Best of Enemies

Garry 2022-10-08 20:06:58

It's a fascinating documentary about the debates between two distinguished and intellectual minds with directly opposite political philosophy in the era of 1960s, when the rapid popularization of television took place and started to influence the politics, society and the whole world.

This documentary unveils how Williams Buckley and Gore Vidal certainly changed the television shows from “speaking the same words and seeing the same things” to inter-changing ideas through heated live debate on television, and they did that with captivating language skills and brilliant debate tactics . It has definitely been a remarkable turning point in the American TV history. As what has been said at the end of the documentary, "More and more we're divided into communities of concern. Each side can ignore the other side and live in its own world. What binds us together is the picture in our heads, but if those people aren't sharing, they're not living in the same place."

As far as I'm concerned, debate is the best form of sharing and exchanging ideas, and it's a fortune to the American TV industry to have these two "best of enemies".

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Extended Reading

Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal quotes

  • Christopher Hitchens: The mores of the country were going to hell. And if there was one thing William Buckley cared more about than another thing it would have been that. If we go on like this, abortion will be on-demand, women will have sex with women, the family will be over, the church won't be respected, we will be screwing in the street and frightening the horses, buggery will be legal... And if you'd said all that to Gore, he would've said, Well OK, bring it on.

  • Richard Wald: ABC was the third of the three networks. It would've been fourth, but there were only three.