90 Minutes 2002
This movie captures the unlikely connection between three men. An ex-con biographer, a janitor turned publisher and U.S. President George W. Bush whose paths to power and popularity become tangled in the controversial biography about George W. Bush, Fortunate Son.
FEATURING: Sander Hicks, James Hatfield George W Bush, Zack Exley, Rev Billy, Pete Slover, Randal Beek, Jim Fitzgerald, Pam Colloff, Ron English, Mark Crispin Miller, Seth Tobocan
In 1999, St. Martin’s Press recalls and destroys all copies of James H. Hatfield’s unauthorized biography of George W. Bush, “The Fortunate Son.” But Hatfield finds an unlikely ally in Sander Hicks, an eccentric custodian who uses his underground publishing company to reprint the book. Hatfield and Hicks struggle to publish and publicize “The Fortunate Son” in the face of an emotional tailspin wrought by legal challenges and attempts at public discrediting by the Bush family’s lawyers. HORNS AND HALOS was named Best Documentary Feature at the 2002 New York Underground Film Festival.
“Horns and Halos” began when we read a short blurb about “The Fortunate Son” in the newspaper. The story was short, mentioning that the book was a somewhat critical look at Republican frontrunner George W Bush that got pulled from the shelves, and it raised serious questions that we wanted to answer.
“Shocking” -DAVE KEHR, NEW YORK TIMES
“Thoroughly engrossing and ultimately tragic.” – KEN FOX, TV GUIDE
“Saddled with an unwieldy cast of characters and angles, the payoff is powerful and revelatory.” -JOHN ANDERSON, NEWSDAY
“Unexpectedly moving documentary” – CHUCK WILSON, LA WEEKLY
“The movie that raises substantial doubts…a humdinger!” -ROGER EBERT, CHICAGO SUN TIMES
“The tangled intersection of media, politics, money – and human intrigue – is at the heart of breathlessly scruffy and absorbing indie docu ‘Horns and Halos’”. –EDDIE COCKRELL, VARIETY
“Horns and Halos benefits from serendipity but also reminds us of our own responsibility to question what is told as the truth.” – TERRY LAWSON, DETROIT FREE PRESS
Among the books Oliver Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser read when they were researchingW. was James Hatfield's 1999 biography Fortunate Son, which earned notoriety for making unattributed allegations that Bush had been arrested for cocaine possession in 1972 and further notoriety when its publisher, St. Martin's Press, recalled the book when it was revealed that Hatfield had done five years for attempted murder....
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