Horns & Halos
Horns and Halosis a fascinating, unexpectedly tragic story about one man's downfall in the brutal world of perception-driven media and politics. In the late 1990s, author James Hatfield wroteFortunate Son, a biography of then-candidate George W. Bush that alleged, among other things, that the future president used cocaine during the '70s. St. Martin's Press fast-tracked the project, but recalled the book when Hatfield's earlier prison time for murder conspiracy became known.Horns and Halosfollows what happened next:Fortunate Sonwas picked up by tiny Soft Skull Press, run by a passionate, Mohawk-topped young man named Sander Hicks, but the long, uphill battle to restore credibility to the work proves ruinous. The film is notable for access to the anxiety and roller-coaster emotions of Hatfield and Hicks, and there's plenty more despair in deleted scenes offered on this two-DVD set. Special features are especially important and useful here for added context, including raw footage of protests at Bush's inauguration, performances by Hicks and his band White Collar Crime, a profile of the film created by public television's KCET, and much else.--Tom Keogh