Best of Enemies

Best of Enemies

Documentary · 2015 · 1h 27m

Movie

7.2/10 · TMDB

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?"

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Cast & crew

Gore VidalSelf
William F. Buckley Jr.Self
Kelsey GrammerVoice of William F. Buckley
John LithgowVoice of Gore Vidal
Dick CavettSelf
Christopher HitchensSelf
Noam ChomskySelf (archival)
Reid BuckleySelf
Andrew SullivanSelf
Todd GitlinSelf
Brooke GladstoneSelf
Paul NewmanSelf (archival)
Arthur MillerSelf (archival)
Muhammad AliSelf (archival)
Sam DonaldsonSelf (archival)

Information

Release date
31 July 2015
Director
Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
Genres
Documentary, History
Runtime
1h 27m
Country of origin
United States

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