Best of Enemies (2015)

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

Movie · Documentary, History · 1h 27m · Rated 7.2/10 on TMDB · Released July 31, 2015

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?"

Directed by Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon

Cast

• Gore Vidal as Self
• William F. Buckley Jr. as Self
• Kelsey Grammer as Voice of William F. Buckley
• John Lithgow as Voice of Gore Vidal
• Dick Cavett as Self
• Christopher Hitchens as Self
• Noam Chomsky as Self (archival)
• Reid Buckley as Self
• Andrew Sullivan as Self
• Todd Gitlin as Self
• Brooke Gladstone as Self
• Paul Newman as Self (archival)

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