Best of Enemies

Best of Enemies (2015) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM. In the summer of 1968, a fading ABC network gambles on a cheap fix for its ratings: put two men who can't stand each other on live TV and let them go at it.

On the right sits William F. Buckley Jr., the polished face of American conservatism. Across from him, novelist Gore Vidal, liberal and lethal with a one-liner. Ten broadcasts, ten verbal duels staged around the Republican and Democratic conventions. Directors Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon stitch together archive reels, letters and first-hand accounts to trace how a private grudge played out in front of the whole country.

Kelsey Grammer and John Lithgow lend their voices to the narration, while Christopher Hitchens, Dick Cavett and Noam Chomsky weigh in on camera. The film's argument is sharp: this was the moment televised politics traded substance for spectacle, turning debate into a spectator sport. Worth a look for anyone who tracks how media shapes the way we argue. Stream Best of Enemies (2015) online on iFILM.