Best of Enemies (2015)
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
Top Billed Cast: Everett Dirksen, Gore Vidal, Christopher Hitchens
Runtime: 87 minutes
Full Cast List ▾
Gore Vidal
Self
William F. Buckley Jr.
Self
Kelsey Grammer
Voice of William F. Buckley
John Lithgow
Voice of Gore Vidal
Dick Cavett
Self
Christopher Hitchens
Self
Noam Chomsky
Self (archival)
🎬
Reid Buckley
Self
Andrew Sullivan
Self
🎬
Todd Gitlin
Self
🎬
Brooke Gladstone
Self
Paul Newman
Self (archival)
Arthur Miller
Self (archival)
Muhammad Ali
Self (archival)
Sam Donaldson
Self (archival)
Norman Mailer
Self (archival)
🎬
Matt Tyrnauer
Self
Godfrey Cambridge
Self (archival)
John McWhorter
Self
🎬
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Self
🎬
James J. Kilpatrick
Self (archival)
Richard J. Daley
Self (archival)
🎬
Everett Dirksen
Self (archival)
🎬
James Wolcott
Self
Woody Allen
Self (archival)
