Horns and Halos (2002)

As most people know, when you dig up dirt on a major public figure, especially one who is running for president, many setbacks come with it. Horns and Halos is a film regarding a man, James Hatfield, who decided to venture down that path. He's responsible for the book "Fortunate Son" which is a pull no punches bio on the man who now occupies, for a second time, the address of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the book, mainly because of it's accusation that Mr. Bush was once arrested for cocaine possession in the 70's. In the film, we follow Hatfield, and his publisher, Soft Skull Press, as they struggle to get the book released. What happens is poignant and ultimately tragic.

I thought that this was a well-done documentary, but didn't have the same response as I think was intended, or at least that the other people who left comments had. I found the two characters, Hatfield and Hicks, totally manipulative - hamming it up for the camera. Of course, Hatfield put his money where his mouth is at the end, but that last scene - where Hicks just starts getting teary and then weeps openly - my husband and I went into hysterics. It was like watching a bad acting class. The story is interesting, and I've read the book in the past - but (and I'm NOT a Bush supporter, for sure) the most compelling part of it is the initial tell-all biography of Hatfield. I ended up buying that 2.99 on-sale edition that included it.

Watching this documentary isn't simply watching a film about someone writing something negative about George W. Bush. Bush takes a backseat to the story of the two individuals who believed in freedom of the press and freedom of attempting to find the truth. The question of how the PERCEIVED credibility of writers and publishers affects a written product is surfaced and the connection is (justifiably so) questioned. I thought the movie really showed how the written word is not judged by its content but rather by its environment, something that most people working in the literary profession would like to deny. And I wish Sanders Hicks all the best - he comes across as a very mature calm man despite his youthful antifa looks and behaviour.At some point in the movie, I could not help but shake the feeling that writing truthfully about Bush was like a mummy's curse - which is rather eery considering that these are based on ancient myths and legends.

In the late nineties up until the G. W. Bush election, documentary filmmakers Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley stumbled upon a goldmine of subtance. At the time, James Hatfield's book "The Fortunate" was recalled for many reasons, mostly because of his shady background. With hopes that his biography's truth would outweigh his past, he meets with Sander Hicks, the colorful publisher of his company called Soft Skull. Hicks makes the documentary for the most part. He constantly changes through different punk phases throughout the film, suggesting that he was looking for himself simultaneously to looking for "The Fortunate Son"'s distribution. His band "White Collar Crime" provides not only some fun music for the soundtrack, but also an introspective into the young man's sometimes frantic personality and political rebellion. The trials and tribulations the odd pair go through are documented with a taut, always entertaining pace. The film is never boring or tedious, even when the book is in an ongoing limbo of failures and complications. I liked how Suki and Galinsky didn't try to justify Hatfield. By the end of the film, he is just as much of an enigma as he was when the film began. He is impossible to read and always unpredictable, but when a haunting tragedy strikes, he is not judged or manipulated. "Horns and Halos" is moody tale told with nimble filmmaking. Its solid theme of a tainted pass serves as a metaphor for a truth lost almost lost with ceonsorship.