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I've not read Gore Vidal and have only seen two farcical movies based on his writing (Visit to a Small Planet and Myra Breckinridge) so I was not at all prepared for seeing an hour and a half of someone who is probably one of the most informed, most thoughtful political thinkers of our time. Prepare to get a fast education in the last 65 years of cold-war and post-cold-war politics. Every word rang true to me. Anyone who can trash William F. Buckley, Jr. live, on TV, on the fly and reduce him to a street fighter stance is AOK in my book.

This documentary combines historical footage of Vidal appearing on television in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with new footage shot over the last ten years or so of Vidal's life. (He passed on in 2012.) All that's left now is for me to get his historical novels so I can see earlier American history through his eyes.

Seen 8-18-13 at the San Jose Camera Cinema Club. The movie is currently making the rounds at international film festivals and there's a distribution deal in the making.

I was introduced to Gore Vidal by my tenth grade high school history teacher. Mr. D'onofrio set aside one class period for his students to watch a one-hour interview he had taped from a late night TV interview. This was 1980, long before home video recording was the norm and you could still occasionally catch an author, historian, or philosopher on late night television. Most of my fellow classmates were bored stiff, but I was fascinated by the things Mr. Vidal was saying – things I hadn't heard anyone else say about the state of government and how things really worked in Washington.

I searched for material on and by Mr. Vidal, which led me to his play/film The Best Man, which took a decidedly different look at a Presidential Nominating Convention than anything Walter Cronkite ever showed us, and Myra Breckinridge, the most notorious film of its time. (I was too young to see it, and Vidal disowned it anyway.) I sought him out on TV, where had had become somewhat ubiquitous, and always found his interviews thought provoking.

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, a new documentary by Nicholas Wrathall, was a trip down memory lane for me. A decidedly one-sided look at Vidal's life and influence, the film – via archival footage and interviews with Vidal shortly before his death in 2012 – gives a pretty complete picture of who he was, what he thought, and the battles he undertook almost to his last breath. A bastion of the liberal left, Vidal never towed the party line. As harsh a critic of Kennedy as he was of Nixon, Vidal saw the election of Barack Obama as the final indication that the Republican Party would soon go the way of the Whig Party. Would he were around today to see the resurgence of the Tea Party.

Author, politician, atheist, playwright, political commentator, humanist, screenwriter, film actor – all roles with which Vidal undertook with gusto, verve, and the conviction of his ideas. The strengths of those convictions led to two notable feuds that are covered substantially in this film. Authors William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer both had memorable encounters with Vidal and thankfully both are preserved on videotape. Vidal's two runs for public office, once for a New York House seat, and once for the U.S. Senate versus Jerry Brown, gives us a glimpse at a man who was willing to put his money where his mouth was, even though he spent substantially less money than Brown did in the Senate race.

The film also gives us a more substantial look at Vidal's private life, particularly in the long relationship he had with Howard Austen (a man he lived with for over 50 years with whom he claims he never had a sexual relationship) and with the friendships he had with the likes of Tennessee Williams, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.

More autobiography than biography, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia is 90 minutes of pure, unabashed Vidal, interspersed with some of his most caustic comments, ie "Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale." or "Envy is the central fact of American life." The film happily reminds us of a time when intellectuals could be entertaining and thought provoking, and unhappily of what passes for intellectual debate today.

