Pssst, want to check out Best of Enemies in our new look?
Information
- A.k.a.
- Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal
- Year
- 2015
- Runtime
- 87 min.
- Directors
- Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
- Genres
- History, Documentary, News
- Rating *
- 7.6
- Votes *
- 2,809
- Checks
- 596
- Favs
- 46
- Dislikes
- 0
- Favs/checks
- 7.7% (1:13)
- Favs/dislikes
- 46:0
Top comments
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Siskoid
Best of Enemies is a documentary about the birth of punditry, when two intellectuals, William F. Buckley (on the Right) and Gore Vidal (on the Left), were used as a cost-saving measure by ABC-TV during the 1968 Republican and Democrat conventions. Seemed a perfect fit to watch just after the 2016 national conventions, and indeed, 1968 and 2016 have a lot in common. The film acts as a portrait of both men, first and foremost, and as an ironic counterpoint to the state of political discourse in media today. While Buckley and Vidal were brilliant wordsmiths, I'm not entirely sure they truly elevated the level of discourse; they were too much about destroying their opponent for that - or at least that's what the chosen clips show - so they are a herald for a lot of the crap that passes for news coverage today. Almost fifty years later, I don't think we've progressed at all. 7 years 8 months ago