Thanks to PBS, “The Education of Gore Vidal,” a documentary about the writer who passed away Tuesday, is available online for free viewing today through August 9. The 2003 film originally aired on PBS’s American Masters series and includes interviews with a number of people, including the late George Plimpton and Paul Newman. Of course, the film also features Vidal, talking about his life, pondering history, and dropping the witty remark here and there. In one of the interesting segments, Vidal explains why he chose Aaron Burr as the subject of one of his historical novels.
If you prefer watching it on television, some PBS stations will be running the film too. But if you cannot wait, you may either watch the first 20 minutes below or go to PBS.org to watch the whole 84-minute version. [November 2013 Update: Unfortunately, PBS no longer has the video for The Education of Gore Vidal online, but you may check the PBS link for more on Gore Vidal and also to see if they have responded to requests to repost the video. For now, check out the below Charlie Rose show segment featuring highlights of Gore Vidal’s appearances on that show.]
What do you think of “The Education of Gore Vidal”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
{Update: The event is now over so no longer streaming.}
The festival — which brings together a range of musicians covering heavy metal, hip-hop, alternative rock, dance, etc. — was created in 1991. MTV.com has the dates and times for many of the big acts at this year’s Lollapalooza.
The Onion AV Club recently presented this cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as part of its Underground series. Here, Glen Hansard is joined by Lisa Hannigan, who is touring with Hansard, and John Smith to sing the song at Chicago’s Architectural Artifacts, a museum and store.
In the first part of the video before they sing the song, Hansard talks about the first time he heard “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and how he always remembers that moment in his life when he thinks of the song. Check it out.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which evokes the waning days of the American Civil War in the South, first appeared on The Band’s self-titled album in 1969. Since then, there have been a number of live versions released by The Band, including on The Last Waltz (1976), and the song has been recorded by other artists, including a hit version by Joan Baez in 1971. As in the case of the artists in the video above, Baez does a great cover on the song, but the definitive versions remain with Levon Helm’s lead singing with The Band.
Even though the songwriting is officially credited to Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm later noted that he helped with the research and the writing. Whether or not he wrote the song, it became his song when he sang it. Apparently, Helm never sang the song again after his performance at The Last Waltz, shown below when all the people were singin’.
What is your favorite version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I was sad to hear that author, playwright, commentator, etc. Gore Vidal passed away Tuesday from complications from pneumonia. Vidal was a rare breed who was able to be intellectual, thought-provoking, controversial, and a celebrity all at the same time. Popular culture often takes the easy well-worn path down to a common denominator, but Vidal was able to be both smart and entertaining, whether one agreed with him or not.
I have enjoyed several of his books, including his historical novel Lincoln and his collection of fascinating essays in United States. But when I heard he died, my first thought was of his famous feud with Norman Mailer that was brilliantly captured in December 1971 on The Dick Cavett Show. It was an exchange between two men you would not expect to see on television today. Several years ago, Slateeven suggested the confrontation be made into a play.
Mailer was drunk and had head-butted Vidal in the green room before the appearance as revenge for Vidal’s negative book review of Mailer’s Prisoner of Sex. In the review, Vidal wrote that Mailer — along with Henry Miller and Charles Manson — were part of “a continuum in the brutal and violent treatment of women.” Mailer took the criticism as a reference to an incident where he was arrested in 1960 for stabbing his wife with a penknife. The two writers continued the argument in front of the audience with Cavett and writer Janet Flanner in the middle. . .
Well, okay, it is a little like reality TV, but with two great writers and intellectual giants of their generation. Note that after Mailer called Vidal a “liar and a hypocrite,” he then pointed to Vidal’s reference to the wife-stabbing. Vidal responded with great wit, “But that wasn’t a lie or a hypocrisy.” Ouch.
And we are still talking about it decades later, as Cavett wrote about the interview in a 2007 essay about the experience in The New York Times. In the article, Cavett noted that both Vidal and Mailer returned to his show again, but he never had them on the same show again. Although the two writers never became great friends, they did not remain enemies. Mailer later explained, “We pass, and like two old whores on the street, say ‘Still at it, Norm?’ ‘Yep. Still at it, Gore?’ ” Unfortunately for us, neither man is still at it, but we can still read and debate their stories and their ideas, and that is not a bad legacy. RIP Mr. Vidal.
Who do you think wins the exchange? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you are a fan of director Stanley Kubrick, check out the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001). Although the film does not feature interviews with the notoriously reclusive Kubrick, the late director’s voice comes through clips of his movies and through many people who knew and worked with Kubrick.
I recently re-watched one of Kubrick’s early films, Paths of Glory (1957), the outstanding WWI film starring Kirk Douglas. Seeing it for the second time, I noticed many of the Kubrick touches in the camera angles and story themes and fell even deeper in love with the great film. I have always been a fan of Kubrick’s films, but watching Paths of Glory made me want to know more about the director, so I rented A Life in Pictures on Netflix.
At 2 hours and 22 minutes, director Jan Harlan’s A Life in Pictures is not a lightweight overview of Kubrick’s career, but covers all of his movies with comments from many who worked with the director such as Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Malcolm McDowell, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Cruise, who narrates the film. Martin Scorsese, a director who is knowledgeable about film history, provides additional insight, as does Kubrick’s widow (who had a small but important role in Paths of Glory).
The documentary covers films such as The Killing (1956), Spartacus (1960), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). I particularly enjoyed the insight and behind-the-scenes stories about the underrated and misunderstood Eyes Wide Shut. While A Life in Pictures may not change your views of the films or tell you exactly who Stanley Kubrick was, the documentary helps peel back a few layers to give you a greater appreciation of Kubrick’s works.
Conclusion? Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures is an entertaining documentary about one of the great American directors that is worth your time if you have any interest in film history or in Kubrick’s films.
What is your favorite Stanley Kubrick film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Thanks to PBS, “The Education of Gore Vidal,” a documentary about the writer who passed away Tuesday, is available online for free viewing today through August 9. The 2003 film originally aired on PBS’s American Masters series and includes interviews with a number of people, including the late George Plimpton and Paul Newman. Of course, the film also features Vidal, talking about his life, pondering history, and dropping the witty remark here and there. In one of the interesting segments, Vidal explains why he chose Aaron Burr as the subject of one of his historical novels.
