Summary: Morgan Neville (director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Ted Mundorff, CEO/President of Landmark Theatres. Film synopsis: In the summer of 1968, television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC 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. Gore Vidal, a Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, 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 pummeled 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. Directed by Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today.
