Movie

Best of Enemies

2015 · 87 min

A crackling, witty archive-driven ride through televised venom that feels like watching a car crash of ideas in slow motion.}{.

Tagline: Buckley vs. Vidal. 2 Men. 10 Debates. Television Would Never Be the Same.
Overview: 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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How it feels

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Tone: satiricalstrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 2 of 3
cynicalstrength 2 of 3
earneststrength 1 of 3
Pacing: brisk, 3 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: politics
media
power
class
identity
Places: big city
workplace
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: documentary
true story
nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore none
Language mild
Violence none
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	0
Humour	4
Realism	10
Romance	0
Tension	6
Darkness	5
Complexity	6
Emotional weight	5

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Details

Genres: documentary, history
Directed by: Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon
Written by: Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
Starring: Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley Jr., Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow, Dick Cavett, Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, Reid Buckley
Music: Jonathan Kirkscey
Cinematography: Mark Schwartzbard, David Leonard
Runtime: 87 min
Country: United States of America
Languages: English

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Best of Enemies

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