Simply A Masterpiece

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The reviews spin this movie as a Bushies keeping the little man down documentary. It isn't. The movie never editorializes the way Michael Moore movies do. Heck, it didn't even have to be about politics at all as much as it attempts to explain why we are constantly reading how miserable the rich and famous are...The movie is about a little guy that wanted to play with the big kids. Unfortunately, he got what he wanted. After writing several small time bios of people like Star Trek's Captain Picard, James Hatfield decides to hit the big time by writing a bio of then Governor George W. Bush. It worked -- for four days. The movie is about how an average, everyday guy reacts when the microscope of fame is turned back on him. Will he rise to the occasion and become a hero or be beaten down like a dog? Better yet, how would you react if all of your secrets were bared for all to see and judge? That's the question this movie explored for me.

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.

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.

Excellent documentary of what goes into publishing a banned book. The book being suppressed by the rich and powerful, in this case, being "Fortunate Son", an unauthorized biography of George W. Bush, Jr. (the still unimpeached president at the time of this writing).You also get a tragedy for your money along with a well-done soundtrack. And if that's not enough, significant parts of the book are revealed so that you don't even have to buy the book after seeing the movie. But you'll want to.