Best of Enemies

Premiered October 3, 2016

Directed by

Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon

Best of Enemies captures the legendary 1968 debates between leftist Gore Vidal and neoconservative William F. Buckley.

EXPLORE THE FILM

About the Documentary

In the summer of 1968, television news changed forever. That year, gunmen assassinated both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Democratic convention in Chicago flared up with protests and violence. Overseas, the Vietnam War raged on, and the streets at home roiled with race riots. With this tense political climate as a backdrop, Best of Enemies captures the legendary televised debates between ideological opposites Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr.

Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired Vidal and Buckley to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Buckley, who founded National Review magazine in 1955, was a leading light of the new conservative movement. Gore Vidal, lifelong Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, was a leftist, taboo-smashing novelist and polemicist. Both believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight boxing bout, they pummeled each other with exchanges that devolved into personal attacks. These live and unscripted quarrels riveted viewers, and the television industry took notice.

Best of Enemies reveals the moment TV’s political ambition shifted from narrative to spectacle, forever altering the way the media — and Americans — talked about politics.

The Filmmakers

Morgan Neville is an award-winning filmmaker who has spent twenty years working as a cultural documentarian. Neville has been nominated for three Grammys for his music films: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, Muddy Waters Can't Be Satisfied, and Johnny Cash’s America. His other films include Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues The Cool School and Troubadours (Sundance ’11). Through his company, Tremolo Productions, Neville has also produced films such as The Rolling Stones’ Crossfire Hurricane, Pearl Jam Twenty, The Night James Brown Saved Boston and Beauty is Embarrassing (Independent Lens, 2013). His film 20 Feet From Stardom, which premiered opening night of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and went on to become the top-grossing documentary of the year, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Grammy Award-winning writer and filmmaker Robert Gordon has focused on the American south — its music, art, and politics — to create an insider’s portrait of his home that is both nuanced and ribald. His first book, It Came From Memphis, careens through the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, riding shotgun with the weirdoes, winos, and midget wrestlers. In 2003, he wrote the definitive biography of blues great Muddy Waters, the award-winning Can’t Be Satisfied, and his Respect Yourself, about Stax Records, also received accolades. Gordon’s documentaries include Stranded in Canton, made with photographer William Eggleston, and the harrowing Very Extremely Dangerous about Jerry McGill, recording artist and outlaw. His first film, All Day & All Night, showed at MOMA’s New Directors/New Films in 1990. He was writer and a producer on the Memphis episode of Martin Scorsese’s The Blues. As a team, Gordon and Morgan Neville have made four previous films together: Muddy Waters Can’t Satisfied, Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan, Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, and Johnny Cash’s America.

Full Credits

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Awards

Academy Award

Best Documentary (Shortlist)
News & Documentary Emmy Award

Outstanding Historical Documentary
International Documentary Association Award

Video Source Award & Creative Recognition Award