Television standards have come a long way since William F. Buckley shocked the nation when he said “goddamn” on ABC. It was a peculiar phrase that über Catholic Buckley, father of the modern conservative movement, apparently favored since he says it more than once in the documentary “Best of Enemies.”
And he never meant it more than when he cursed at Gore Vidal as the pair faced off for ten days in 1968 during ABC’s coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
People of a certain age will recall the tumultuous time and perhaps even the broadcasts. The GOP nominated Richard Nixon over Ronald Reagan in Miami, Democrats picked Hubert Humphrey over George McGovern, as police and protestors clashed in Mayor Daley’s Chicago.
At the time TV news hewed to traditional tropes. And ABC was in its infancy, fourth ranked out of three networks, people joked.
The culture and Vietnam wars were raging and novelist and screenwriter Vidal – related to Jackie Kennedy – and “Firing Line” TV host and National Review founder Buckley were poster boys for the warring political extremes.
“Each thought the other was quite dangerous,” observes one commentator. And Grammy winning filmmaker Robert Gordon and co-director Morgan Neville (“Twenty Feet From Stardom.”) provide plenty of vintage footage to explain who they were and why they hated each other.
Buckley went on the air prepared to debate the issues, but Vidal was a serial orator and came to Miami prepared to “destroy” his opponent.
Buckley rebounded in Chicago until Vidal’s barbs provoked him to sneer: “Listen you queer. Stop calling me a crypto Nazi or I’ll knock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”
“The network,” says Dick Cavett, nearly shat.” The loathing on Buckley’s face when he said it was “quite unmistakeable,” says the late Christopher Hitchens.
The pair became haunted by the encounter. Dueling Esquire articles about the incident led to a three year lawsuit that gave them “enormous opportunity for the practice of malice,” says Hitchens.
The film concludes that the roving bands of idiots that plague the airwaves with their poisonous viewpoints today is the pair’s legacy.
“It changed television forever,” says one commenter.
“These are the debates,” says another, “that we are still having today.”
All these years later, the story is still fascinating, though the film feels like it would better fit the same-sized screen where events took place. Perhaps a dramatization is in order.
*** Three stars
Voices by Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow. With Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, Dick Cavett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Tanenhaus, Brooke Gladestone. Produced, written and directed by Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville. Approximate running time: 87 minutes. Rated R; sexual content, language.
Tags: Best of Enemies, Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley Posted by