{"id":13861,"date":"2016-09-27T13:20:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T21:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=13861"},"modified":"2017-10-25T08:53:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T16:53:31","slug":"morgan-neville-and-robert-gordon-peel-the-layers-of-buckley-and-vidal","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/morgan-neville-and-robert-gordon-peel-the-layers-of-buckley-and-vidal\/","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon Peel the Layers of Buckley and Vidal"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not often you’ll find a documentary filmmaking team who combined\u00a0have won an Oscar, an Emmy,\u00a0and a Grammy, but the multi-faceted duo of Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon have done just that. Neville’s\u00a020 Feet from Stardom<\/em>\u00a0won the Oscar for Best Documentary\u00a0and\u00a0Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues<\/em>\u00a0took an Emmy;<\/i>\u00a0Gordon’s album notes for\u00a0Keep an Eye on the Sky<\/em>, a box set retrospective for the band\u00a0Big Star, earned him a Grammy. The duo collaborated in the past on another music doc:\u00a0Johnny Cash’s America. <\/em>So\u00a0what brought them together to make the politically-minded\u00a0Best of Enemies<\/strong><\/em><\/a>?<\/p>\n

Gordon and Neville told The Wrap<\/em><\/a> they were inspired after watching\u00a0bootleg copies of the famed (or infamous) William F. Buckley-Gore Vidal ABC News debates and saw an opportunity to make a film about “the culture of politics” that would have great resonance today.<\/p>\n

The “deliciously feisty” (Entertainment Weekly<\/em><\/a>)\u00a0film has its television premiere on PBS Monday, October 3 [check local listings<\/a>]. Critic Bilge Ebiri of\u00a0New York Magazine<\/em><\/a>\u00a0called the Oscar shortlisted\u00a0Best of Enemies<\/em>\u00a0“masterful…leaves you with an overwhelming sense of despair. It\u2019s not just a great documentary, it\u2019s a vital one.” Director Gordon, along with contributions from a very busy Neville, spoke to us more about the challenges of making a historical film that still had potential to be politically charged, on working with actors Kelsey Grammer and John Lithgow, and on the story’s connection to today’s TV political coverage, plus recommendations for further Gore-y reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Best of Enemies Filmmakers Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville<\/p><\/div>\n

There were probably a lot of challenges but what were some of the biggest you faced in making <\/b>Best of Enemies<\/i><\/b>?<\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

We had a fundamental cinematic challenge: how to make a visually compelling movie about two talking heads. Both Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr., however, lived well-televised lives, so we had plenty of material outside the debates to work with. And since much of their subject matter and issues that they devoted their lives were major issues of the day, we had a wealth of archival material to draw from. We were bolstered, too, by the fact that the dialog between these men was fast, sharp, and as brutal as a heavyweight championship boxing match, creating a fast and furious fundamental tone on top of which we could build.<\/span><\/p>\n

What would you have liked to include in Best of Enemies<\/em>\u00a0that didn\u2019t make the cut?<\/b><\/p>\n

This film plays as a complete whole, but there were more instances of their parallel lives that we could have focused on, such as the arc of their publishing careers. A difference between them that was outside the scope of the film but very interesting was their opposing religious beliefs: Buckley was a staunch Catholic, and Vidal a firm atheist. Also, we had over two hours of raw debate material to work with, so there were plenty of sharp, witty repartee that we could have worked in, and choosing which parts to use was quite difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there any scene or moment in the film that is especially moving for you or has the most resonance?<\/b><\/p>\n

About ten days after interview with [author and critic] Christopher Hitchens, he announced a surprise cancer diagnosis and died about 18 months later, three and a half years before our film was released. Hitchens was in many ways the inheritor of the public intellectual mantle that Buckley and Vidal represented \u2014 intellectuals who embraced TV and were able to convey big ideas with clarity and humor. With Hitchens\u2019s death, that era of public intellectuals ended, and seeing him in the movie \u2014 healthy and energetic \u2014 is always poignant.<\/span><\/p>\nOur position not to pick a side, but to stand far enough back to try and grasp what makes the sides, the pundits, behave like they do.<\/pullquote>\n

Could you talk about the film’s balanced approach? Best of Enemies<\/em> really does seem to go out of its way to give air-time to all sides. How conscious of this were you when editing to achieve balance?<\/b><\/p>\n

Audiences have been consistently surprised that we didn\u2019t choose a side, that we didn\u2019t jam a position down their throats. And that consistently surprises us. [It] seems to say a lot not only about programming today but also about audiences, i.e., viewers assume a position is being taken in the media. Our position not to pick a side, but to stand far enough back to try and grasp what makes the sides, the pundits, behave like they do.<\/span><\/p>\n

We did strive for balance, but it wasn’t a mathematical approach. It was more about feel. We could not control the debates \u2014 they were inherently what they were, but we did work on balancing the ancillary material. In part, that had to do with seeking emotional chords we could strike with each man. Both men had led such televised lives that there was no shortage of material (only a shortage of time to wade through it all). In our test screenings, we would ask how people felt about each character and would sometimes tweak accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

In part, the whole exercise was aided by our own feelings. Though the filmmaking team, as a whole, tilted toward center-left, we all were charmed by Buckley and the more we learned about him, the more we liked him \u2014 especially as a person, politics aside. Ultimately, we were subject to what the footage told us, and we tried to stay true to the footage. It seems like we did.<\/p>\n

Buckley was deceased when we began the movie, but Vidal was alive. We did interview him, but we decided not to use the interview in the film, mostly because he\u2019d already gotten the last word by writing the scathing Buckley obituary. We felt that giving him a coda to the last word would take away the balanced view we were seeking.<\/span><\/p>\n