Portland Public Library

Best of enemies, Magnolia Pictures ; Participant Media ; Independent Lens ; Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media present in association with ITVS ; a Tremolo/Media Ranch production ; executive producers, Julie Goldman, Clif Phillips ; produced and directed by Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon ; produced by Sandbar, LLC

eng

videorecording

MPAA rating: R; for some sexual content, nudity and language

Best of enemies

923775326

Magnolia Pictures ; Participant Media ; Independent Lens ; Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media present in association with ITVS ; a Tremolo/Media Ranch production ; executive producers, Julie Goldman, Clif Phillips ; produced and directed by Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon ; produced by Sandbar, LLC

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In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other's political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult--their explosive exchanges devolving into vitrolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed, and a new era in public discourse was born

live action

Best of enemies, Buckley vs. Vidal