El Paso and Southwestern Railroad and Auto Focus: Difference between pages
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locale=[[Arizona]], [[New Mexico]], [[Texas]]; [[Sonora]], [[Mexico]]| |
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start_year=1888|end_year=1961| |
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The '''El Paso and Southwestern Railroad''' was a [[short-line railroad|short-line]] [[United States|American]] [[railway company]] which operated in [[Arizona]], [[New Mexico]], and [[Texas]], with line extensions across the international border into [[Mexico]]. The railroad operated from 1888 to 1961, and was known as the '''Arizona and South Eastern Railroad''' from 1888 to 1901. |
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==Founding== |
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[[James Douglas (businessman)|James Douglas]] was a former professor of [[chemistry]] working for [[William E. Dodge, Jr.]] and [[Daniel Willis James]], majority co-owners of the [[Phelps Dodge|Phelps, Dodge Corporation]].<ref name="Americana">Beach and Rines, ''The Americana: A Universal Reference Library,'' 1911.</ref><ref name="Cleland">Cleland, ''A History of Phelps Dodge: 1834–1950,'' 1952.</ref> Phelps, Dodge was entering the [[Copper extraction techniques|copper mining]] industry, and had hired Douglas to make an inspection of [[mineral rights|mining claims]] in the [[Southwestern United States]]. Douglas suggested that the two men invest in the [[Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona]], which owned a copper mining claim in [[Warren, Arizona]].<ref name="Cleland" /> In 1881, Phelps, Dodge not only took a controlling interest in the Detroit Copper Mining Company but also purchased a minority interest in the adjoining [[Copper Queen Mine]] in [[Bisbee, Arizona]].<ref name="Cleland" /><ref name="Whitten">Whitten, Whitten and Sisaye, ''The Birth of Big Business in the United States, 1860–1914: Commercial, Extractive, and Industrial Enterprise,'' 2005.</ref> After the Copper Queen and Detroit Copper both struck the [[Atlanta lode]]<ref>"Phelps Dodge Corporation," in ''International Directory of Company Histories,'' 2006.</ref> in 1884, Phelps, Dodge bought out the remaining interest in the Copper Queen. The company merged its various mining interests into the [[Phelps Dodge|Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company]] in 1885, and installed Douglas as president and part-owner.<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Cleland" /><ref name="Whitten" /> |
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{{Infobox Film |
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With production in the Bisbee expanding, Douglas formed the Arizona and South Eastern Railroad in 1888.<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Whitten" /> The railroad ran on a short spur of track from Bisbee to [[Fairbank, Arizona]], where it met the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|Santa Fe Railroad]].<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Whitten" /> Shortly thereafter the line was extended to [[Benson, Arizona]], to connect with the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific Railroad]].<ref name="Whitten"/> Copper Queen Consolidated built a new smelter at the newly built town of [[Douglas, Arizona]] (named for James Douglas), to which the railroad was extended again.<ref name="Americana" /> The line was renamed the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad on [[June 25]], [[1901]], to reflect its larger scope (even though it did not yet extend to [[El Paso, Texas]]).<ref name="Americana" /> |
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| name = Auto Focus |
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| image = AutoFocus.jpg|thumb| |
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| caption = Original poster |
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| director = [[Paul Schrader]] |
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| producer = [[Scott Alexander]]<br>Alicia Allain<br>[[Patrick Dollard]]<br>[[Larry Karaszewski]]<br>[[Brian Oliver]]<br>Todd Rosken |
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| writer = Michael Gerbosi |
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| starring = [[Greg Kinnear]]<br>[[Willem Dafoe]] |
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| music = [[Angelo Badalamenti]] |
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| cinematography = Jeffrey Greeley<br>[[Fred Murphy]] |
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| editing = Kristina Boden |
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| distributor = [[Sony Pictures Classics]] |
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| released = [[October 18]], [[2002 in film|2002]] |
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| runtime = 105 minutes |
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| country = [[United States]] |
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| awards = |
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| language = [[English language|English]] |
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| budget = $7 million |
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| amg_id = 1:263933 |
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| imdb_id = 0298744 |
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}} |
