Gore VidalFilmography

Obscene

Actors: Barney Rosset, Amiri Baraka, Jim Carroll, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Al Goldstein

Synopsis: To countless avant-garde novelists, filmmakers, and playwrights, publisher Barney Rosset -- proprietor of the legendary Grove Press -- qualifies as an undisputed hero. Via scores of in-court legal battles, Rosset fought aggressively and valiantly to defend the release of works as varied as William S. Burroughs Read More

Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11

Actors: Steven Jones, Les Jamieson, Michael Pritchard, Gore Vidal, Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, Dario Fo, Louie Cacchioli, Brian Clark

Synopsis: Filmmakers Franco Fracassi and Francesco Trento explore the damning sequence of "contradictions, gaps, and omissions" in the official version of events surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States in this documentary that puts forth the controversial proposal that the Read More

Murder, Spies and Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story

Actors: Clint Curtis, Brad Friedman, Bob Fitrakis, Gore Vidal, Mavis Georgalis

Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Patty Sharaf addresses the controversial topic of election fraud by exploring the case of an everyday computer programmer who was approached by a powerful Republican legislator from Florida to create vote-swapping software for electronic voting machines. Follow along as Read More

Terrorstorm: 2nd Edition

Actors: Gore Vidal, Jesse Ventura

Global Haywire: A Short History of Planet Malfunction

Actors: Robyn Nevin, Barry Otto, Marjella O'Shea, Juliet Darling, Winnie Shih

Synopsis: British actor Tom Baker narrates Oscar-winning animator Bruce Petty's thoughtful meditation on colonialism, capitalism, and the longstanding tensions between Islam and the Western world. Input from such noted thinkers as Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Robert Frisk, and George Monbiat help to highlight Read More

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Actors: John Lennon, Stew Albert, Tariq Ait Ben Ali, Carl Bernstein, Robin Blackburn, Chris Charlesworth

Synopsis: Filmmakers David Leaf and John Scheinfeld offer a compelling look at the efforts of the United States government to silence one of rock & roll's most outspoken war critics in this documentary detailing the Vietnam-era struggle between the Richard Nixon administration and iconic peace activist John Lennon Read More

Why We Fight

Actors: Wilton Sekzer, Chalmers Johnson, William Solomon, Charles Lewis, Richard Perle

Synopsis: In 1961, as Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his final address to the nation before leaving the office of President of the United States, he warned that America "must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex." Nearly 45 years later, as the United States Read More

One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern

Synopsis: In the spring and summer of 1972, George McGovern, a Democratic senator from South Dakota, achieved the seemingly impossible. Backed by a motley collection of Prairie populists, old-school liberals, and young people disenchanted with the war in Vietnam, McGovern overwhelmed longtime party Read More

Inside Deep Throat

Synopsis: Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato follow up Party Monster by returning to the documentary form of their most popular film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Rather than examining evangelists-cum-gay icons, this time the duo takes aim at the cultural phenomenon that is and was Deep Throat, the Read More

Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She

Synopsis: Acclaimed author Gore Vidal narrates this international exploration of blurring gender roles in a documentary that seeks to open a constructive dialogue regarding the social roadblocks and family problems faced by transgender, intersexual, and bisexual men and women from a variety of cultures. Read More

Lincoln

Synopsis: Chip away at the myth to reveal a man whose personal tragedies drove him to achieve feats many only dream about as Academy-Award-winning producer Vikram Jayanti explores the life of American President Abraham Lincoln - the self-proclaimed "loneliest man in the world." By utilizing detailed Read More

XXI Century, Part 2: ...and the Pursuit of Happiness

Henry Luce and Time-Life's America: A Vision of Empire

XXI Century, Part 6: Blood and Oil

The Peace! DVD

Actors: Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Ossie Davis, Danny Glover

Synopsis: A pair of pacifist-minded documentarians reach out to dozens of their generation's greatest thinkers in a bid to ensure a peaceful future for all in this documentary that encourages viewers to take an active role in the peace process. From September 2002 to May 2003, filmmakers Gabriele Zamparini Read More

XXI Century, Part 1: The Dawn

XXI Century, Part 3: ...and Nothing Much but the Truth

Federico Fellini: Mit den Augen der Anderen

Actors: Anouk Aimée, Dino de Laurentiis, Anita Ekberg, Tullio Kezich, Sandra Milo

Synopsis: German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt tracks down many high-profile Italian movie folks for the documentary portrait Federico Fellini: Through the Eyes of Others. Actresses Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, and Sandra Milo provide commentary about the director's behavior on and off the set. Other interview Read More

Understanding America's Terroris Crisis: What Should Be Done?

