Way back in 19 and 78, a big movie on screen was The Buddy Holly Story. It had humor, heart, and Holly's music being performed by Gary Busey (in his best job, outside the Dustin Hoffman flick, Hard Time). It came in a little late for the early '70s nostalgia kick of American Graffiti and Happy Days, but there was still a desire for the simplicity of the pre-dead Kennedy days.
The problem with The Buddy Holly Story is that almost none of it was true.
In the same year, Bob Crane was savagely murdered in an Arizona motel. Who did it is still a mystery. We'll probably never know who murdered him, but there are a number of different theories, and Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002) posits one of them, to an ambiguous point.
Schrader has gone down the pornographic road before with Hardcore. Here, he tells a story based on a real person, TV and radio personality, Bob Crane. Crane will always be known as Colonel Robert Hogan, the head of a band of resistance fighters locked in a German POW camp in World War II. Hogan's Heroes was trash, but utterly entertaining trash. The story was ludicrous, the characters were cartoonish, the Germans had IQs of toe fungus, and the whole thing had a ridiculous laugh track.
On the other hand, Crane's Hogan was the sort of hero you would want on your side, a roguish, insubordinate con-man who inspired fearless loyalty from the men in his command while instilling a fearful, loathing unease from the enemy. His mission was to NOT escape, but to play to the idiotic ego and glaring incompetence of the commandant of Stalag 13, Oberst Wilhelm Klink of the Luftwaffe.
The show ran for six seasons and, despite some criticism from TV critics at the start, became a big hit, and Crane became a big star.
Auto Focus tells the story of Crane's great luck in bagging the part of Hogan, and his relentless pursuit of bagging an ever-sicker addictive lifestyle, fueled by pornographic photos, film, and video, and the ever-willing girls who wanted to party with Col. Hogan.
Greg Kinnear's Bob Crane is spot-on, a charming and very Catholic family man who is being pulled away from a healthy family life with kiddies and Rita Wilson as his wife, Anne, by an increasing fascination with nude photographs, dirty magazines, and the whole fantasy world of pornography. Along for the ride is Crane's friend, compatriot, and enabler, John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe). Crane eventually loses his wife and family, loses his show with declining ratings due to the unpleasant reality of Vietnam, and watches his career slide under the waves. His marriage to Colonel Klink's secretary, played by the lovely Maria Bello, produces a child, but not happiness. Crane is reduced to dinner theater engagements, a type of gig he sees as beneath his star power.
When he is offered a Disney comedy called Superdad, he almost blows it with his reputation for blowing it. Disney (back when the company was family-friendly) holds the movie for years before releasing it, then dumps it onto the big screen in the middle of a lousy recession.
Kinnear, a handsome man with the same smart-alecky charm as Crane, loses his second wife, the relationship with his first set of kids, his bank account, and the tolerance of his agent, played by Ron Lieberman, a great actor with a terrible toupee. Crane tells himself that it's time to dry out and clean up, and he dumps Carpenter over the side. The movie hints at Carpenter being bisexual, and he loves to party with girls, but he longs for Crane as a friend with benefits(?).
Crane's "betrayal" of Carpenter may or may not have caused Carpenter to sneak into his motel room in Scottsdale, Arizona, armed with a movie-camera tripod and send Crane to Heaven or Hell (depending on how merciful God is with pathetic sinners).
And therein lies the rub (no pun intended). Kinnear narrates the last moments of the movie, telling the viewer about the mistakes made by the Scottsdale police, the eventual indictment of Carpenter, and his subsequent acquittal. The movie never discusses any possible organized crime connections, a part of Crane's background that was speculated on right after his murder.
This brings us back to Buddy Holly. Holly had a supportive family, unlike the movie. He hit it big in a different way than pictured. He had three "Crickets," not two. His wife miscarried after his death (not mentioned). There were so many things wrong with The Buddy Holly Story, but that great, great music and Busey's powerhouse portrayal made the audience smile, regardless of facts.
Auto Focus streamlines a sad story of a man bent on destroying himself by malfeasance and misfeasance, by doing evil and lying to himself about his evil acts. Kinnear's Crane is a mess in an Army Air Force leather jacket.
