Released
only a year after Vidal’s death, this documentary is especially of interest for
covering his final years and posthumous remembrances by interviewees, but
otherwise it doesn’t do much that hasn’t been done in several other
biographical films over the years. I
seem to recall one on PBS’ American
Masters series that was just as good, though a decade older. The title comes from a phrase he often used
in interviews as well as in the subtitle of his 2004 book Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia. Vidal was a novelist, essayist and erstwhile
politician whose primary subject was the slow slip of America from a republic
into an empire. As a historian, he saw
this trend as almost inevitable, and yet he always clearly lamented it
too. The film chronicles his life in
fairly standard chronological fashion, focusing a bit more on celebrities’
reactions to him than on his actual beliefs, which made up a complex ideology
centered in libertarian and humanist ethics, and which the filmmakers likely
assumed could not be rendered entertaining enough for modern audiences. As a reader of many of his books, I think
Vidal deserves a little better than just another standard profile, however
thorough; there was more to him than simply his famous feuds with Norman Mailer
and William F. Buckley. His ruminations
on religion and sexuality, for example, were so progressive, even radical, and
they were not only ahead of his time but are still ahead of our time; as
presented in his best novels like The
City and the Pillar (1948), Messiah (1952),
Julian (1964) and Myra Breckenridge (1968). I didn’t get much of that from The United States of Amnesia, but it’s
still a very good film and recommended to anyone not very familiar with Vidal.
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