Best of Enemies
Buckley vs. Vidal. 2 Men. 10 Debates. Television Would Never Be the Same.
2015 | 87m | English
Popularity: 3 (history)
| Director: | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville |
| Staring: |
| 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?" | |
| Release Date: | Jul 31, 2015 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville |
| Writer: | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville |
| Genres: | Documentary, History |
| Keywords | miami, florida, chicago, illinois, politics, intellectual, author, debate, archive footage, television network, 1960s |
| Production Companies | Magnolia Pictures, Participant, ITVS, Motto Pictures, Tremolo Productions, Media Ranch, JustFilms / Ford Foundation |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $1,000,000 |
| Updates |
Updated: Jan 28, 2026 Entered: Apr 20, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Gore Vidal | Self |
| William F. Buckley Jr. | Self |
| Kelsey Grammer | Voice of William F. Buckley |
| John Lithgow | Voice of Gore Vidal |
| Dick Cavett | Self |
| Christopher Hitchens | Self |
| Noam Chomsky | Self (archival) |
| Reid Buckley | Self |
| Andrew Sullivan | Self |
| Todd Gitlin | Self |
| Brooke Gladstone | Self |
| Paul Newman | Self (archival) |
| Arthur Miller | Self (archival) |
| Muhammad Ali | Self (archival) |
| Sam Donaldson | Self (archival) |
| Norman Mailer | Self (archival) |
| Matt Tyrnauer | Self |
| Godfrey Cambridge | Self (archival) |
| John McWhorter | Self |
| Christopher Lehmann-Haupt | Self |
| James J. Kilpatrick | Self (archival) |
| Richard J. Daley | Self (archival) |
| Everett Dirksen | Self (archival) |
| James Wolcott | Self |
| Woody Allen | Self (archival) |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Mark Schwartzbard | Director of Photography |
| Aaron Wickenden | Editor |
| Jonathan Kirkscey | Original Music Composer |
| Graham Willoughby | Director of Photography |
| David Leonard | Director of Photography |
| Eileen Meyer | Editor |
| Robert Gordon | Director, Writer |
| Morgan Neville | Director, Writer |
| Pete Horner | Supervising Sound Editor |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Robert Gordon | Producer |
| Morgan Neville | Producer |
| Julie Goldman | Executive Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 4 |
| 2024 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 5 |
| 2024 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 5 |
| 2024 | 7 | 11 | 24 | 6 |
| 2024 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 4 |
| 2024 | 9 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
| 2024 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 4 |
| 2024 | 11 | 8 | 25 | 4 |
| 2024 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 4 |
| 2025 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| 2025 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| 2026 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
Trending Position
Interesting watch. Vidal's name was recognizable to me but I had never really known how successful he was as a author (and playwright!). It is interesting to see how profit-seeking capitalism in media (in this case TV, but now also on social media platforms) really incentivizes content that is belli ... gerent and argumentative. I have a hard time believing that anyone would say that this is the ideal stuff to be consuming, and yet nothing is done to change the status quo. The last part of the film was perhaps the most enjoyable for me, where we watch as Buckley wrestles with a statement he made in the debates for seemingly the rest of his life.