If little of this movie is true, then we must accept it as Schrader suffering from Holly Syndrome. If it's essentially true, then fans of Hogan's Heroes will always see it--and Bob Crane--with an asterisk by their names.
The problem with The Buddy Holly Story is that almost none of it was true.
In the same year, Bob Crane was savagely murdered in an Arizona motel. Who did it is still a mystery. We'll probably never know who murdered him, but there are a number of different theories, and Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002) posits one of them, to an ambiguous point.
Schrader has gone down the pornographic road before with Hardcore. Here, he tells a story based on a real person, TV and radio personality, Bob Crane. Crane will always be known as Colonel Robert Hogan, the head of a band of resistance fighters locked in a German POW camp in World War II. Hogan's Heroes was trash, but utterly entertaining trash. The story was ludicrous, the characters were cartoonish, the Germans had IQs of toe fungus, and the whole thing had a ridiculous laugh track.
On the other hand, Crane's Hogan was the sort of hero you would want on your side, a roguish, insubordinate con-man who inspired fearless loyalty from the men in his command while instilling a fearful, loathing unease from the enemy. His mission was to NOT escape, but to play to the idiotic ego and glaring incompetence of the commandant of Stalag 13, Oberst Wilhelm Klink of the Luftwaffe.
The show ran for six seasons and, despite some criticism from TV critics at the start, became a big hit, and Crane became a big star.
Auto Focus tells the story of Crane's great luck in bagging the part of Hogan, and his relentless pursuit of bagging an ever-sicker addictive lifestyle, fueled by pornographic photos, film, and video, and the ever-willing girls who wanted to party with Col. Hogan.
Greg Kinnear's Bob Crane is spot-on, a charming and very Catholic family man who is being pulled away from a healthy family life with kiddies and Rita Wilson as his wife, Anne, by an increasing fascination with nude photographs, dirty magazines, and the whole fantasy world of pornography. Along for the ride is Crane's friend, compatriot, and enabler, John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe). Crane eventually loses his wife and family, loses his show with declining ratings due to the unpleasant reality of Vietnam, and watches his career slide under the waves. His marriage to Colonel Klink's secretary, played by the lovely Maria Bello, produces a child, but not happiness. Crane is reduced to dinner theater engagements, a type of gig he sees as beneath his star power.
When he is offered a Disney comedy called Superdad, he almost blows it with his reputation for blowing it. Disney (back when the company was family-friendly) holds the movie for years before releasing it, then dumps it onto the big screen in the middle of a lousy recession.
Kinnear, a handsome man with the same smart-alecky charm as Crane, loses his second wife, the relationship with his first set of kids, his bank account, and the tolerance of his agent, played by Ron Lieberman, a great actor with a terrible toupee. Crane tells himself that it's time to dry out and clean up, and he dumps Carpenter over the side. The movie hints at Carpenter being bisexual, and he loves to party with girls, but he longs for Crane as a friend with benefits(?).
Crane's "betrayal" of Carpenter may or may not have caused Carpenter to sneak into his motel room in Scottsdale, Arizona, armed with a movie-camera tripod and send Crane to Heaven or Hell (depending on how merciful God is with pathetic sinners).
And therein lies the rub (no pun intended). Kinnear narrates the last moments of the movie, telling the viewer about the mistakes made by the Scottsdale police, the eventual indictment of Carpenter, and his subsequent acquittal. The movie never discusses any possible organized crime connections, a part of Crane's background that was speculated on right after his murder.
This brings us back to Buddy Holly. Holly had a supportive family, unlike the movie. He hit it big in a different way than pictured. He had three "Crickets," not two. His wife miscarried after his death (not mentioned). There were so many things wrong with The Buddy Holly Story, but that great, great music and Busey's powerhouse portrayal made the audience smile, regardless of facts.
Auto Focus streamlines a sad story of a man bent on destroying himself by malfeasance and misfeasance, by doing evil and lying to himself about his evil acts. Kinnear's Crane is a mess in an Army Air Force leather jacket.
If little of this movie is true, then we must accept it as Schrader suffering from Holly Syndrome. If it's essentially true, then fans of Hogan's Heroes will always see it--and Bob Crane--with an asterisk by their names.