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
Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon
Written by
Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon
John Lithgow
Voice of Gore Vidal
Kelsey Grammer
Voice of William F. Buckley
Paul Newman
Self (archival)
Muhammad Ali
Self (archival)
Richard J. Daley
Self (archival)
William F. Buckley Jr.
Self
Dick Cavett
Self
Noam Chomsky
Self (archival)
Sam Donaldson
Self (archival)
Andrew Sullivan
Self
Christopher Hitchens
Self
Norman Mailer
Self (archival)
Godfrey Cambridge
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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