“˜Auto Focus’ traces life of Bob Crane
By Ryan Joe
Sept. 21, 2002 9:00 p.m.
If ignorance is bliss, then Bob Crane, subject of Paul
Schrader’s film “Auto Focus,” was probably the
gosh-darn happiest man in the universe.
As the star of the television hit “Hogan’s
Heroes” during its brief but popular run, Crane was privy to
all the women fame brings, and he documented his sexcapades through
still photography and then-new video technology. He shared his
escapades with John Carpenter ““ a man who would become the
focus of an investigation into Crane’s eventual murder in a
hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Crane, played by Greg Kinnear in the new film to be released on
Oct. 18, had a one-track mind that usually beat to the pulsations
of sex, completely oblivious as his world began to crumble around
him. While sex addiction isn’t a common topic in movies that
aren’t downloaded in secret off the Internet, obsession in
some form or another is a common theme for the film’s writer
and director Paul Schrader.Â
Schrader, a UCLA alumnus, created the character Travis Bickle
for Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and continued
a close collaboration with director Scorsese in seminal films
including “Raging Bull” and “The Last Temptation
of Christ.” As a director, his work similarly touched on
the obsessive aspects of humanity with films that include
“American Gigolo,” “Affliction,” and now
“Auto Focus,” which is loosely based on Robert
Graysmith’s book “The Murder of Bob Crane.”
“I recognized this character ““ a variation of the
sort I’ve worked on before ““ this unreliable narrator
who thinks he is one thing and is in fact another,” said
Schrader. “Someone acting in a manner counterproductive
to his own desires.”
It’s easy to wonder if this fascination began as a product
of his upbringing; Schrader is the son of fundamentalist parents
and didn’t see his first film until his late teens.Â
However, Schrader is reluctant to talk about his past. When asked
whether he was raised Catholic, his eyes, beneath large owl-rimmed
glasses, deaden. “Dutch Calvinist,” he curtly
corrects.Â
His early years in Southern California weren’t a bowl full
of cherries. According to Peter Biskind’s book
“Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,” “By the time
(Schrader) got to L.A., he was seriously deranged, although he
massaged his reputation as a wild man when he realized he could
make it work for him.”
His tenure, beginning in 1968 at UCLA’s film school,
according to that same book, was lackluster, “He failed
production, and was crying in the halls trying to get (fellow
students) to sign a petition so he could continue.”
But that was decades ago and Schrader has since, despite a
brief, rocky start, become a major figure in American film
history. Consequently, he’s worked with some of the
best actors in the business, from Robert DeNiro to Nick Nolte and
most frequently, with Willem Dafoe.
“I like Schrader’s passion that is expressed in an
aesthetic that isn’t always seemingly passionate,” said
Dafoe, who plays Carpenter. “There’s a little
distance and you can receive the resonances of the story
better. He’s not gratuitous; he deals with matters of
the flesh and spirit, but they’re not movies that are totally
amped up where you lose all perspective.”
Indeed, “Auto Focus” deals with matters of the flesh
and spirit. But, this isn’t an epileptic and orgiastic
sexfest, despite its raunchy theme. There’s a tired
quality to the film, which is appropriate, given the mind-numbing
routines to which Crane subjects himself and through which he
begins to destroy his life. Â
Of the diverse themes in the film, however, the one the ratings
board focused on, unfortunately, was the sex; consequently the film
was threatened with an NC-17 rating, a financial kiss of
death. Ultimately, Schrader was forced to either blur the
objectionable parts or re-cut the scenes in which they
occurred. Schrader opted for the former.
“If I had known I’d have gotten caught in this jam,
I would have shot it differently,” Schrader said. “I
decided to blur it since it was a way of saying “˜yes this is
hardcore and Bob isn’t showing cheesecake and he was doing it
then, but we can’t show it to you now.'”
The occasionally nebulous distinction between fact and fiction
““ what can be shown and what should be shown ““ is an
oft-contested point in films, such as “Auto Focus,”
that are based upon fact. A lawsuit from Crane’s second
family is expected for possible emotional trauma. Crane’s
first family, however, worked closely with Schrader’s
production and gave it their blessing.
Who did kill Bob Crane? The movie doesn’t dwell on
it; the event is almost incidental. “Auto Focus” really
isn’t about the murder of Crane, but about his relationship
with John Carpenter, and his obsession that slowly began to
dominate his life, and which Schrader finds and makes so
compelling. Crane’s untimely demise is important only
insomuch as the death was necessary to end Crane’s
story.Â
“This movie ends up not being what it seems to be about,
like most good movies. “˜Moby Dick’ is not about a
whale,” Dafoe said.