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'''''Auto Focus''''' is a [[2002 in film|2002]] [[United States|American]] [[biographical film]] directed by [[Paul Schrader]]. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book ''The Murder of Bob Crane'' by [[Robert Graysmith]]. It tells the story of actor [[Bob Crane]], an affable radio show host and amateur drummer who found success on ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'', a popular television [[situation comedy|sitcom]] about a [[prisoner of war]] camp during [[World War II]], and his dramatic descent into the underbelly of Hollywood after the series was cancelled. |
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==Expansion== |
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[[Image:Bisbee deportation guns.jpg|thumb|right|175px|[[Bisbee Deportation|Deportation]] of [[strike action|striking]] miners from [[Bisbee, Arizona]], on [[July 12]], [[1917]]. Striking miners and others are marched from [[Warren Ballpark]] along railroad tracks toward cattle cars belonging to the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.]] |
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James and Dodge, meanwhile, had acquired the [[Moctezuma Copper Company]] in the state of [[Sonora]] in [[Mexico]], and in 1902 the El Paso and Southwestern line was extended south from Douglas to the Mexican town of [[Nacozari de García]].<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Whitten" /><ref>Truett, ''Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,'' 2006.</ref> The [[Nacorazi Railroad]], owned by Moctezuma Copper Co. and used to transport ore to the Moctezuma smelter at Nacozari, was incorporated into the El Paso and Southwestern.<ref name="Americana" /> |
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==Plot== |
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Phelps, Dodge continued to expand, and in time purchased copper mines near [[Morenci, Arizona]]. A subsidiary of the El Paso and Southwestern—the Morenci Southern—was incorporated on [[June 6]], [[1902]], and its roadbed connected the Morenci mines to the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway |New Mexico and Arizona Railroad]] (a division of the Santa Fe Railroad).<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Cravens">Cravens, "El Paso and Southwestern Railroad," in ''The New Handbook of Texas,'' 1996.</ref> |
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The film concentrates on Crane's secret personal life, focusing on his relationship with [[John Henry Carpenter]], an electronics expert involved with the development of the [[video cassette recorder|VCR]]. Encouraged by Carpenter and enabled by his expertise, Crane - a church-going, non-drinking family man - becomes a sex addict obsessed with sleeping with as many women as possible and recording those encounters with video and photographic equipment, usually with Carpenter participating. ''Auto Focus'' depicts Crane's life from his sitcom success through his post-''Hogan's Heroes'' efforts to sustain a viable career - mostly in [[dinner theatre]] - until his murder. |
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==Production== |
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In 1903, the terminus of the El Paso and Southwestern was extended from Douglas to El Paso by building new track as well as purchasing track from the [[El Paso and Northeastern Railroad]], adding over 200 miles of roadway to the line.<ref name="Whitten" /> The purchase of the [[Dawson Railway]] also extended the railroad's reach to [[Dawson, New Mexico]], where Phelps, Dodge had recently acquired coal mines to feed its smelting operations.<ref name="Americana" /> Near [[Deming, New Mexico]], the new track had to cross the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad.<ref name="Abue">Aubé, ''The 48th,'' 2005.</ref> Aware that the Southern Pacific had only two watchmen on the route, the El Paso and Southern stopped all trains on either side of the junction and laid its new track across that of the Southern Pacific.<ref name="Abue" /> In one day, the El Paso and Southwestern ran more than 500 fully laden [[hopper car]]s across the new junction to establish a [[Right-of-way (transportation)|right-of-way]].<ref name="Abue" /> The Southern Pacific sued and won a [[injunction|temporary injunction]], but the injunction was never enforced and the El Paso and Southwestern continued to cross the Southern Pacific's line.<ref name="Abue" /> |
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Crane's murder remains unsolved to this day. Although Carpenter was tried and acquitted of the crime, he remained the subject of suspicion even after his death in 1998. |
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The film premiered at the [[Toronto Film Festival]]. It was shown at the [[San Sebastián Film Festival]], the [[Helsinki International Film Festival]], the [[Chicago International Film Festival]], the New Orleans Film Festival, and the [[Bergen International Film Festival]] before going into limited release on eleven screens in the US, earning $123,761 on its opening weekend. It grossed $2,063,196 in the US and $641,755 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $2,704,951 <ref>[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=autofocus.htm BoxOfficeMojo.com]</ref>. |
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After the deaths of Dodge in 1903 and James in 1907, the various Phelps, Dodge railroads, mining companies, real estate firms, and other subsidiaries and divisions were all merged into Phelps, Dodge and Company.<ref name="Americana" /><ref name="Whitten" /> |
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The [[DVD]] release includes a 50-minute [[Documentary film|documentary]], ''Murder in Scottsdale,'' delving into the initial murder investigation and the reopening of the case some fifteen years later. |
