Skip to main content
Back to Show
Independent Lens

Gore Vidal: Revolutionary or Degenerate?

This excerpt from the Independent Lens film Best of Enemies takes a closer look at Gore Vidal, iconoclastic writer and intellectual, who was picked to represent the left in debates with right-wing William F. Buckley on ABC News in 1968. While Buckley basically saw Vidal as an evil degenerate, others saw him as revolutionary. Vidal here quotes Thomas Jefferson about the "tree of liberty."

Support Provided By
Season
Minted
1:16:04
The rise and fall of the NFT phenomenon that transformed the art world.
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 5
48:03
The final episode of Dallas, 2019 poses the question: What does it mean to be alive?
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 4
54:56
A judge and a D.A. both aim to bring reform and empathy to a complex and disparate justice system.
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 3
50:23
Three diverse spirits with longstanding Texas roots struggle with their place in the world.
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 2
51:41
A graduating high school student, superintendent, and county sheriff all strive for a better future.
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 1
52:03
Episode 1 of Dallas, 2019 shows workers navigating a city in crisis after a tornado.
Changemakers
1:25:41
A veteran uses hand-carved battlefield crosses to reconnect with families of fallen, fellow Marines.
Inside Our Legal System
Unlock with PBS Passport
1:16:37
Unravel the complexities of the Electoral College through four 2020 presidential electors.
If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:43
With rural hospitals closing, meet the people trying to get help in healthcare deserts.
Local Story
Disability Visibility
The central mystery of this unconventional documentary is the nature of sound itself.
Women's Stories
Unlock with PBS Passport
1:24:52
NASA psychologists prepare astronauts for the extreme isolation of a Mars mission.
Climate and Environment
Unlock with PBS Passport
1:18:04
For Native Alaskans living on a tiny Bering Sea island, if you don’t hunt, you die.
Active loading indicator