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Trailers & Clips
About
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?"
Theatrical
Jul 31, 2015
Budget
$1.0M
DVD / Blu-ray
Nov 3, 2015
Directors
Producers
Morgan Neville, Julie Goldman, Robert Gordon
Music
Studio
Tremolo Productions, Media Ranch, Motto Pictures, Magnolia Pictures, Participant, ITVS, JustFilms / Ford Foundation
Quotes
See all →Reflection on Change and Understanding
Quotes
* Voice in the final minutes of the film; cited in: Ryan Sanders, "," at theryansanders.com, July 22, 2016
[http://www.theryansanders.com/blog/2016/7/20/friday-review-politics-photography-and-survival FRIDAY REVIEW: Politics, Photography, and Survival]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Divided Communities and Shared Understanding
Quotes
The ability to talk the same language is gone. More and more we’re divided into communities of concern. Each side can ignore the other side and live in its own world. It makes us less of a nation, because what binds us together is the pictures in our heads. But if those people are not sharing those ideas, they’re not living in the same place.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Cast
Full credits →G
Gore Vidal
Self
W
William F. Buckley Jr.
Self
K
Kelsey Grammer
Voice of William F. Buckley
J
John Lithgow
Voice of Gore Vidal
D
Dick Cavett
Self
C
Christopher Hitchens
Self
N
Noam Chomsky
Self (archival)
A
Andrew Sullivan
Self
T
Todd Gitlin
Self
P
Paul Newman
Self (archival)
A
Arthur Miller
Self (archival)
M
Muhammad Ali
Self (archival)
S
Sam Donaldson
Self (archival)
N
Norman Mailer
Self (archival)
M
Matt Tyrnauer
Self
G
Godfrey Cambridge
Self (archival)
R
Richard J. Daley
Self (archival)
E
Everett Dirksen
Self (archival)
J
James Wolcott
Self
W
Woody Allen
Self (archival)
