Review of Best of Enemies (2015) by Christopher Llewellyn R — 13 Aug 2015

How you feel about this new documentary co-directed by the helmer of the Oscar-winning "Twenty Feet from Stardom" may well boil down to whether or not you were alive in 1968, when the events it recounts took place. Barring that, if you have a strong interest in that time period and/or in the evolution of television punditry, you may well find yourself fascinated, regardless of age. Finally, even if the subject matter leaves you cold, both William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal - the two subjects of the film - each have enough reptilian charisma to keep you watching in spite of the heavy hand of the filmmakers, who underline their points in bold ink at every turn (they also add intrusive music that leaves no moment unscored). For my money, it's a compelling story given a pedestrian treatment that sometimes rises above its aesthetic limitations.

To summarize: before the 1968 political conventions, ABC - the #3 network of the time (behind NBC and CBS) - decided on the Hail Mary move of hiring two intellectuals, each from an opposing ideological camp, to comment on both parties' presidential nominations. Buckley was a well-known conservative writer, founder of "National Review," and Vidal was an equally well-known novelist ("Myra Breckenridge") and screenwriter ("Suddenly Last Summer"), far to the left of Buckley. The network first asked Buckley to sign on and when they asked him for ideas on whom to hire as his on-screen partner, he indicated no preference, save that it not be Gore Vidal. So, of course, that's who ABC hired. Audiences of the time responded by giving the struggling network the ratings it desperately craved - especially once Buckley lost his cool and threatened to punch Vidal - and voilà: the stage was set for all bloviating talking-head faux news to follow. What these gentlemen had, however, that many of their successors do not, was a firm command of the issues and a marvelous way with the English language. It's too bad that we can't just watch them without the constant editorializing of the directors (although I very much liked most of the expert interview subjects, including Buckley's surviving brother, Reid, who help provide historical context). Still, the filmmaking is only occasionally truly distracting, and we learn so much about our present in this story about our past that I still have no problem recommending the movie to all.