely believable.
Some of the production techniques were flawed during production (I hate hand-held shots) and there are some problems in several scenes with audio contamination (don't know if the scenes were recorded with bad sound or if this was a problem in post-production) but I'm glad I have this DVD in my personal library.
Not to be a spoiler though, the scene where Bob is a guest on a food show near the end of the movie and near the end of his life, is hard for me to believe he actually degraded a woman in an audience like the film suggests. Bob Crane was simply too nice of a guy and so darned likable for me to think he would have been so out of touch in this one scene, and in the way his addiction engulfed his good judgement.
Last but not least, after seeing this film, I still like Hogan but it's sort off a strain to like Crane.
If you are a Bob Crane fan, you may or may not like this film. It delves deeply into Crane's seedy lifestyle off screen, which may be
a turn-off for some people. But if you can see the film for what it offers, a character study, if you will, of someone famous who, in the end, is as human as the rest us, and powerless to his own bad choices, then you might enjoy it and learn some lessons for yourself.
By today's standards it might not be that unusual to record yourself having sex.
I think the part that bothers me a little bit is the infidelity.
It's unfortunate that he had to deal with someone who potentially might have murdered him just to be able to get home video equipment.
I was SO disappointed with this film. First of all, I guess Greg Kinnear did a good job playing Bob, only Bob had almost black hair and at no time in the movie did Greg. We don’t see much of the Hogan’s Heroes show and cast, but the cast members we see didn’t even try to look like the real life actors from the show.
They really tried to focus the movie on Bob’s sex life, but they didn’t even do a good job with that! Bob was always charismatic, and yes, he was a man-whore, but there was nothing really attractive about his character in this movie.
Last, but certainly not least, except for the character of Bob’s agent, there were absolutely no likeable characters in the film. At all. Since they sort of aged Greg during the movie, and since he didn’t have the black hair, at the end he actually looked like Ted Bundy, not Bob Crane. This movie wasn’t worth the $7.00 I paid for it. I’m sure there are better biography movies, but this one isn’t one. If you still love Hogan’s Heroes and Bob Crane, just buy the series. That’s worth it!
Top reviews from other countries
His decline is marked by his hallucinations and blackouts, but there may have been drugs involved, though this is not openly shown in the film. However, there is the odd suggestion, if you look closely.
Sadly, Bob resorted to working on stage in dinner theatre, and believing himself to be broke, degenerated and sank lower and more desperate, ably depicted in the film. It was later explained in the excellent extras on the DVD, that he was in for a 25% cut of the profit from "Heroes" amounting to 22.5 million dollars.
His first wife, Anne, divorced him and he married his co-star from "Heroes" but that marriage failed as well.
It is interesting to track the invention of video and its progressing effect on photography. Greg Kinnear and Daniel Dafoe, give stirring performances as the two main characters, the efforvescent Crane, and the insecure Carpenter. Carpenter makes much of Bob's fame to "pull the birds", but comes across as a lonely man, fired because he was colour-blind. They would not get away with that nowadays.
Bob Crane, was undoubtedly addicted to sex, now regarded as an illness. Finally he is battered to death in his sleep and Carpenter was arrested. The investigation was somewhat of a fiasco and was reopened ten years later with the advent of DNA testing.
This is a very good film, with excellent extras.
Well worth watching, but do not let the children see it.
...and not because I fancy myself as a home movie porn star.
Maybe it was the fall from grace, the potential unrealised or the fact I was working in radio at the time the film came out. Maybe it was because as a child I learnt the counter melody of Hogan's Heroes while in the school band (it was counter intuative if you ask me). Maybe it was because of...
Who knows.
Good performances from the cast...