Synopsis
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
- Gore VidalSelf
- William F. Buckley Jr.Self
- Kelsey GrammerSelf
- John LithgowSelf
- Dick CavettSelf
- Christopher HitchensSelf
- Noam ChomskySelf
Recommendations
- 100
The Hollywood Reporter
For American viewers of an intellectual/historical persuasion, there could scarcely be any documentary more enticing, scintillating and downright fascinating than Best of Enemies. - 90
Variety
Both fascinating as a glimpse at the not so distant past, and provocative as an account of what arguably was an early step in the decline of political discourse on television. - 88
Movie Nation
And the viewer is left with one inescapable conclusion. Conservatives further to the right than Buckley could ever have dreamed control Congress. And gays, like Vidal, can get married. They both won. - 83
The A.V. Club
Alternately entertaining and unsettling documentary. - 80
Empire
Outstanding account of a pivotal moment in small-screen history. - 80
Village Voice
It's fascinating. It's horrible. It's fascinatingly horrible. It's also, as Gladstone points out, a sterling example of the power that television, when it was still a "public square," could have. - 80
Time Out
Focusing on the personalities rather than the historical context, directors Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville illustrate how both men’s lives were changed by the debates, and how neither could let it go even decades later. The result is perhaps better suited to TV than the big screen, but it’s a timely, thoughtful piece of work. - 75
New York Post
Best of Enemies illustrates how even literary swashbucklers can be reduced to schoolboy behavior.