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The railroad's expansion continued gradually, and by 1917 the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad had more than 1,000 miles of track in operation.<ref name="Whitten" /><ref name="Abue" /> However, the same year saw the railroad involved in a terrible breach of civil liberties. During the [[Bisbee Deportation]], railroad officials collaborated with their counterparts in the Phelps, Dodge mining subsidiaries to [[deportation|deport]] more than 1,300 [[strike action|striking]] mine workers, their supporters, and innocent citizen bystanders from the town of Bisbee more than 200 miles to the town of [[Hermanas, New Mexico]].<ref>Jensen, ''Heritage of Conflict: Labor Relations in the Nonferrous Metals Industry up to 1930,'' 1950; Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 7: Labor and World War I, 1914–1918,'' 1987; Dubofsky, ''We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World,'' 2000; Byrkit, "The Bisbee Deportation," in ''American Labor in the Southwest,'' 1982.</ref> |
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==Cast== |
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*[[Greg Kinnear]] ..... [[Bob Crane]] |
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The worldwide collapse of copper prices after [[World War I]]<ref>Herfindahl, ''Copper Costs and Prices: 1870–1957,'' 1959.</ref> severely affected not only the railroad's financial fortunes but those of the mining companies it served.<ref name="Cleland" /> In 1924, the Southern Pacific leased the entire El Paso and Southwest Railroad from Phelps, Dodge.<ref name="Cleland" /><ref name="Cravens" /> In 1929, the ICC authorized abandonment of the Deming Branch.<ref>{{cite book | author=Robertson, Donald B.| title=Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, The Desert States| location=Caldwell, Idaho| publisher=Caxton Printers|pages=131| year=1986| editor=| id=ISBN 0-87004-305-6}}</ref> In November 1937, the railroad purchased the outstanding interest in the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad.<ref name="Whitten" /><ref name="Cravens" /> It acquired the El Paso Southern Railway Company in December 1954.<ref name="Cravens" /> |
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*[[Willem Dafoe]] ..... [[John Carpenter]] |
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*[[Rita Wilson]] ..... Anne Crane |
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*[[Maria Bello]] ..... Patricia Olson/Patricia Crane/Sigrid Valdis |
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*[[Ron Leibman]] ..... Lenny |
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*[[Kurt Fuller]] ..... [[Werner Klemperer]] |
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*Christopher Neiman ..... [[Robert Clary]] |
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*[[Ed Begley, Jr.]] ..... Mel Rosen |
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*[[Roderick L. Mccarthy]].....Bartender |
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==Critical reception== |
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The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad was purchased from Phelps, Dodge and merged into the Southern Pacific on [[November 1]], [[1961]].<ref name="Cravens" /> |
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A.O. Scott of the ''[[New York Times]]'' said the film "gets to you like a low-grade fever, a malaise with no known antidote. When it was over, I wasn't sure if I needed a drink, a shower or a lifelong vow of chastity ... there is [a] severe, powerful moralism lurking beneath the film's dispassionate matter-of-factness. Mr. Schrader is indifferent to the sinner, but he cannot contain his loathing of the sin, which is not so much sex as the fascination with images ... To argue that images can corrupt the flesh and hollow out the soul is, for a filmmaker, an obviously contradictory exercise, but not necessarily a hypocritical one. There is plenty of nudity in ''Auto Focus,'' but you can always glimpse the abyss behind the undulating bodies, and the director leads you from easy titillation to suffocating dread, pausing only briefly and cautiously to consider the possibility of pleasure." <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/04/movies/04AUTO.html ''New York Times'', October 4, 2002]</ref> |
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[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' called the film "a hypnotic portrait ... pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values ... Greg Kinnear gives a creepy, brilliant performance as a man lacking in all insight ... Crane was not a complex man, but that should not blind us to the subtlety and complexity of Kinnear's performance." <ref>[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021025/REVIEWS/210250302/1023 ''Chicago Sun-Times'', October 25, 2002]</ref> |
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==Route and notable buildings== |
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[[Image:Epsw railroad bridge rio grande.jpg|thumb|left|150px|El Paso and Southwestern Railroad bridge over the [[Rio Grande]] river near [[El Paso, Texas]], circa 1968.]] |
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Highways follow most of the route of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. Beginning in Tucson, Arizona, [[Arizona State Route 80]] (formerly [[U.S. Route 80]], but decommissioned in 1964 after [[Interstate 10]] was built) largely parallels the railroad grade south to Douglas. Arizona Route 80 then follows the old tracks northeast to [[Rodeo, New Mexico]]. The tracks diverge from the highway here, and largely follow Gas Line Road until it intersects with [[New Mexico State Road 9]] near [[Animus, New Mexico]]. New Mexico State Road 9 runs next to or on top of the old railroad grade until it reaches El Paso, Texas. |
