Review of Best of Enemies (2015) by Misadventurer — 01 Jan 2016

This is where it started. This subject of this documentary, is the genesis of how we cover politics today. All because ABC didn't have the money to capture to do the same thing as CBS and NBC. A tight budget, changed the face of American Politics. Which is kind of amazing. Over the course of 10 nights, conservative wunderkind William F Buckley Jr, would 'debate' the liberal libertine, Gore Vidal, during the 1968 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. With diary excepts read by John Lithgow and Kelsey Grammer, its odd, to see how polite, even through gritted teeth these two men, who were the loudest voices of their respective political movements were. Though neither made eye-contact, and both showed the other the coldest of shoulders, its interesting to see two political pundit prototypes verbally battling each other. Their level of discourse is seldom seen today, both men being so erudite and effete, there's hardly anyone in the political arena that has their level of elitism. Both talking heads had failed political runs, years before these debates, and each had the other matched in nearly every respect. Bringing to mind the adage of "Who would win, the unstoppable force or immovable object?" and it turns out to be neither. By the time this film was complete, both Buckley and Vidal had passed, Vidal staying around just a bit longer than Buckley. Their animosity towards one another was intense.

I was born in 1983, and never really knew about these debates until fairly recently. I'm a fan of Gore Vidal's work and was interested in seeing this, I knew Vidal had a nemesis, but kept thinking his rival was Norman Mailer... though they had no love for each other, either. It was enlightening to see this level of discourse, it was like a barbed tongue version of Mortal Kombat, with both men trying to keep their cool, but it wasn't until the finale that Buckley broke, he looked at Vidal and said "Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered." With that Buckley lost whatever good will he might have gained. The Republicans might have won that presidential election with Richard Nixon, ABC won the network war for political coverage, but Gore Vidal won those debates, by infuriating his opponent to the point of rage quitting.

Whats kind of upsetting about this documentary is seeing the level that political coverage has dragged itself to, based off of these debates. There are now easily 10 networks whose sole duty is to cover every aspect of American Politics and over sensationalize every thing. Creating a great sound and fury over what amounts to be nothing. While it is nice to see the faces of these pundits changing with the times, there isn't anyone on either side that has the respectability of a Buckley or Vidal. The closest modern comparisons would be Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher, but neither are pundits, they're hosts, and Maher is a comedian. Maher fancies himself the modern Dick Cavett, giving opportunity for all comers to make their points, though he then spends the rest of the panel berating the conservative panelists, and Cavett would only resort to self defense if a panelist became hostile to Dick himself.

This is a great film for political junkies, history buffs and fans of either Buckley or Vidal, their both painted very complimentarily warts and all.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”.

― Napoléon Bonaparte.

“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”.

― Franklin D.