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?"
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Character
Classical in form, grave, cool and earnest.
- classical in formformally daring
- gravecomic
- cooloverwhelming
- earnestironic
- unpretentiousprestige
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“Would a little humor have helped?”
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A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
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Cast
- 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
Crew
- Robert GordonDirector
- Morgan NevilleDirector
- Morgan NevilleWriter
- Robert GordonWriter
- David LeonardDirector of Photography
- Mark SchwartzbardDirector of Photography
- Graham WilloughbyDirector of Photography
- Jonathan KirksceyOriginal Music Composer
- Aaron WickendenEditor
- Eileen MeyerEditor
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