Best of Enemies

Clips of the infamous debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. have cropped up in so many recent documentaries, it was probably only a matter of time before someone hit upon the idea of devoting an entire feature to this brief but consequential chapter in broadcasting and American politics. Thankfully, filmmakers Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon resist the urge to simply revel in the theatrical aspects of the unscripted discussions, entertaining as they are, and thoughtfully placed them in proper historical and contemporary context.

The debates were essentially an inexpensive way for a third place TV network to compete with its rivals during the 1968 Republican and Democratic national conventions. Lacking the money for the gavel-to-gavel coverage NBC and CBS were devoting to each day of speeches and votes, ABC aired just 90 minutes of nightly highlights, featuring commentary by National Review editor Buckley, the virtual godfather of the new conservative movement, and the notoriously leftwing novelist, playwright, and raconteur Vidal.   The sparring between the two intellectual polemicists was one small part of an infamous convention season that spawned civil unrest, police brutality, and racially charged protests.

Much as the televised Nixon/Kennedy debates forever changed presidential campaigns—arguably for the worse—the Buckley/Vidal debates led directly to the vacuous shouting of professional pundits that passes for TV news today. What made this war of words so riveting was that, at this time in the still-novel medium of live television, audiences had never seen such frank, personal, and well-informed ideological jousting. The two men were so articulate and so passionately connected to their disparate beliefs that the exchanges are still thrilling to watch today.

I assumed going in that the film would be heavily slanted to favor Vidal. Documentaries that cover this material almost invariably are, if for no other reason than that the ebullient and rational Vidal kept his cool and emerged the ostensible winner in the eyes of most impartial viewers. But even though Best of Enemies begins with archive footage of Vidal in his Italian villa looking fondly back on his greatest time in the spotlight, the movie presents an unvarnished look at its subjects and comes down harshly on both gentlemen. We’re told the story by interviews with several friends, news junkies, activists, and other interested parties, as well as through the writings of both men—Kelsey Grammer (in a flawless imitation) reads Buckley’s words and John Lithgow gives voice to Vidal. 

While the picture celebrates the debates as great TV and as a seminal moment in the culture wars that still divide the US electorate, it laments what these funny, infuriating, engrossing, but ultimately rather empty displays of aggressively arrogant personal ideologies have spawned.