Butler's Cinema Scene

William F. Buckley, Gore Vidal in 1968

“BEST OF ENEMIES” My rating: B

87 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The early greats of television journalism — Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley — would undoubtedly be appalled by the partisan savagery and intellectual dishonesty that has taken over the electronic news.

Once upon a time the news was straightforward, genteel, presumably unbiased (or at least not openly divisive). The nightly broadcast was viewed as a cementer of ideas, certainly not a disruptor.

Today all bets are off.

“Best of Enemies” makes the case that the long decline of what passes for TV journalism began in 1968 when ABC-TV opted to spice up its bargain-basement coverage of that year’s  Republican and Democratic national conventions by staging “debates” between liberal gadfly  Gore  Vidal and conservative icon William F. Buckley.

It was a clever marketing move on the part of ABC, perennially the third-place TV network (remember…back then there were only three commercial networks, plus PBS). Always strapped for cash and unable to field the deep staffs of their competitors, the ABC bosses basically bought a relatively cheap fireworks show, one that largely replaced insight with controversy and insult.

Robert Morgan and Gordon Neville’s documentary makes the case that the fallout from the Vidal/Buckley confrontations today is thicker than ever.

Buckley was the man who through his National Review and “Firing Line” TV show had become the St. Paul of the conservative movement. (Although his conservatism, when compared to today’s Tea Party thuggishness, seems almost quaint.)

Vidal was a novelist and social commentator way ahead of the cultural curve in writing about homosexuality (The City and the Pillar) and transgender issues (Myra Breckinridge) and who had a long run of bestselling historical fiction.

Both men were East Coast intellectuals — elitists, in fact.  Both exuded a certain gentility. Both had run unsuccessfully for public office.

And each man genuinely despised the other.

Buckley thought Vidal’s contempt for tradition — as embodied by the drug/youth/antiwar subculture (not to mention his gayness) — would lead to the downfall of the republic. Vidal thought Buckley’s economic and societal views represented an utterly immoral celebration of human greed.

Each man was, in his own way, pompous and arrogant.

Hell, yes, it made for great television.

Taking advantage of Buckley’s self-assurance (Buckley figured he needn’t do any special preparations for what was sure to be a blowout victory), Vidal did tons of research and planned various attacks in an attempt to throw his opponent off his game.  Initially Buckley was overwhelmed, but over the course of the debates — verbal free-for-alls, really  — he started giving as good as he got.

Things came to an ugly head during the rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago when Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley responded: “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in you goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

“Can they actually say that?” a shocked ABC producer was said to have asked his staff.  Well, they just did…and on live TV.

“Best of Enemies” does a nice job of limning each man’s personality — it’s possible to loathe and admire each in equal measure — and provides plenty of commentary from talking heads like Dick Cavet, Noam Chomsky and Christopher Hitchens.  Kelsey Grammar and JohnLithgow provide the offscreen voices of Buckley and Vidal, respectively.

But it’s difficult to watch this doc without buyer’s remorse.  Was there really once a time when every night at 5:30 America gathered at the tube and pretty much all watched the same thing?  Sigh. That sort of national togetherness is long gone.

| Robert W. Butler