Review of Best of Enemies (2015) by Jeff S — 03 Aug 2015

The prickly debates between Gore Vidal and William Buckley in the documentary "Best of Enemies " are an entertaining and fascinating history lesson. Watching the archival footage, I was reminded of what Sixties' media guru Marshal McLuhan called "cool" media: the imperfect images of analog video cause the viewer to flesh them out, thus becoming involved with what's on the screen, whereas today's high def images-McLuhan's "hot" media-detach the viewer from reality.

During the 1968 presidential campaigns, ABC staged debates between America's most extreme representatives of the right and left. The dramatic turmoil of the period, epitomized by the Chicago police attacking demonstrators outside the Democratic convention-"the whole world is watching"-is recalled through news footage.

Vidal and Buckley make no effort to hide their hatred, and during their last debate simply resort to name-calling. Thus were born the screaming heads of today's cable TV "debaters." Sadly, Vidal and Buckley carried this mutual hatred to their graves.