MovieChat Forums > Auto Focus (2002) Discussion > Did John LOVE Bob?

Did John LOVE Bob?

posted 10 years ago by eholzapfel26
3 replies | jump to latest

Okay, there are the couple obvious inferences of homo or bi-sexuality in regards to John Carpenter. But if John did kill Bob, could it have been a crime of passion? The crime of a jilted & unrequited lover perhaps?

We see John's reaction in the break-up scene, but did anyone catch that when John calls Bob later on the phone, just the sound of Bob's voice on the line causes John to reach for his crotch - and it's pretty obvious in the film that he's semi-pleasuring himself during this last phone conversation with Bob.

Did John love Bob? Was he supposed to be physically attracted to him? Or did all the years of sexual experimentation together just cause John to automatically associate Bob with sexual feelings?

[–] kingaliencracker 10 years ago

By all accounts Carpenter was purely heterosexual and that was the extent of his attraction to Bob Crane - Crane hooked him up with a lecherous lifestyle that he otherwise couldn't obtain on his own. The police theorized that Carpenter had some sort of sexual attraction to Crane based on the tapes they found as a way to try and justify Carpenter murdering Crane. But there has never been anything to substantiate the allegations. Carpenter hung out with Crane because Crane got him loads of women. Nothing more.

[–] eholzapfel26 10 years ago

Understood. I just thought it interesting that the film makers put in this not-very-obvious phone/masturbation scene, which is something no one would know about if it actually occurred in real life. I didn't even notice it until a second viewing, but you can see Carpy (DaFoe) reaching for or stroking himself while talking to Bob on the phone. Or... maybe he just had an itch at that moment.

[–] haynese_98 10 years ago

I think what it all amounts to is that Bob's addiction was so overwhelming he was hanging around scumbags. I believe in Graysmith's book Carpenter was booked for sexually abusing a child, scummier yet.

So Bob was hanging around The Safari Lounge's of the world with his scumbag friend getting as much tang as humanly possible. Bob got old, slow, heavier, and his career was heading towards zero. He desperately wanted to get his career back on track, first thing in doing that was to ditch the scumbag.

Wasn't as easy as he thought.

A couple becomes a couple when there's a house on the horizon