Feature2015·87m·7.2

Best of Enemies

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

DocumentaryHistory

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?"

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Cast

Gore Vidal

Self

William F. Buckley Jr.

Self

Kelsey Grammer

Voice of William F. Buckley

John Lithgow

Voice of Gore Vidal

Dick Cavett

Self

Christopher Hitchens

Self

Noam Chomsky

Self (archival)

Reid Buckley

Self

Andrew Sullivan

Self

Todd Gitlin

Self

Brooke Gladstone

Self

Paul Newman

Self (archival)

Arthur Miller

Self (archival)

Muhammad Ali

Self (archival)

Sam Donaldson

Self (archival)

Norman Mailer

Self (archival)

Matt Tyrnauer

Self

Godfrey Cambridge

Self (archival)

John McWhorter

Self

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Self

Details

Status
Released
Original language
English
Languages
English
Budget
$1.0M
Revenue
Age rating
Quality
4K UHD · HDR10 · Dolby Vision
Production
Tremolo ProductionsMedia RanchMotto PicturesMagnolia PicturesParticipantITVS

Crew

Director

Morgan Neville

Writers

Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon

David Leonard

Director of Photography

Graham Willoughby

Director of Photography

Mark Schwartzbard

Director of Photography

Jonathan Kirkscey

Original Music Composer

Aaron Wickenden

Editor

Eileen Meyer

Editor

Gallery

Reviews

rsanek

4/11/2021

7.0

Interesting watch. Vidal's name was recognizable to me but I had never really known how successful he was as a author (and playwright!). It is interesting to see how profit-seeking capitalism in media (in this case TV, but now also on social media platforms) really incentivizes content that is belligerent and argumentative. I have a hard time believing that anyone would say that this is the ideal stuff to be consuming, and yet nothing is done to change the status quo. The last part of the film was perhaps the most enjoyable for me, where we watch as Buckley wrestles with a statement he made in the debates for seemingly the rest of his life.