Documentary focuses on heated Vidal-Buckley debates

In August of 1968, William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal faced off in a series of 10 televised debates on ABC. Divided between the Republican National Convention in Miami and the Democratic gathering later that month in Chicago, the confrontations came to a head on Aug. 28 with one now-infamous match in which Vidal labeled his conservative opponent a “crypto-Nazi,” and Buckley responded by calling his liberal antagonist, who was gay, a “queer.”

While “Nazi” has remained an insult, in the intervening years “queer studies” have become an academic discipline. Such changes in language and attitudes reveal why the skirmish between these two public intellectuals nowadays seems so quaint. It's also why “Best of Enemies,” the documentary about the live-TV showdown, plays like something unearthed from a time capsule. Almost 50 years after the clash, the movie offers little historical perspective.

Writer-directors Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville have backgrounds in pop-music documentaries, which may explain their focus on Buckley and Vidal primarily as media celebrities. Neville's credits include “20 Feet from Stardom,” the Academy Award-winning 2013 showcase of backup singers that was entertaining but far from definitive. As a director, he's not inclined to go deep, as “Best of Enemies” also demonstrates.

Neville and Gordon's movie is fast-paced and may amuse those viewers who still recall the 1968 matchup, or who are particularly interested in Buckley or Vidal. But the film fails to make a case for either man's long-term significance. It's one thing to note the scandalous nature of Vidal's 1968 satirical novel “Myra Breckinridge” — about a transsexual — and quite another to make it sound relevant today.

To flesh out the footage from the debates, the filmmakers add clips from movies written by Vidal or based on his works, as well as readings in voiceover (with Buckley's words read by Kelsey Grammar and Vidal's by John Lithgow). Such contemporary pundits as Todd Gitlin, Andrew Sullivan and the late Christopher Hitchens offer up less than discerning analyses of Buckley and Vidal's cultural significance. Like Gordon and Neville, they seem to think that because the two men were really famous, they must, by definition, be interesting.

Ultimately, the filmmakers argue that this early television skirmish provided the template for today's political hot-talk shows. That's a dubious claim, seeing as the left-vs.-right war of words was already an established TV format by 1968.

“Best of Enemies” exists mainly as an occasion to replay the footage of Vidal's smug taunt and Buckley's seething response. It's great television, but it has been available on YouTube for some time now.