Documentary History
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?"
Directed by
Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
Written by
Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
John Lithgow
Voice of Gore Vidal
Paul Newman
Self (archival)
Kelsey Grammer
Voice of William F. Buckley
Dick Cavett
Self
Richard J. Daley
Self (archival)
Noam Chomsky
Self (archival)
Andrew Sullivan
Self
Muhammad Ali
Self (archival)
Godfrey Cambridge
Self (archival)
Norman Mailer
Self (archival)
Christopher Hitchens
Self
William F. Buckley Jr.
Self
Sam Donaldson
Self (archival)
John McWhorter
Self
Todd Gitlin
Self
Brooke Gladstone
Self
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Self
James J. Kilpatrick
Self (archival)
Everett Dirksen
Self (archival)
James Wolcott
Self

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