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Edward Guthmann of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' called it "a compelling, sympathetic portrait ... Kinnear undercuts the seaminess of the Crane story, and shows us a man with more dimension and complexity than his behavior might suggest." <ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/10/25/DD81502.DTL ''San Francisco Chronicle'', October 25, 2002]</ref> |
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The northern Arizona spur of the railroad may be followed by following [[U.S. Route 191]] north from Douglas to Morenci, Arizona. The Mexican spur may be followed by beginning in Douglas, crossing the international border into Mexico, and following [[Mexican Federal Highway 14]] to Nacozari de García. The northern New Mexican spur parallels or is underneath [[Interstate 25]], and then taking [[New Mexico State Road 505]] (which intersects Interstate 25 at [[Maxwell, New Mexico]]) to [[Colfax, New Mexico]]. The Dawson Road travels the remainder of the spur from Colfax to the ghost town of Dawson. |
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[[Peter Travers]] of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' awarded it 3½ ot of 4 stars and added, "Schrader, the writer of ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' and the director of ''[[American Gigolo]]'', is a poet of male sexual pathology. Shot through with profane laughs and stinging drama, ''Auto Focus'' ranks with his best films." <ref>[http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5949379/review/5949380/auto_focus ''Rolling Stone'', October 17, 2002]</ref> |
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Several El Paso and Southwestern buildings are on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. Among these are the [[El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Depot]] at 419 W. Congress Street in Tucson, Arizona;<ref>[http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/az/Pima/state.html "El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Depot (added 2004 — Building — #03000903)." Arizona — Pima County. National Register of Historic Places.] Accessed August 17, 2008.</ref> the [[El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Passenger Depot]] (also known as the Southern Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot) at 14th Street and H Avenue in Douglas, Arizona;<ref>[http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/az/Cochise/state.html "El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Passenger Depot–Douglas (added 1986 — Building &mndash; #86000792)." Arizona — Cochise County. National Register of Historic Places.] Accessed August 17, 2008.</ref> and the [[El Paso and Southwestern Railroad YMCA]] (also known as the Douglas YMCA) at 1000 Pan American Avenue in Douglas;<ref>[http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/az/Cochise/state.html "El Paso and Southwestern Railroad YMCA (added 1984 — Building — #84000647)." Arizona — Cochise County. National Register of Historic Places.] Accessed August 17, 2008.</ref> |
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Todd McCarthy of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called it "one of director Paul Schrader's best films, and like ''[[Boogie Nights]]'' ranks as a shrewd expose of recent Hollywood's slimy underside ... Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor ... Pic overall has an excellent L.A. period feel without getting elaborate about it, and musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti and a host of pop tunes are tops." <ref>[http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117918591.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 ''Variety'', September 2, 2002]</ref> |
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==Notes== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==Awards and nominations== |
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==References== |
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Paul Schrader was nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Willem Dafoe was nominated Best Supporting Actor by the [[Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2003|Chicago Film Critics Association]] but lost to [[Tim Robbins]] for ''[[Mystic River (film)|Mystic River]]''. |
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*Aubé, Raymond F. ''The 48th.'' Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2005. ISBN 1420877550 |
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*Beach, Frederick Converse and Rines, George Edwin. ''The Americana: A Universal Reference Library.'' New York: The Americana Co., 1911. |
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*Byrkit, James. "The Bisbee Deportation." In ''American Labor in the Southwest.'' James C. Foster, ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982. ISBN 0816507414 |
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*Cleland, Robert Glass. ''A History of Phelps Dodge: 1834–1950.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952. |
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*[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/EE/eqe7.html Cravens, Chris. "El Paso and Southwestern Railroad." In ''The New Handbook of Texas.'' Austin, Tex.: Texas State Historical Association, 1996. ISBN 0876111517] |