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Just watched over the weekend the film "Gore Vidal: USA of Amnesia" and I must say that I was highly impressed. The film was informative and educational and thought provoking. Though Gore Vidal was mostly before my generation I knew and heard all about his writings and works even the great essays of our time his views on life, culture, politics and the state of democracy pushed the limits. One thing I can say about Gore was he was no yes man! Vidal always would challenge and question the powerful and the establishment, he would always challenge those running the show. I was lucky enough to have saw some interviews with him in his later years before his passing and it was a treat to hear him speak his words were a world of knowledge and advice. This film tells the history of Gore's life as he grew up went to college, served in service and was educated and became an author writing great stories and essay type works on our moral state of society and culture. This was displayed in interviews and clips and it was a treat to see his debates with the right wing author William Buckley Jr. as Gore always spoke for the left more. Still he was often fighting the left as evidenced when he ran and opposed democrat Jerry Brown in 1982 for California's U.S. Senate seat. And plus during the film Gore states in interviews about the blunders of Clinton, and Barrack as he tells the truth politics is a money game it's bought and paid for thru the banks! And I like the way that Vidal stated that sex was good the feel good pleasure was a must he said it right love affairs and marriages are overrated. He was even outspoken for gay rights and he hated religion, and he was so right when he said companionship and friendship is important and critical as evidenced by him living many years with a male friend! True this film is opinionated, and you may not like or agree with Gore Vidal, but one thing is for sure he was a firestorm of truth, honesty, and down right blunt and brash for the way he saw American life as more should be like him and challenge the political and rich and powerful with more thought provoking ideas and different approaches to society and culture. As Gore was a truth seeker for all he really challenged people and democracy to wake up and live with more freedom and rights. It's clear Gore Vidal was a legend and clearly no yes man!

Gore Vidal, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 86, in my opinion, possessed one of the greatest minds ever. Clearly physical aging as this documentary was being filmed, but losing none of his incredible wit, sarcastic humor, and brutal honesty, Vidal gives his version of his most remarkable life.

The movie, directed by Nicholas Wrathall, appears to be meticulously researched and is extremely well presented, utilizing vintage film clips and interviews, as it recounts the most fascinating journey of Vidal's life and career.

Overall, I don't agree with everything Vidal espouses but his anti-establishment writings and spoken words are so vital, as I see it, for any society to have. In my opinion, his genius will live on in perpetuity, and hopefully serve as lessons for the future generations to come.

Pretty much your run of the mill documentary about someone who wasn't. That doesn't mean it's bad, just what you'd expect: taking heads, old footage, interviews, clips of the old man going about his life, etc. Nice overview to make you want to dig deeper.

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.

Gore Vidal was certainly one of the brightest gay men in history, one of the greatest minds period. But such magnificent brilliance begs the question can you be too brilliant? I can't argue with his success in life, he created a wonderful lifestyle for himself. Gorgeous hillside villa in Italy, the best cuisine, impeccable designer wardrobe, museum quality furnishings and decor, all the finest material possessions anyone could dream of. He had more art masterpieces in his bathroom than I have in my entire home.

But he thought he was so superior to everyone else that it bred a contempt for humanity. In "Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia," Vidal recaps the 1960 election. How his hero John F. Kennedy won the presidency, and at the same time he himself, Gore Vidal, was crushed in his campaign for the House of Representatives from a Republican upstate New York district. He goes on to reflect near the end of his life how much he loved, and still loved JFK, but that his presidency was a complete failure, Camelot had achieved nothing, risked everything with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I have nowhere near the intellect of Vidal, but is clear for me to see his jealousy of the dead president. Kennedy succeeded, and he failed. Gore could never excite the emotions of the populace. Gore saw himself as a messiah, a successor to JFK himself. So in the end such brilliance destroyed Gore, ate away at his self worth. Had Gore run for office in heavily Democratic New York City perhaps Kennedy's coattails would have been enough to sweep him along to Washington and Camelot. Perhaps he would have wound up in the senate like his grandfather. Gore was so close to power he could touch it, as a young boy he was congressional page to his blind grandfather, Senator Thomas Gore Democrat of Oklahoma. Gore saw himself as the rightful heir to that senate seat, to the presidency, to greatness. Gore carved out for himself his own niche in American history, but that was not enough for his cynical and perhaps malignant mind. He saw what were to him lesser men and women lead the gay and Lesbian movement to victory. He became a spectator while others achieved the glory.

His brilliance was incredible, but his negativity was also gargantuan and perhaps eclipsed the positive.

