Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

Overview

Standing beside his own grave, Gore Vidal is asked by an unseen interviewer what he hopes his legacy will be. Although well into his eighties, his reply is loaded with all the wryness and lack of bullshit that has characterised his writing for decades: “I couldn’t care less”. So begins Nicholas Wrathall’s fascinating documentary portrait of the iconic author and public intellectual, a man whose scathing views on American imperialism were matched only by the sharpness of his wit.

Born into privilege, Eugene Louis Vidal took the name by which he would become famous from his maternal grandfather, Senator Thomas Gore, who introduced his grandson to the wheelings and dealings of Washington. Intent on becoming a writer, Vidal published his first novel, Williwaw, in 1946, at the age of just 21. But it was his follow-up, The City and the Pillar, which brought him to the public’s attention, creating uproar in literary circles for its descriptions of homosexual sex.

It would be the first of many bouts of controversy for Vidal, who in subsequent years became one of the nation’s foremost cultural commentators. Whether writing a book, running for office or appearing on television (the latter being one of two things he was famously quoted as saying he never missed the opportunity to do), Vidal’s outspoken views on sexuality, religion, capitalism and politics made him a hero to the left and a thorn in the side of the right.

Wrathall, an Australian filmmaker, tells his subject’s story in an effectively straightforward manner. Archival footage from Vidal’s early days — including his infamous televised debates with conservative author William F. Buckley Jr. — is combined with interviews conducted in the last few years of his life. We see here that Vidal’s acerbic insight remained undiminished by age, as he tears into George W. Bush (“a goddamned fool”) as he did Reagan (“the best cue-card reader we could find”) and even Kennedy (“one of the most charming men I’ve ever known… and one of the most disastrous Presidents we’ve ever had”).

United States of Amnesia doesn’t really challenge Vidal on much. Wrathall clearly had enormous respect and affection for the man, and it’s obvious that his film, like practically everything else with Vidal’s name on it, will play best to a left-leaning audience. Still, perhaps he can be forgiven: when you have a subject as eloquent as Vidal, it would seem foolish not to just let him talk. Admirers of Vidal’s work will find much to like in this entertaining biographical treatment, one that will also no doubt inspire a whole new generation of fans.

Read our interview with filmmaker Nicholas Wrathall here.