Best of Enemies

2 Dec

The long-running antipathy between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley is depicted in this documentary on their televised Presidential debates of 1968.

*Battle royal: William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal*

The fact that the charming and deeply charismatic novelist and social historian Gore Vidal was a liberal political analyst, and that the deeply unlikable and more than usually repellent journalist William F. Buckley was a staunch Conservative blabbermouth, proved that together they were a match made in heaven – or at least on the US ABC television channel during the 1968 Presidential Campaign. While the other, major TV stations had the money to cover the campaign at greater length and on the road, the less well-off ABC stuck with just nightly debates between these two celebrated commentators. Director-producers Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville have taken the television debates, augmented them with interviews with other pundits of the time and fashioned them into an eye-opening and extremely entertaining documentary.

While Buckley wastes no opportunity in badmouthing Vidal and even threatens him with physical harm, the moderate Vidal always keeps his cool when offering criticism to his appalling opponent. Whereas Vidal had wit on his side whenever he felt like putting Buckley in his place, his opposite number could only shower abuse in the crudest fashion imaginable. For all his egotistical stances Vidal seems, on the face of it, a human being who cares deeply about his country and its people. Buckley on the other hand, in being so objectionable to anything that smacks of liberalism, just loses the plot and in effect digs his own grave. Either way it’s a fascinating battle of the century between two heavyweight political personalities and a fight not to be missed. Both parties went to their graves still troubled by their part in the proceedings.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Featuring Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, Dick Cavett, Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Wald, Todd Gitlin, Fred Kaplan. Readings by John Lithgow and Kelsey Grammer.

Dir, Written and Pro Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, Ph David Leonard, Mark Schwartzbard and Graham Willoughby, Ed Eileen Meyer and Aaron Wickenden, Music Jonathan Kirkscey.

Media Ranch/Motto Pictures/Tremolo Productions-Dogwoof Pictures.
87 mins. USA. 2015. Rel: 7 June 2015. Cert. 15.

★★★★

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

Best of Enemies

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