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the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A fascinating and in depth look and the Buckley-Vidal debates and the precursors to the world we find ourselves in today. More interesting since I lived through this period and watched these debates in real time. We find ourselves in a world today not much different than the world of 1968 on race, economic inequality,far right and far left politics and down in the mud politics that doesn't debate issues but personal demagoguery. Buckley ran for mayor of NYC and discovered the angry white man as his main constituency, sound familiar Donald J. Trump.

In 1968 ABC was in the doldrums in terms of its political coverage. Lacking sufficient resources to provide wall-to-wall coverage of the conventions of that year, the company had to look for other means to attract viewers.It came up with the idea of staging nightly discussions of the proceedings involving Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley jr, two highly public figures who heartily disliked one another, while representing both extremes of the political spectrum. Vidal was a liberal, a lifelong advocate of free thinking who had scandalized the Establishment ever since the late Forties when his novel THE CITY AND THE PILLAR had appeared, with its open attitude towards homosexuality. Buckley was a right-winger, the forerunner of many public figures today; the founder and editor of the NATIONAL REVIEW, who, while not actively supporting continued racial segregation, nonetheless blamed members of the African American community for the country's economic woes.The rest, as they say, is history. After a series of increasingly fractious nightly discussions, Vidal and Buckley finally came to blows, both literally as physically, during one live broadcast when Vidal denounced Buckley as a "crypto-Nazi," and Buckley responded by calling Vidal a "queer" and threatening to smash his face in. Buckley soon realized what a televisual faux pas he had made, and spent the rest of his life trying to atone for it.Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville's documentary could be approached as an exercise in nostalgia, an evocation of a time on television when pundits actually said what they thought rather than simply expressing anodyne views, and discussion-programs always had that element of danger about them. Other memorable moments like this included an episode of THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS (1963-4), when a member of the audience took exception to the views expressed by journalist Bernard Levin and tried to punch him in the face.On the other hand, the documentary also underlined what happens to people when they come to believe in their own celebrity so much that they pay little or no heed to what they are saying. Vidal and Buckley were both highly intelligent men; but their exchanges seemed somehow pathetic, as they tried to score intellectual points off one another rather than engaging critically with the political issues of that time. They did not appear interested in communicating with viewers, but rather tried to enhance their screen images. If that was indeed the case, then both signally failed in their task; they came across as members of the chattering classes, to be ignored rather than listened to.

Whoa. It's like time travel, into the recent past, but that so clearly laid the path to our current state of drama and politics. The historical framing is helpful and contextual. And of course the cat-fights are fascinating. But the most compelling part is how this relationship between two American Brahmins was putting the foundation in place for the framework we have today, with intractable polarization and he said/he said political commentary. It manages to consist of both sepia-toned nostalgia and contemporary issues that remain hot-buttons today. While others--like queer lifestyles--are clearly accepted in the mainstream. Mesmerizing.

1968 was before my time I wasn't born till 1978 still I know and have studied enough history to know what the times were like and have heard by now and read and have done my homework on the legendary figures of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley. Finally got to watch this new like documentary called "Best of Enemies" Buckley vs. Vidal. And the title is so true and I must say after watching this telling of footage it rings so true from the interviews and debate footage it was interesting and so educational that any political or history buff will enjoy. The film centers around the summer of 1968 as the news would change forever as last place in the ratings network ABC made the choice to put two educated and know a lot people on to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican conventions. Enter William F. Buckley Jr. a rich arrogant snob like conservative who lead the new wave march for the right. And second up the outspoken and always talking liberal Gore Vidal who was also a novelist and champion for the left. During the debates both thought each others views were wrong for America as it even got to heated verbal exchanges and name calling and in the day in age with class and political clashing of the 1960's war and fight for freedom ABC news had a ratings hit. To bad in today's pundit land of political TV it can't no longer be like this as the networks have became to one sided and don't encourage debate and educated thought even if it does lead to verbal words and name calling the country needs more debates from people on the opposite sides. Gore Vidal and William Buckley both were legends who challenged and caused thought and asked questions of many, to bad we don't have any around like those two both the wit and smarts of Vidal and Buckley is really missed in today's TV pundit political world.