Best of Enemies

2015 "Buckley vs. Vidal. 2 Men. 10 Debates. Television Would Never Be the Same."
7.6| 1h27m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 31 July 2015 Released
Producted By: Magnolia Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.magpictures.com/bestofenemies/
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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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Director

Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon

Production Companies

Magnolia Pictures

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Best of Enemies Audience Reviews

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie
Pluskylang Great Film overall
Dorathen Better Late Then Never
Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
framptonhollis Surprisingly heartfelt and enormously entertaining, "Best of Enemies" observes the iconic debates and feuds between political intellectual masterminds Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. Both figures of American politics have contributed greatly to the world today in both positive and negative lights, and this thrilling and hilarious documentary presents these truths in an impressively objective light. I am one who will acknowledge that, no matter what my personal political affiliations may be, both Buckley and Vidal were brilliant individuals, charming in both their classiness as well as their tastes for fun and humor. The documentary gives both of the somewhat threatening gentlemen equal screen time, capturing both their lives and the times surrounding them in a way that gives any and all viewers a well developed understanding of the rivals in both a personal and political light. even if you aren't personally all too interested in politics, this film is still entertaining as Hell, because it's always fun to witness a true battle of the wits unfiltered by a desperate need to be overly kind or obscure your own views for the sake of political correctness. What we see here is pure debate with as much chaotic comedy in the mix as there is fierce intellect and impressive exchange between brilliantly well spoken ideas.
Kpm Saikrishna The best conversation I have seen. Very informative talk and creative people. We miss those days where individuals differ in idea still talk with respect and true admiration with others. Holding opinion and saying it blatantly is not a lot of happening these days. I really love the people who produced and got all the tapes together. True regards to them and sharing ideas is great art than anything. I like the points made by Vidal, the propagator of peace and liberty. The hard work they put into learning things is great which current generation has to learn and adapt. We are looking for the means to the resource and not interested in the knowledge of it.
MarkSeanOrr Best of Enemies An awesome documentary which looks at the debates and personal rivalry between conservative, pretentious talking head pundit William F. Buckley Jr., and liberal antagonistic Gore Vidal in the tumultuous year of 1968. Very well done documentary. I wish they had showed more of the actual discussions and a little less of the media hype surrounding this great feud between two geniuses who just happened to have completely different views regarding nearly everything political. There should be debates like this today between learned and interesting pundits instead of the brainless, media grabbing news whores we have today on almost every news channel, and I use the word "news" sparingly when referring to the likes of FOX and MSNBC. It's interesting to note that although there were some radically different things going on in 1968...one could easily compare the premise of the two ideologies today in 2016. Definitely worth the watch.
valleyjohn Best of Enemies is a fascinating documentary film about a series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. If that doesn't sound very interesting you couldn't be more wrong. This is a film about two men who absolutely hated each other. Two extremely clever men who fought each other live on television by debating with each that eventually led to personal insults being thrown at each other and it's mesmerising viewing. I have to admit I had never heard of these men before and that's probably because these debates happened a couple of months before I was born but I do know now and I feel much better off for it.