Before partisan¹ panels, split-screen shoutfests and brash personalities² became ubiquitous on cable news, there were two men who despised each other sitting side by side on a drab soundstage, debating politics in prime time during the presidential nominating conventions of 1968. There were Gore³ Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.

在有线电视新闻还没有被党派分明的嘉宾、分屏隔岸的对骂和粗蛮的人身攻击淹没的年代，两个誓不两立的男人，肩并肩坐在布置单调的演播室里，以1968年总统候选人提名大会为背景，在黄金时段展开了一场政治辩论。他们就是戈尔·维达尔(Gore Vidal)和小威廉·F·巴克利(William F. Buckley Jr.)。

Literary aristocrats⁴ and ideological⁵ foes⁶, Vidal and Buckley attracted millions of viewers to what, at the time, was a highly irregular experiment: the spectacle of two brilliant minds slugging it out — once, almost literally⁷ — on live television. It was witty⁸, erudite and ultimately vicious, an early intrusion of full-contact punditry⁹ into the staid pastures of the evening news.

两位文学高士，意识形态的死对头，吸引了数百万观众前来围观这场在当时极不寻常的实验：两个卓逸不群的头脑在直播电视节目上决一死战——一度几乎发展成肉体相搏。他们的言语诙谐、博学，但终究是恶毒的，这是张牙舞爪的意见领袖入侵古板晚间新闻的早期案例。

What transpired¹⁰ would alter both men’s lives — and, as a new documentary argues, help change the course of how the American political media reports the news. “Best of Enemies,” which opens July 31, makes the case that their on-screen feuding¹¹ opened the floodgates for today’s opinionated, conflict-driven coverage¹².

辩论改变了他们的一生——而如一部新近出品的纪录片所说，它还将改变美国政治媒体的新闻报道方式。7月31日上映的《最佳死敌》(Best of Enemies)提出，维达尔和巴克利的荧屏夙怨，为今天热衷于撩拨争议和成见的报道开了先河。

The film might have been a sober lesson in the erosion of our civic¹³ discourse¹⁴, timed to the start of yet another 24/7 presidential campaign. But its directors, Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, present their ideas with a wide scope, exploring the rivalry¹⁵ between their subjects and evoking¹⁶ an era when public intellectuals like Vidal appeared on “Playboy After Dark” and magazine editors like Buckley, the founder¹⁷ of National Review, ran for mayor of New York. (He lost.)

在又一场不眠不休的总统竞选大战开始之际，这部影片也许可以让我们对公民话语的颓败有一个清醒的认识。然而，导演摩根·内维尔(Morgan Neville)和罗伯特·戈登(Robert Gordon)是透过一个宽阔的视角来呈现他们的理念的，在探究两位人物的角力的同时，影片也唤起了我们对一个时代的记忆——那时候，像维达尔这样的公共知识分子可以登上《花花公子深夜秀》(Playboy After Dark)之类的节目，而身为杂志编辑、《国家评论》(National Review)创始人的巴克利可以竞选纽约市长。（没能获胜。）

“They don’t make people like Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley anymore,” Mr. Neville said in a recent interview. “Their lives are the kind of American lives that people don’t have anymore. To me, just on a theatrical¹⁸ level, it seemed operatic: this kind of grand battle.”

“戈尔·维达尔和威廉·F·巴克利这样的人已经停产了，”内维尔在近日的一次访谈中说。“他们过着一种现在的人不可能有的美国生活。在我看来，仅从戏剧性的层面来讲，这就像一部歌剧：一场盛况空前的大战。”

The film’s trump¹⁹ card is the debates themselves — first during the Republicans’ convention in Miami, then three weeks later during the Democrats²⁰’ in Chicago — resurrected in rarely seen footage that, 47 years on, remains²¹ almost giddily entertaining: “Crossfire²²” with a script by No氀 Coward.

影片的主要卖点就是辩论本身——先是在共和党的迈阿密大会期间，三周后在民主党的芝加哥大会期间又有一场，47年前的罕见文献获得重生，至今看来仍然让人大呼过瘾，就像是照着诺埃尔·科沃德(No氀 Coward)的稿子排演的一集《交叉火力》(Crossfire)脱口秀。

Vidal tells Buckley that he was an inspiration for Myra Breckinridge, Vidal’s transgender literary creation: “passionate²³ and irrelevant²⁴.” Buckley mocks Vidal’s failed screenplays and produces a note from Robert F. Kennedy, killed weeks earlier, suggesting that Vidal be deported²⁵ to Vietnam. (Vidal, examining the letter, notes that the handwriting is slanted²⁶ upward: “sign of a manic-depressive,” he says coolly.)

