A&E

Cane Fire Film Series presents 'Best of Enemies'

This month, the Cane Fire Film Series is screening the political documentary Best of Enemies, which chronicles the the prolific debate between Democratic and Republican champions Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr.

This month, the Cane Fire Film Series is screening the political documentary Best of Enemies, which chronicles the the prolific debate between Democratic and Republican champions Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr.

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. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal 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 with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville, Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today.

The Cane Fire Film Series presents Best of Enemies on Monday, Sept. 14, at 7:30 p.m., at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, located at 101 W. Vermilion St., in Downtown Lafayette. For more information, visit www.AcadianaCenterfortheArts.org.