Best of Enemies

WINNER: EMMY FOR OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY, NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS 2017

WINNER: TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES, NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW USA 2015

WINNER: NATIONAL SOURCE AWARD & BEST MUSIC, INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION 2015

WINNER: BEST DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL JURY PRIZE, DEAD CENTER FILM FESTIVAL 2015

Best of Enemies is a behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and their rancorous disagreements about politics, God, and sex. Masterfully directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom, Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story) and Grammy Award winner Robert Gordon (Johnny Cash’s America) Best of Enemies vividly portrays the two sides of politics that fought to claim America’s future, through the vicious rivalry of two of the period’s most gifted orators.

In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC USA 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 pummelled out policy and personal insult — their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed and a new era in public discourse was born.