维达尔对巴克利说，自己笔下的跨性别人士迈拉·布雷肯里奇(Myra Breckinridge)这个形象，就是受他的启发创造的：“激情饱满，不知所云。”巴克利则嘲笑了维达尔的烂电影剧本，并给将于两周后遇刺的罗伯特·F·肯尼迪(Robert F. Kennedy)写了张便条，建议把维达尔驱逐到越南。（维达尔看了条子，发现巴克利的字向上倾斜：“躁狂抑郁的迹象，”他冷冷地说。）

Anchors like Howard K. Smith and Walter Cronkite had occasionally offered commentaries on the news, “but that was very civil,” Mr. Neville said. “What they brought,” he added, referring to Vidal and Buckley, “was a whole other level of incivility that television hadn’t really seen.”

霍华德·K·史密斯(Howard K. Smith)和沃尔特·克朗凯特(Walter Cronkite)这样的主持人会发表对新闻的评论，“但那都是很文明的，”内维尔说。维达尔和巴克利“带来了一种当时的电视上见识不到的粗鲁。”

Mr. Neville, who won the feature documentary Oscar for “20 Feet From Stardom,” and Mr. Gordon, a longtime collaborator²⁷, first watched the debates in 2010, on a bootleg copy from a friend. “I immediately was taken by how contemporary it was,” Mr. Gordon said, noting that between zingers, Buckley and Vidal were debating foreign wars, racial justice and states’ rights.

曾凭借《离巨星二十英尺》(20 Feet From Stardom)获得奥斯卡最佳纪录长片的内维尔，在2010年和长期合作伙伴戈登一起看到这场辩论，当时是通过一个朋友的私录影像。“看上去太像当代的东西，我当场被镇住了，”戈登说，他注意到在刀光剑影之间，两人辩论的是外国战争、种族正义和联邦诸州的权力。

But the directors, both former journalists, also discovered that the debates’ legacy²⁸ became more about ire than ideas.

然而两位作过记者的导演还发现，辩论留下的传奇更多侧重于愤怒而不是理念。

Buckley showcased provocative²⁹ debate on “Firing Line,” his program which had its debut³⁰ in 1966; Vidal was a mischievous³¹ guest on talk shows. But the film presents network news in 1968 as a gray affair. When ABC hired Buckley and Vidal to hold daily debates during its convention coverage — essentially³² a ratings stunt³³ by a network ranked last in the ratings — it was breaking from the gavel-to-gavel norm.

在他自己的一个首播于1966年的节目《火线》(Firing Line)中，巴克利展现了极具挑衅性的辩术；脱口秀上的维达尔也是出了名的毒舌。但在影片中，1968年的电视网新闻处在一种灰色状态。ABC请来巴克利和维达尔，要他们在政党大会报道期间进行每日例行的辩论，目的是背离按部就班的节目常态——根本上是一个收视率垫底的电视网在博人眼球。

And then some. On a night of riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago, Buckley and Vidal had their own climactic on-air clash. Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi,” prompting a reaction that still stuns³⁴.

结果何止是背离。在举行芝加哥民主党大会的那个暴戾的夜晚，巴克利和维达尔的冲突在众目睽睽之下达至顶峰。维达尔称巴克利是个“秘密纳粹”，后者的反应至今看来仍十分惊人。

“Now listen, you queer,” Buckley replied, “stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.” He was nearly out of his chair, inches from Vidal, his face, as Christopher Hitchens recalls in the film, “a rictus of loathing³⁵.”

“你这个娘娘腔给我听好了，”巴克利说，“再说我是秘密纳粹，我就给你那张臭脸上来一下，让你就一直这么瘫着。”他几乎已经从离开自己的椅子，离维达尔只有几厘米，克里斯托弗·希钦斯(Christopher Hitchens)在片中回忆，巴克利的脸上带着“一种憎恶的狞笑”。

Such slurs³⁶ are rarely heard on television today; at the time, they were deeply profane³⁷, and the exchange was cut from the West Coast broadcast, according to Mr. Gordon. Vidal saw it as a triumph; Buckley almost never spoke³⁸ of it again.

这样的诋毁，在今天的电视上已经很难见到了；据戈登说，当时两人都粗口连篇，这段对话在ABC的西海岸播出中被删掉。维达尔认为这是一场胜利；巴克利此后几乎再也不提此事。

“Best of Enemies” documents the aftermath: News producers, intrigued³⁹ by ABC’s ratings increase, began pitting liberals against conservatives. A montage features an old “Point/Counterpoint” segment from “60 Minutes”; Jon Stewart berating⁴⁰ the hosts of CNN’s “Crossfire”; and shouty clips from Fox News.

最佳死敌》还记录了节目播出后的情形：在ABC收视率飙升的刺激下，新闻制片人们开始有意安排自由派和保守派人士的较量。片中收录了一系列节目片段：《60分钟》(60 Minutes)的一段“针锋相对”(Point/Counterpoint)老画面；乔恩·斯图尔特(Jon Stewart)痛斥CNN《交叉火力》的主持人；以及Fox新闻频道(Fox News)上的咆哮。

The film, which debuted⁴¹ this year at Sundance, has resonated: The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin recently signed on to write a feature-length dramatic adaptation. “I’d never heard about the Vidal/Buckley debates before seeing the documentary,” Mr. Sorkin said by email, comparing the climactic debate to “a classic courtroom scene.”

