Best of Enemies
Best of Enemies is a behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and their rancorous disagreements about politics, God, and sex. Masterfully directed by Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom, Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story) and Robert Gordon (Johnny Cash’s America) Best of Enemies vividly portrays the two sides of politics that fought to claim America’s future, through the vicious rivalry of two of the periods most gifted orators.
In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement, a Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis. Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America.
Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummelled out policy and personal insult – their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed and a new era in public discourse was born.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alumni Morgan Neville, Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today.