After watching this decidedly biased bio-documentary about "Mr. Opinion-Overload" (aka. Eugene Louis Gore Vidal) - I'm now convinced that way too many Americans have clearly placed far too much importance on what this obstinate public figure had to say.

I found that for a man who never had a single, successful intimate relationship in his entire lifetime (where he remained virtually celibate) - Vidal sure had an annoying knack for mouthing-off (with such superiority) about the inadequacy of so many others.

IMO - Vidal's final 4 words in this documentary, pretty much, summed up (in a nutshell) what I think about him (and all of his high-falutin ideals and opinions) - And those 4 words were - (*quote*) "I couldn't care less!" - And, believe me - I couldn't care less, either - No. Not even if I tried.

With a lifetime spanning across three-quarters of the twentieth century and into the early decades of the twenty-first, Gore Vidal had a ringside seat for much of what came to be termed "the American century." It's perhaps no wonder then that he became an active chronicler of its history and politics in novels, essays, lectures, commentary, and more besides. Nor was he limited to merely that topic, something that this 2013 documentary revels in across its ninety minute running time.

Scaffolded by a series of interviews conducted with Vidal over the final years of his life, Nicholas D. Wrathall explores the life of a uniquely American figure. One that was a vocal critic of the American establishment yet was born into a family that, one of the featured clips notes, made him essentially one of its charter members. Cynical about the nature of politics, yet compelled to twice run for public office unsuccessfully. Armed with a passion for American history and its politics, yet lived for a great deal of time away from the country that he loved as an ideal but frustrated him with its reality. Wrathall uses the interviews of an elderly but still sharp Vidal to look back on the life and the contradictions built around them.

All the while not losing sight of the things that made Vidal the public figure he was: his wit and cynicism. The wit is on display throughout and, via archive interviews, was evident clearly from a young age. Something aided by a gift for mimicry that ranged from the comedic to the dramatic, depending on the anecdote being told. Whether in interviews or in the famed television clashes with William F. Buckley (themselves the topic of the later documentary Best of Enemies), it's something that's aged well. Not to mention something that feels authentic rather than as part of a persona, something that is also evident from interviews with numerous figures in his circle from Burr Steers and Christopher Hitchens.

And the cynicism? In some ways Vidal was on point and, as the documentary argues, more than a little prophetic. It's certainly difficult to argue with his points on America's swing to the political right starting in the late 1960s that led to Nixon, Reagan, and eventually George W. Bush. The latter being the topic of more than a few of the late-in-life interviews presented here (and led to his falling out with Hitchens who spent of his own final decade supporting and defending the Bush administration's War on Terror).. Nor can it be said that Vidal limited his criticisms given the assessments of JFK, Carter, and the newly elected Obama. The documentary, after all, drawing its title from the author's assertion that "We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing."

Yet, watching the documentary in 2024, it's hard not to wonder how much of Vidal's cynicism might have been misplaced. Or might, in fact, having unknowingly contributed to the current moment in which this review is being written in. What Vidal would have made of things is anyone's guess but, clearly, he'd have had something interesting to say about it all.

And, if nothing else, the documentary offers plenty of interesting things for those both new and familiar with Vidal to discover. One which draws neatly on the life of a man who raged against the dying of a particular light with wit and cynicism. Offering us all a chance to learn something and, hopefully, remember something as well.

seriously? the title flies in the face of reality without regard. The write-up states that the liberals have lost, and this dramatic movie scrapbook of this mans one-liners and zingers is the repeal to the American people who ignored him and his ideology? Sorry but last time I checked, liberalism was alive and well, feeding off of the middle and the right three times a day. Now, with that being said, there are some ideals that I agree with... but the entire objective of this film seems to want to create an even further rift between the American people. But hey, that's pretty much every movie created these days. The following this guy has seems to pretty much be contained to sophomoric undergrads with a minor in Poli Sci. The same mentality of the Che Guerva supporters.