这部今年在圣丹斯电影节(Sundance)上首映的影片引发了共鸣：电影剧作家艾伦·索尔金(Aaron Sorkin)近日签下了一个故事长片剧本改编合同。“在看到这个纪录片之前，我完全没听说过维达尔和巴克利的辩论，”索尔金在电子邮件中写道，他把辩论的高潮部分比作“一场经典法庭戏”。

Research for the documentary took years, with the directors plumbing⁴² archives for gems⁴³ like Vidal’s handwritten debate notes. (Many of his supposed ad-libs were, in fact, rehearsed.) The directors interviewed Vidal in 2010, two years before his death, at his Hollywood home, where he initially⁴⁴ accused them of being Buckley partisans⁴⁵. “It was like a scene from ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ ” Mr. Neville recalled.

影片进行了数年的调研，两位导演挖到了许多珍贵的史料，比如维达尔手写的辩论笔记（他的许多看似即兴的讲话，实际上是经过排练的）。导演在2010年前往维达尔在好莱坞的家中采访了他，那时距离他去世还有两年。维达尔一开始指责两人是巴克利的党羽。“简直就像《日落大道》(Sunset Boulevard)里的场景，”内维尔说。

That interview does not appear in the film; Buckley died in 2008, and the directors felt allowing only Vidal to speak would unbalance the film. Instead, they draw on journalists, media critics and relatives, including Buckley’s brother Reid. Buckley’s son, Christopher, declined to speak. “I think it was honoring his father’s intentions to not ever speak of the V-word again,” Mr. Neville said.

影片中没有出现那段采访；巴克利是2008年去世的，他们不想只有维达尔在说话，导致影片失衡。他们采访了记者、媒体评论人和亲属，包括巴克利的弟弟瑞德(Reid)。巴克利的儿子克里斯托弗(Christopher)拒绝接受采访。“我认为他是在遵照父亲的意愿，永远不再提那个V打头的词，”内维尔说。

Mr. Neville, who briefly⁴⁶ worked as a fact-checker for Vidal after college (“One of the most thankless jobs I’ve ever had”), said that audiences frequently tell him how relevant the film seems to today’s media culture. Mr. Gordon regards that as a hopeful sign. “People are hungry for the public intellectual,” Mr. Gordon said. Buckley and Vidal “had 15 minutes a night, uninterrupted. Imagine that today. Imagine having two witty, literate⁴⁷ heavy thinkers having a go at each other for 15 minutes without someone in the headset saying, ‘Quick, talk about Monica Lewinsky’s underwear.’ ”

内维尔大学毕业后曾为维达尔作过一阵子的事实核查工作（“这辈子最吃力不讨好的差事”），他说时常有观众告诉他，影片放在当下的媒体文化中是十分切题的。戈登认为这是个喜人的迹象。“人们迫切需要公共知识分子，”戈登说。巴克利和维达尔“每晚有不间断的15分钟。再看看今天。你能想象两个满腹经纶的思想家就这样你来我往15分钟，中间不会听到耳机里传来一个声音，‘快，说说莫妮卡·莱温斯基的内衣。’”

Mr. Neville agreed. “Now, you watch cable news, and you know what everybody’s going to say before they open their mouth,” he said. Buckley and Vidal “were independent thinkers, and independent thinkers aren’t given a lot of time on television today.”

内维尔也这样看。“你去看有线电视新闻，这些人一张嘴，你就知道他们要说什么，”他说。巴克利和维达尔“是独立的思想者，独立的思想者在今天的电视上得不到多少机会”。

Few current news programs can match the lexical fireworks of the Buckley-Vidal debates, and it is true that the words “Latinate” and “hobgoblinization” are unlikely to be heard on CNN anytime soon.

在如今的新闻节目里，巴克利-维达尔论战这样排山倒海的词汇量已经很难见到，在CNN听到“Latinate”（类拉丁文的）和“hobgoblinization”（精灵化）之类的词机会很渺茫。

But “Best of Enemies” also proves something else: that even during a more genteel era in television news, the most pedigreed and respected intellects could descend⁴⁸ into name-calling and, for a moment, the threat of physical violence.

然而《最佳死敌》还证明了一件事：即使在电视新闻还正襟危坐的年代，最受敬仰、最纯粹的知识分子也会堕落到人身攻击的层次，甚至一度要诉诸肢体暴力。

Mr. Sorkin, who lamented⁴⁹ the state of television news in his HBO series, “The Newsroom,” was asked what today’s news media might learn from these debates nearly half a century old.

索尔金曾在他的HBO剧集《新闻编辑室》(The Newsroom)中哀叹电视新闻的现状，那么他认为今天的新闻媒体能从将近半个世纪前的辩论中学到什么呢？

“I think they’ve learned it,” Mr. Sorkin replied. “Incivility rates.”

“我认为他们已经学到了，”索尔金答道。“无礼言行有收视率。”