Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Fantastic!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I can prove that watching this movie will convince you that this man had the ability to see the future. To watch his predictions coming true is jaw dropping. There is a great scene with Jerry Brown when he ran against him in the primary for Senate in California. One man in an unemployment office told him he had never seen a politician there before. Gore knew based on the political economic structure, he would not win but said Jerry should drop out take a year off and read and explore himself. Jerry, won the primary, lost the election and took a year off to explore his mind. I mean yoga explore. It's uncanny. The most convincing proof is when Christopher Hitchens, his protégé, proclaimed himself the new Gore, Vidal said, " He's not the new me because I am still here and will be here after he's gone." Gore was in his 80s, Hitchens was in his 50s. Hitchens died 2011, Vidal 2012. Of course he was not a God and had some odd views. He didn't believe in monogamy or long term relationships but had the greatest interview about being Gay. He said the difference between a Homosexual and a Heterosexual is the same as having brown eyes and blue eyes. When asked who says so, he said, "I say so." It is truly enlightening to watch. He sees the rich taking over the government, the economic structure, buying Congress to make sure they make all the money and take all the advantages. He was Bernie Sanders, except back then the top 20% had more wealth than the rest combined. Of course now we call them the 1%. I recommend this movie.

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.www.worstshowontheweb.com

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.

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.