The Education of Gore Vidal

Actors: Anne Jackson, Gore Vidal, Paul Newman, Tim Robbins, Sarah Sarandon, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: Always his own best audience, celebrated author, social critic, and self-described political "nag" Gore Vidal also proves the ideal master of ceremonies (via film clips from an extended interview) for this biographical documentary. From the vantage point of his villa in Ravello, Italy, Vidal Read More

Gore Vidal's American Presidency: Heroes or Villains?

Synopsis: This film presents writer and political commentator Gore Vidal at his acerbic best, offering his off-beat views of past American presidents, from George Washington through Bill Clinton. Vidal, the author of essays and historical novels such as "Lincoln", and "Burr", has been a controversial figure Read More

Gattaca

Actors: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal, Alan Arkin, Xander Berkeley

Synopsis: New Zealand screenwriter Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show) made his feature directorial debut with this science fiction drama, set in a future when one's life is determined by genetic engineering rather than education or experience. The wealthy can choose the genetic makeup of their descendants. Read More

Shadow Conspiracy

Actors: Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Theodore Bikel, Linda Hamilton

Synopsis: Presidential advisor Bobby Bishop (Charlie Sheen) is hunted by an unknown assailant in this political thriller. With the help of Chief-of-Staff Jake Conrad (Donald Sutherland) and the newspaper journalist Amanda (Linda Hamilton), he uncovers an assassination plot to kill the President and his Read More

The Celluloid Closet

Actors: Antonio Banderas, Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein, Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: Based on Vito Russo's groundbreaking 1981 work of film history, The Celluloid Closet gathers clips from dozens of mainstream Hollywood films to illustrate how the movies have dealt explicitly -- and more importantly, implicitly -- with gay and lesbian themes. Layered between the clips are Read More

With Honors

Actors: Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey, Josh Hamilton

Synopsis: Harvard University graduate Alek Keshishian directed this tale about a homeless man who teaches some snotty Harvard students a thing or two about real life. Monty (Brendan Fraser) is a self-absorbed graduate student who is obsessed with finishing his thesis on government so that he can satisfy his Read More

Bob Roberts

Actors: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating Read More

Dimenticare Palermo

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: James Belushi, Mimi Rogers, Joss Ackland, Philippe Noiret, Carolina Rosi

Synopsis: This political drama chronicles the corruption of a mayoral candidate for New York City. His ordeal begins when he launches a campaign for the legalization of heretofore illegal narcotics. Alarmed by the support it gets, Mafiosos frame the candidate for a crime he did not commit and force him to Read More

Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Val Kilmer, Duncan Regehr

Synopsis: Gore Vidal's 1955 TV play and 1958 film The Left-Handed Gun discreetly explored the hitherto untapped homosexual subtext in the saga of gunslinger Billy the Kid. Vidal's 1989 reworking of the same material, the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, is just as discreet, but no less top-heavy Read More

Gore Vidal's Lincoln

Crew: Book Author

Synopsis: Originally telecast in two parts on March 27 and 28 of 1988, Lincoln was adapted from the bestselling "factual fiction" by Gore Vidal. Sam Waterston stars as Abraham Lincoln, with Mary Tyler Moore frighteningly convincing as the tragic Mary Todd Lincoln. Predictably, Part One of Lincoln deals with Read More

The Sicilian

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Christopher Lambert, Terence Stamp, Joss Ackland, John Turturro, Barbara Sukowa, Richard Bauer

Synopsis: Adapted from Mario Puzo's novel, The Sicilian is an attempt to chronicle the life and times of Mafia leader, patriot and real-life Robin Hood Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who, together with his rag-tag band of guerillas, attempted to liberate 1940s Sicily from Italian rule and make it Read More

Sweet Liberty

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lise Hilboldt

Synopsis: Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this satirical film about the corruption of the film industry's approach to history. Alda plays Michael Burgess, a college professor who has written a historical novel about the American Revolution. The book has been turned into a script, and a Hollywood Read More

Dress Gray

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: A made for TV movie which serves as much a condemnation of the military establishment as a murder mystery, this film revolves around an upper classman who is falsely accused of responsibility for the death of a student when he begins to investigate the mysterious demise of the young gay cadet. Read More

Caligula

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Teresa Ann Savoy, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, John Steiner, John Gielgud

Synopsis: This lavish big-budget epic was the pinnacle of a uniquely Italian subgenre, the historical hardcore gore/porn extravaganza. The star-studded cast, perhaps lured by the high-profile involvement of producer Bob Guccione and screenwriter Gore Vidal, includes such luminaries as John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole Read More

