Best of Enemies

Jul 31, 2015

1h 27m

★ 7.2

Buckley vs. Vidal. 2 Men. 10 Debates. Television Would Never Be the Same.

Overview

A documentary about the legendary series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two great public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. Intended as commentary on the issues of their day, these vitriolic and explosive encounters came to define the modern era of public discourse in the media, marking the big bang moment of our contemporary media landscape when spectacle trumped content and argument replaced substance. Best of Enemies delves into the entangled biographies of these two great thinkers, and luxuriates in the language and the theater of their debates, begging the question, "What has television done to the way we discuss politics in our democracy today?"

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

Tremolo Productions

Media Ranch

Motto Pictures

Magnolia Pictures

Participant

ITVS

JustFilms / Ford Foundation

Best of Enemies Trailers

Cast

Self

Gore Vidal

Self

William F. Buckley Jr.

Voice of William F. Buckley

Kelsey Grammer

Voice of Gore Vidal

John Lithgow

Self

Dick Cavett

Self

Christopher Hitchens

Self (archival)

Noam Chomsky

Self

Reid Buckley

Self

Andrew Sullivan

Self

Todd Gitlin

Self

Brooke Gladstone

Self (archival)

Paul Newman

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