Wick's Review

Summary - Perfect 5.0

The future of TV politics hit the ABC News airwaves during the 1968 presidential nominating conventions. Best of Enemies, a transcendent documentary, brings it all back to life. William F. Buckley debating Gore Vidal is the proximate focus, but the larger story is the rise of opinion-centric TV news, often in the form of ad hominem attacks and with simmering identity politics roiling beneath the surface of high-toned debate.

The movie is a time capsule from a half-century ago. A last-place network resorted to a stunt to rescue itself from ratings oblivion. They paired consummate snobs from opposite ends of the political spectrum to debate each other during coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions. It was perfect TV.

Vidal channeled his unacknowledged homosexuality into a cooly scabrous anger, while Buckley allowed himself to be dragged down into personal attacks. Perhaps this was inevitable given the conflict between a self-promoter (Vidal) and a promoter of ideas (Buckley). Vidal ultimately goaded Buckley into responding to ad hominem attacks with an ad hominem attack, allowing Vidal to win.

The die was cast, however. 1968 was an even more unruly time in American politics than 2015, but the forces of self-loathing, sanctimony and celebrity that are now daily features of online and on-air political coverage can trace their antecedents to these best of enemies on ABC News. It’s hard to look away.

Acting - Perfect 5.0

Neither William F. Buckley or Gore Vidal are sympathetic: effete snobs with hard-to-follow speaking styles. Buckley at least had the capacity for regret, Vidal not so much.

Vidal, a tribune of the Left, is a man of profligate wealth who heaps scorn on wealth, subversion his métier.

Film - Really Great 4.5

The film’s one flaw is that it underplays the disaster that was the 1968 Democratic convention. Could that be because the filmmaker’s are of the Left?

That said, it’s a brilliant and brilliantly entertaining documentary. For instance, it includes TV news clips that play a few seconds after CUT, adding to the time capsule feel.

The final 10 seconds leave you smiling.

Edge - Tame 1.4

Reality - Natural 1.0

Buckley sounds downright reasonable on economic matters. He was early for Reagan, who first became a presidential contender in 1968, a dozen years before he won the presidency. Best of Enemies is from ’68.

Vidal co-wrote Ben-Hur, an uncredited fact that eluded me when reviewing that epic movie. Clearly, Vidal sees a tyrannical Rome as proxy for the United States, a loopy metaphor for anyone in the political center, let alone to the right of it, but one that scratches a deep itch on the Left.

Vidal demonstrates himself to be equally self-loathing and self-promoting in a way that has become a trademark of Left-wing media figures. His self-loathing is projected at his über self, including his country.

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