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*Dubofsky, Melvyn. ''We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World.'' Abridged ed. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2000. ISBN 0252069056 |
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*Foner, Philip S. ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 7: Labor and World War I, 1914–1918.'' New York: International Publishers, 1987. Cloth ISBN 0717806383; Paperback ISBN 0717806278 |
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*Herfindahl, Orris C. ''Copper Costs and Prices: 1870–1957.'' Washington, D.C.: RFF Press, 1959. ISBN 0801802679 |
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*Jensen, Vernon H. ''Heritage of Conflict: Labor Relations in the Nonferrous Metals Industry up to 1930.'' Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1950. |
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*"Phelps Dodge Corporation." In ''International Directory of Company Histories.'' Vol. 75. Jay P. Pederson, ed. Florence, Ky.: St. James Press, 2006. ISBN 1558625798 |
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*Truett, Samuel. ''Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.'' New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN 030011091X |
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*Whitten, David O.; Whitten, Bessie Emrick; and Sisaye, Seleshi. ''The Birth of Big Business in the United States, 1860–1914: Commercial, Extractive, and Industrial Enterprise.'' Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 031332395X |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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*Robertson, Donald B. ''Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: The Desert States: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah.'' Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1986. ISBN 0870043056 |
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*Stindt, Fred A. ''American Shortline Railway Guide.'' 5th ed. Waukesha, Wisc.: Kalmbach Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0890242909 |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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* {{imdb title | id=0298744 | title= Auto Focus}} |
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*[http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/finding_aid/1/ Guide to MS077 Southern Pacific Company (Rio Grande Division) Records. Special Collections Department. University of Texas at El Paso Library.] |
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*[http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/areamap.htm Map of the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad. "Ghosts of the Southline" Web site (Lloyd W. Sumner, Webmaster).] |
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*[http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/bisbee/docs/simmons.html ''Michael Simmons v. El Paso and Southwestern Railroad (1919)''] — A collection of primary source documents relating to more than 300 civil lawsuits filed against the railroad after the Bisbee Deportation. |
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[[Category:2002 films]] |
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{{Former Class I}} |
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[[Category:American films]] |
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[[Category:Biographical films]] |
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[[Category:2000s drama films]] |
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[[Category:Films based on actual events]] |
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[[Category:Films set in California]] |
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[[Category:Films directed by Paul Schrader]] |
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[[fr:Auto Focus]] |
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[[Category:Predecessors of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company]] |
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[[Category:1888 establishments]] |
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[[Category:1961 disestablishments]] |
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[[Category:Defunct Arizona railroads]] |
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[[Category:Defunct New Mexico railroads]] |
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[[Category:Defunct Texas railroads]] |
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[[Category:Railway companies of Mexico]] |
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[[Category:Former Class I railroads in the United States]] |
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Revision as of 17:23, 13 October 2008
| Auto Focus | |
|---|---|
 Original poster | |
| Directed by | Paul Schrader |
| Written by | Michael Gerbosi |
| Produced by | Scott Alexander Alicia Allain Patrick Dollard Larry Karaszewski Brian Oliver Todd Rosken |
| Starring | Greg Kinnear Willem Dafoe |
| Cinematography | Jeffrey Greeley Fred Murphy |
| Edited by | Kristina Boden |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
Release dates | October 18, 2002 |
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
Auto Focus is a 2002 American biographical film directed by Paul Schrader. The screenplay by Michael Gerbosi is based on the book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith. It tells the story of actor Bob Crane, an affable radio show host and amateur drummer who found success on Hogan's Heroes, a popular television sitcom about a prisoner of war camp during World War II, and his dramatic descent into the underbelly of Hollywood after the series was cancelled.
