Best of Enemies

Last year, I watched The War Room, the documentary following Bill Clinton's first campaign — a film I am remiss for having never written about, because it was captivating, satisfying, and illuminating. And whether for good reasons or bad, it punctured most of my belief that the political moment we currently find ourselves in is novel in any grand sense. (See also Days of Rage, which covered the seventies; if you're ever worried about civil unrest, it's the one to reach for.) Best of Enemies, compared to The War Room, has less immediacy and access but much more of a clear agenda and through line. It's about the William F. Buckley–Gore Vidal debates during the 1968 conventions, built out of lots of archival footage with very little fat. We, the viewer, spend more time at the debates than examining them; as someone who confesses to knowing of the National Review, and to owning a half-read copy of Burr, but not really knowing who either of these two individuals were in any meaningful…