Best of Enemies

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Poster for Best of Enemies
MOVIE

Best of Enemies

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

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?"

Release Date

2015-07-31

Year

2015

Duration

1h 27m

Status

Released

Score

7.16

#chicago,-illinois#miami,-florida#politics#intellectual#author#debate#archive-footage#television-network#1960s

Cast

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr.

Kelsey Grammer

Kelsey Grammer

Voice of William F. Buckley

John Lithgow

John Lithgow

Voice of Gore Vidal

Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Self (archival)

No Image

Reid Buckley

Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan

No Image

Todd Gitlin