Gore Vidal was always good value for money. Writer, polemicist, raconteur, wit and intellectual.
Vidal died in 2012, he lived to a good age and this film released a year later is a documentary of his personal and professional life with contributions from those who knew him.
Gore was a patrician who came from a political family but had complex relationships with his parents. In a roundabout way he was related to the Kennedys through Jackie Onassis and experienced the Camelot years.
Yet he was critical of both Democrats and Republicans as they served the same people, the moneyed and liked to paint himself as an outsider. For many years he lived in Italy.
Gore could be charming and also abrasive and was willing to take on all comers. Gore engaged in debated with the right wing author William Buckley Jr, got in a scrape with Norman Mailer and even turned his back to former acolyte Christopher Hitchens when he got too close to the American right and for his support of the Iraq War.
This was an enjoyable documentary, I always find it stimulating to listen to Vidal even if he might be exaggerating his stories or embellishing his own importance but I would had liked to see more focus on his writing as well.
Vidal died in 2012, he lived to a good age and this film released a year later is a documentary of his personal and professional life with contributions from those who knew him.
Gore was a patrician who came from a political family but had complex relationships with his parents. In a roundabout way he was related to the Kennedys through Jackie Onassis and experienced the Camelot years.
Yet he was critical of both Democrats and Republicans as they served the same people, the moneyed and liked to paint himself as an outsider. For many years he lived in Italy.
Gore could be charming and also abrasive and was willing to take on all comers. Gore engaged in debated with the right wing author William Buckley Jr, got in a scrape with Norman Mailer and even turned his back to former acolyte Christopher Hitchens when he got too close to the American right and for his support of the Iraq War.
This was an enjoyable documentary, I always find it stimulating to listen to Vidal even if he might be exaggerating his stories or embellishing his own importance but I would had liked to see more focus on his writing as well.