Great footage shows Vidal being joined by Paul Newman and Arthur Miller to check things out first-hand, Haskell Wexler was in town shooting Medium Cool, and there are even rather speciously used clips from what is misleadingly referring to as the Vidal-written Ben-Hur to illustrate his comparison of the American empire to that of ancient Rome. Two weeks later, everyone reconvened in Chicago for what soon became known as the “fortress convention” due to the enormous police presence occasioned by the hordes of protestors in the city. What the excerpts from the five Miami debates lack is much direct comment on what was actually happening at the convention. While Ronald Reagan staged his unsuccessful attack on Richard Nixon downstairs, the two commentators entertainingly crossed ideological swords on the causes of the “fault lines” that had opened up in American society. Vidal reportedly prepared heavily for the occasion, while Buckley showed up with the intention of basically winging it.Ĭatastrophe struck right off the bat when ABC’s temporary studio in Miami collapsed. Both men received $10,000 for their efforts. Both of the leaders made a point of covering the conventions gavel to gavel, so ABC decided to try to raise its profile by limiting floor coverage to 90 minutes and devoting a half-hour each night to the guests’ perspectives on what was happening. A distant third in overall ratings, the network’s news division also lagged far behind CBS and NBC. Inviting Buckley and Vidal to debate was something of a desperation move on the part of ABC-TV. Daley assured that law and order would prevail in Chicago. The Republicans designed things in Miami so that protestors would have a tough time assembling anywhere near the conventional center, while Democratic boss Mayor Richard J.
and Robert Kennedy assassinations and during a peak in anti-Vietnam War protests. Great vintage footage and excellent commentators set the stage for the two conventions, which took place in the immediate wake of the Martin Luther King Jr. If there was anything the two men might have agreed upon, they no doubt would have found a way to undo it. That same year, Vidal’s celebrity had risen to new notorious heights as the author of the gender-bending best-seller Myra Breckinridge.
Both served in the military, published fiction as well as nonfiction, and ran for public office but lost.īy 1968, Buckley was well known as the editor-in-chief of the conservative magazine he created, National Review, and as host of the political PBS talk show Firing Line. Buckley, for whom English was his third language, was never entirely accepted at Yale and other WASP bastions because of his Catholicism, while Vidal, who grew up wealthy and whose grandfather was U.S. But they also know what they’re doing on political turf and provide excellent context for the main event and ample background material on both men.īoth men came from American aristocracy, but with qualifications. The only one who came after who could have held his own with them was Christopher Hitchens, who appears here commenting on the debates, but now he’s gone, too.Ĭo-directors Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon are best known for their work on modern musical subjects. Part of it is the way they spoke, in patrician, mid-Atlantic accents, in continuous long streams of purposefully and wittily chosen words, with an awareness of the classics and historical precedent and plenty of experience in debate. No matter anyone’s specific reactions to the views either man expresses here, the film generates a palpable and profound gone-with-the-wind sense of loss stemming from the indisputable fact that there are no intellectual pundits around today anywhere near on the level of Buckley and Vidal. Hollywood Disability Rights Groups Call on Cannes to Increase Accessibility