By Don L. Stradley
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The first image we see in Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, a handsome new documentary by Nicholas D. Wrathall, is of Vidal at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C., standing over what will soon be his own tomb. He’s heavier than we remember, leaning on a cane for balance. He recalls a few friends who are already buried nearby, mentions his “pathological hatred of death,” and ambles away. This is the titan at midnight, crumbling at the edges, still formidable.
The movie’s cryptic opening segues into a respectful, occasionally moving, look back at Vidal’s life. It’s more a tribute than a full-blown biography, for Wrathall presents Vidal as a kind of intellectual colossus, utterly devoid of faults, a near perfect thinker, and the last lion of America’s golden age of liberalism.
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The first image we see in Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, a handsome new documentary by Nicholas D. Wrathall, is of Vidal at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C., standing over what will soon be his own tomb. He’s heavier than we remember, leaning on a cane for balance. He recalls a few friends who are already buried nearby, mentions his “pathological hatred of death,” and ambles away. This is the titan at midnight, crumbling at the edges, still formidable.
The movie’s cryptic opening segues into a respectful, occasionally moving, look back at Vidal’s life. It’s more a tribute than a full-blown biography, for Wrathall presents Vidal as a kind of intellectual colossus, utterly devoid of faults, a near perfect thinker, and the last lion of America’s golden age of liberalism.
- 5/26/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
A hugely entertaining biography of one of the great observers of the American century whose witty, bitter obstinance is essential in highlighting how far the U.S. has gone off the rails since WWII. I’m “biast” (pro): I worship Gore Vidal
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
I so needed to see this movie right now. Cuz it reminded me how much I love Gore Vidal, and how essential his witty, bitter obstinance has been in pointing out how far America has gone off the rails since WWII, and how much I need to keep aspiring to be even a tenth — nay, a hundredth — of the writer and cultural critic he was. Because to match even such a tiny percentage of his genius would be a tremendous accomplishment for a lesser mortal. Whether it was politics, society, sexuality, or Hollywood,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
I so needed to see this movie right now. Cuz it reminded me how much I love Gore Vidal, and how essential his witty, bitter obstinance has been in pointing out how far America has gone off the rails since WWII, and how much I need to keep aspiring to be even a tenth — nay, a hundredth — of the writer and cultural critic he was. Because to match even such a tiny percentage of his genius would be a tremendous accomplishment for a lesser mortal. Whether it was politics, society, sexuality, or Hollywood,...
- 5/22/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
★★★☆☆ The masterstroke of Nicholas D. Wrathall's documentary Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2013) is the substantial presence of the man himself. It would, undoubtedly, still make for interesting material even in his absence - he has spent more than enough time proffering his views on page and camera - but wouldn't be quite so enjoyable. It's in Vidal's staunchly held and eloquently voiced opinions that the film truly shines. The director lets the archive footage, famous interviews and talking heads support - rather than overwhelm - the man at their centre as he candidly reflects on his country, life and work.
- 2/20/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ If you want to read about how former Us president John F. Kennedy liked to have sex in the bath, then Palimpsest, the first volume of Gore Vidal's memoirs, is the book for you. It manages to be a splendidly outrageous document of literary mythmaking and lurid gossipmongering whilst also being a confessional book about the man who rarely turned his pen on himself. Nicholas D. Wrathall's documentary of the writer, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2013), largely avoids the salaciousness of Vidal's own memoirs, and instead pushes the case for the recognition of its subject as a titan of American letters.
Vidal, who passed away in 2012, became a publishing sensation with 1948's The City and the Pillar, the first American novel to openly deal with homosexuality. He then went on to become a prolific author, screenwriter, playwright, essayist, politician etc; like a modern day renaissance man.
Vidal, who passed away in 2012, became a publishing sensation with 1948's The City and the Pillar, the first American novel to openly deal with homosexuality. He then went on to become a prolific author, screenwriter, playwright, essayist, politician etc; like a modern day renaissance man.
- 10/15/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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