Plot
The film concentrates on Crane's secret personal life, focusing on his relationship with John Henry Carpenter, an electronics expert involved with the development of the VCR. Encouraged by Carpenter and enabled by his expertise, Crane - a church-going, non-drinking family man - becomes a sex addict obsessed with sleeping with as many women as possible and recording those encounters with video and photographic equipment, usually with Carpenter participating. Auto Focus depicts Crane's life from his sitcom success through his post-Hogan's Heroes efforts to sustain a viable career - mostly in dinner theatre - until his murder.
Production
Crane's murder remains unsolved to this day. Although Carpenter was tried and acquitted of the crime, he remained the subject of suspicion even after his death in 1998.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It was shown at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the Helsinki International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the New Orleans Film Festival, and the Bergen International Film Festival before going into limited release on eleven screens in the US, earning $123,761 on its opening weekend. It grossed $2,063,196 in the US and $641,755 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $2,704,951 [1].
The DVD release includes a 50-minute documentary, Murder in Scottsdale, delving into the initial murder investigation and the reopening of the case some fifteen years later.
Cast
- Greg Kinnear ..... Bob Crane
- Willem Dafoe ..... John Carpenter
- Rita Wilson ..... Anne Crane
- Maria Bello ..... Patricia Olson/Patricia Crane/Sigrid Valdis
- Ron Leibman ..... Lenny
- Kurt Fuller ..... Werner Klemperer
- Christopher Neiman ..... Robert Clary
- Ed Begley, Jr. ..... Mel Rosen
- Roderick L. Mccarthy.....Bartender
Critical reception
A.O. Scott of the New York Times said the film "gets to you like a low-grade fever, a malaise with no known antidote. When it was over, I wasn't sure if I needed a drink, a shower or a lifelong vow of chastity ... there is [a] severe, powerful moralism lurking beneath the film's dispassionate matter-of-factness. Mr. Schrader is indifferent to the sinner, but he cannot contain his loathing of the sin, which is not so much sex as the fascination with images ... To argue that images can corrupt the flesh and hollow out the soul is, for a filmmaker, an obviously contradictory exercise, but not necessarily a hypocritical one. There is plenty of nudity in Auto Focus, but you can always glimpse the abyss behind the undulating bodies, and the director leads you from easy titillation to suffocating dread, pausing only briefly and cautiously to consider the possibility of pleasure." [2]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a hypnotic portrait ... pitch-perfect in its decor, music, clothes, cars, language and values ... Greg Kinnear gives a creepy, brilliant performance as a man lacking in all insight ... Crane was not a complex man, but that should not blind us to the subtlety and complexity of Kinnear's performance." [3]
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a compelling, sympathetic portrait ... Kinnear undercuts the seaminess of the Crane story, and shows us a man with more dimension and complexity than his behavior might suggest." [4]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded it 3½ ot of 4 stars and added, "Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and the director of American Gigolo, is a poet of male sexual pathology. Shot through with profane laughs and stinging drama, Auto Focus ranks with his best films." [5]
Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "one of director Paul Schrader's best films, and like Boogie Nights ranks as a shrewd expose of recent Hollywood's slimy underside ... Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor ... Pic overall has an excellent L.A. period feel without getting elaborate about it, and musical contributions by Angelo Badalamenti and a host of pop tunes are tops." [6]
Awards and nominations
Paul Schrader was nominated for the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Willem Dafoe was nominated Best Supporting Actor by the Chicago Film Critics Association but lost to Tim Robbins for Mystic River.
References
External links
- Auto Focus at IMDb
