Two documentaries that feature Gore Vidal. In one, he’s the star, and in the other (which is really about The New York Review of Books) his sparring matches with Norman Mailer are the most interesting parts.
“The 50 Year Argument”…A very dry, somewhat boring doc about The New York Review of Books, that could really be seen as a history of America’s intellectual arguments over the last 50 years. It’s an interesting topic, but not an interesting presentation. Grade: C
“Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia”…Unlike the other documentary, your overall reaction to this one might be inseparable from what you think about Gore Vidal, since I’d say 99 percent of it is either him talking or someone talking about him. A slightly better doc might have called Gore out for his obvious narcissism. Even though I agreed with a lot of what he saying—and the way he says it, the man is a library of quotes—you get the sense that he suffers a little from Oscar Wilde Disease: the smartest man in a room who begins to think he’s the only smart man in any room. In any given moment, Vidal is tearing down anyone from Christopher Hitchens to Kennedy, Jerry Brown to George Washington. While it’s interesting to see so many icons busted, it’s hard to tell what—if anything—Vidal really believes in besides himself. Grade: B