“Highly entertaining…a fine memorial to one of 20th-century America’s most brilliant, original — and cranky — thinkers”
—Variety
“[Gore was] an engagingly brilliant and funny provocateur…the film, which received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, should enjoy healthy specialized theatrical bookings before a long life in ancillary.”
—The Hollywood Reporter
“A terrific documentary…writer/director Nicholas Wrathall does a heroic job of packing Vidal’s eventful life into the film’s 89 minutes.”
—Bloomberg News
“For sheer entertainment value, few docs can equal Gore Vidal the United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall, a portrait of the novelist, playwright, polemicist, public intellectual.”
—Huffington Post
“Best Documentary Picks of Tribeca”
—Indiewire
“Nicholas Wrathall’s treasure-trove documentary does a terrific job of summing up the late political writer’s life and work.”
—Time Out New York
“The cinematography is exquisite….everything is gloriously vivid, and the archival footage blends seamlessly into the meat of the film.”
—IFC.com
ABOUT THE FILM
LONG SYNOPSIS
No twentieth-century figure has had a more profound effect on the worlds of literature, film, politics, historical debate, and the culture wars than Gore Vidal. Anchored by intimate one-on-one interviews with the man himself, Nicholas Wrathall’s new documentary is a fascinating and wholly entertaining portrait of the last lion of the age of American liberalism.
Commentary by those who knew him best—including filmmaker/nephew Burr Steers and the late Christopher Hitchens—blends with footage from Vidal’s legendary on-air career to remind us why he will forever stand as one of the most brilliant and fearless critics of our time.
Gore Vidal’s professional life spans more than 50 years of American politics and letters. His return to America in 2005 marked the last great stage in his creative career and this film represents an extraordinary opportunity to share his view on America in the twenty-first century. Featuring candid vérité footage of Vidal in his final years, the film explores his enduring global impact on art, politics, and everything in between. His overview of the current state of the Republic and the health of US democracy is unique and incisive.
This is Gore Vidal’s last word and testimony.
Producers Nicholas Wrathall, Theodore James, Burr Steers
Executive Producers Nicholas Wrathall, Erik Nelson, Mike Barnett, Dave Harding, Damon Martin, Andrew Kortschak, Walter Kortschak, Chad Troutwine
Editors Suresh Ayyar, William Haugse, Rob Bralver, Derek Boonstra
Cinematographers Derek Wiesehahn, Joel Schwartzberg, Armando De'ath
Cast Gore Vidal, Burr Steers, Christopher Hitchens, Jodie Evans, Tim Robbins, Mikhail Gorbachev, Sting, David Mamet, Bob Scheer, William F. Buckley, Jay Parini, Norman Mailer, Nina Straight Dick Cavett
FESTIVALS
2013: Tribeca, Independent Film Festival Boston, Frameline, Outfest
PRESS KIT
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AVAILABLE PRESS IMAGES (click to preview)
