Afflicted
by
Sasha Stone

The combination of writer Paul Schrader, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro has produced two of the most memorable American movies of our time: Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. All three men carry around a hefty dark side, and when they combined it somehow, it was quite something to behold. But really, Schrader has been defined by Taxi Driver above the rest of his films - probably because it seemed to be the most personal. As a director, Schrader's been hit and miss, choosing films that deal with addiction, isolation and disturbing sexuality of one kind or another. He seems particularly fascinated by porn, though as a symptom of loneliness and despair. This is why he seemed the ideal choice to take on the story of Bob Crane, the Hogan's Heroes star who ruined his life with his sexual addiction, in the new film Auto Focus.

Crane was found murdered in 1978, and though his death remains a mystery it was assumed that his pal John Carpenter was to blame. This is the slant screenwriter Michael Gerbosi has taken with his adaptation of the Robert Graysmith biography of Crane. Greg Kinnear, in his first major dramatic lead, plays Crane as a kind of sweet, plucky boy-man wandering innocently through the world. He's comfortable living a double life - playing the happily married man while obsessing in a dark room over girly magazines. This probably would have been how he spent his whole life had it not been for, as the film would have you believe, his sex- and tech-obsessed pal Carpy (a suitably creepy Willem Dafoe).

Crane and Carpy made an explosive pair, pun intended, as they worked the girls. Crane, through his popularity on Hogan's Heroes, was used as bait for picking up bimbos with big knockers. Taking them home and photographing them in various sexual positions became a daily routine, even a bonding experience. Sure, there was tension from the start: two alpha males competing for the alpha female, and usually Carpy got stuck with Crane's leftovers.

Paralleling their bunny dip into the world of casual sex was their fascination with the blooming tech world - Crane, a photography nut, was fascinated by Carpy's knowledge of "VTRs" - video tape recorders, and this became as much a shared thing between the two men as their proclivity for snatch. There was also something else happening between the two men. Having sex every which way but loose, they were bound to turn, at some point, toward each other - and though the men seem to have no problem enjoying, shall we say, watching their sexual exploits together, they can't ever really cross that line into gay sex. So, the story goes, Crane was bothered by Carpy, who touched him during one of their "group gropes."

The conflict between them, and the shame Carpy had to suck up as Crane pointed and laughed at his supposedly gay friend, is the reason the film gives for Crane's eventual murder. Carpenter was apparently obsessed with Crane, sexually and in every other way, so that when Crane wanted out, Carpenter couldn't handle it.

Unfortunately, though, the film doesn't come anywhere near backing this up- it is merely touched upon, assumed. We don't see enough of Carpenter to justify such strong feelings. For his part, Kinnear portrays a suitably sad character - someone who doesn't really to do anyone harm - he just likes to have sex a lot. Even if he knew it was ruining his life and his career, he wouldn't really let on. It's a good bit of acting for the talented Kinnear, who has his best moments in the film portraying the period at the end of Crane's life, when everything was falling apart, when his celebrity had all but died out, and along with it his ability to snare chicks. But it's not enough to make it a thorough character study. What it shows is that Kinnear seems ready to tackle much harder material.

Dafoe, who is usually right on the money, doesn't have a grasp on Carpy - he plays him all one note and never really decides whether he wants to play him gay or straight. Both Carpy and Crane are portrayed without real insight, almost as parodies or dreamlike visions of what these people were. Perhaps that was Schrader's point ­ to try to tell the story from Crane's abyss of denial, where people aren't seen as they really are.

At one point in Kinnear's voice-over, he tells us that sometimes life just changes around you- you stay the same but everyone else and everything else changes. A provocative idea, to be sure, but one that was better explored in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. In that film, we watched the changing face of porn and the corresponding damage to the characters. In Auto Focus, we're watching the changing face of the porn lover- a guy who is as fascinated by seeing himself on film having sex as he is watching family movies of his kids.

Behind every great pervert is usually a religious zealot or two - and it makes sense that Crane would be dogged by a priest in the early part of the film. But whether or not the real Crane had problems with his own perversion is never really explored in this film - unfortunately, that makes it one long note played slightly off key. It isn't tha Auto Focus is bad - it's enjoyable enough - it's just that there seemed to be a lot more to be got from this story that never materialized. The film seems in need of a kick start - or a collaborative hand to scratch away the surface and reveal what's really underneath. Unless, of course, what was really underneath wasn't all that interesting to begin with.

©2002 Sasha Stone
CineScene