Fellini's Roma

Actors: Britta Barnes, Federico Fellini

Synopsis: Fellini's Roma is a virtually plotless autobiographical tribute to Rome, Italy, featuring narration by Fellini himself and a mixture of real-life footage and fictional set pieces. It flows from episode to episode, beginning with the director's early years arriving in Rome in 1931 during the time Read More

Myra Breckinridge

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Mae West, John Huston, Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett

Synopsis: Gore Vidal's best-selling satiric novel gets an inarguably unique screen treatment in this off-center psycho-sexual farce. Fussy film buff Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) goes to Europe and gets a sex-change operation from a slovenly chain-smoking doctor (John Carradine) and returns to the United Read More

The Last of the Mobile Hotshots

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: James Coburn, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Hooks, Perry Hayes, Reggie King

Synopsis: In this depressing slice of Southern decadence, Myrtle (Lynn Redgrave) is a woman of questionable virtue who marries an ailing man on a television game show. Jeb (James Coburn) hopes to sire an heir so his greedy half-brother (Robert Hooks) won't inherit the family fortune. Myrtle jumps into the Read More

Is Paris Burning?

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, George Chakiris, Gert Fröbe, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Perkins, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret

Synopsis: In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to Read More

The Best Man

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Shelley Berman, Lee Tracy

Synopsis: Gore Vidal adapted his biting and bitter political satire from his hit Broadway play. Franklin J. Schaffner directed and Haskell Wexler provided the sharp-edged cinematography. The story concerns the political back-biting and smear politics involved in a presidential election year scramble by Read More

Visit to a Small Planet

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Joan Blackman, Fred Clark, John Williams

Synopsis: When a space alien's fascination with Earthlings gets the better of him, he breaks one of his planet's laws and speeds off to visit the blue planet. Once there the alien (Jerry Lewis) encounters a nice family who kindly take him in. The father is a news commentator. Ironically, just prior to Read More

Suddenly, Last Summer

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge

Synopsis: In this lush, lurid adaptation of the 1957 Tennessee Williams one-act, Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn play a seemingly insane, young New Orleans debutante and the wealthy aunt who wants to lobotomize her. Dr. John Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is a gifted Chicago brain surgeon stymied by Read More

The Scapegoat

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Alec Guinness, Nicole Maurey, Bette Davis, Irene Worth, Pamela Brown, Peter Bull

Synopsis: In this uneven but well-acted mystery story with a few gaps in the plot here and there, Alec Guiness plays a double role. He is John Barratt, a British teacher on vacation in France who is conned into taking on another identity. The identity he assumes is that of his double, Count Jacques de Gue Read More

I Accuse!

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: José Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, Viveca Lindfors, Leo Genn, Emlyn Williams

Synopsis: The still-controversial L'Affair Dreyfuss of the late 19th century is the focal point of I Accuse! Jose Ferrer (who also directed) stars as French Army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who is chosen as the fall guy for a major military scandal for no other discernable reason than his Jewishness. Wrongly Read More

The Left-Handed Gun

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Paul Newman, Lita Milan, Hurd Hatfield, James Congdon, James Best

Synopsis: The Left Handed Gun was adapted by Gore Vidal from his own TV play, The Death of Billy the Kid. 33-year-old Paul Newman stars as 21-year-old William Bonney, the hotheaded gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. Avoiding the usual Hollywood glamourization of this controversial character, Newman portays Read More

The Catered Affair

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor

Synopsis: Bette Davis goes the "kitchen sink drama" route in The Catered Affair. As the frowsy wife of Bronx cabdriver Ernest Borgnine, Davis insists that her daughter Debbie Reynolds have a high-class wedding--caterers and all. Reynolds and future hubby Rod Taylor want a simple ceremony, but Davis' mind is Read More

Philco Television Playhouse: The Death of Billy the Kid

Crew: Teleplay By

Actors: Paul Newman, Frank Overton, Joseph Anthony, Michael Conrad, George Mitchell

Synopsis: The 1958 theatrical feature The Left-Handed Gun was adapted from the 1955 Philco Television Playhouse offering The Death of Billy the Kid. Both the film and the TV program boasted the same star (Paul Newman), the same author (Gore Vidal) and the same director (Arthur Penn). Broadcast live, The Read More

Climax!: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Crew: Teleplay By

Actors: Michael Rennie, Mary Sinclair, Lowell Gilmore, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: Telecast live from Hollywood, this hour-long version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde stars Michael Rennie in the title role--or rather, roles. Obsessed with his theory that every man has two distinct personalities within him, the kindly Dr. Henry Jeckyll (Rennie) begins to Read More

Great Themes In Literature: On Writing