Film Review: Best of Enemies (15) (U.S.A. 2015) (Directors: Robert Gordon & Morgan Neville), Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh, Tuesday 18.08.2015, 20:40

This is a documentary focusing upon the commentary/debates between the liberal Gore Vidal and the right-wing nutjob William F. Buckley Jr., that coincided with the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions. This was the effort from the derided broadcaster A.B.C. Network to do something relatively innovative though cheap. The two intellectuals were known to despise one another and as the film clearly shows these exchanges descended into eloquently charming mud-slinging. 

The film was very informative about a part of U.S. broadcasting history of which I knew nothing prior to watching the film and it proposes that modern news-broadcasting debates have their roots in these exchanges from '68. I was aware of Gore Vidal and I know that I recognised the wildly gesticulating and searing Buckley though from where I cannot be sure. The film has made me curious to check out some of Vidal's writing. 

I only have one criticism, though it is not really of the film. The advertising I saw for the film listed one of the contributors as (one of my heroes) Noam Chomsky. I was already intrigued, though to have Noam contributing would have been the icing on the cake. I was a bit miffed that the only presence I could see of him was a clip of about a second or two within a collage of others who had debated with Buckley. This though is a minor quibble. The film overall was very absorbing and I found it entirely refreshing to hear two people as capable as each other, so eloquently and charmingly slagging each other.   

Rating: 09/10.