<![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> @raincoaster: Oh weird-- I'm about halfway through Palimpsest and am fully obsessed with Gore Vidal now. And there are few things hotter on God's green earth than a young Gore Vidal...

NeverEnough

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> JFK knew he was going to be president someday, and Gore Vidal as a relative by marriage, knew him well enough to know how it would go down. Palimpsest is a fascinating book, I'm telling you.

I couldn't love Gore Vidal more if he were The Croc Hunter returned from the dead. And you cross him at your peril: Capote, Buckley, Mailer...all dead.

I'm just sayin.

raincoaster

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> Such a brilliant 'quee-ah.'

PattyCake

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> I'm still trying to figure out how a play that opened in March of 1960 could be about how JFK became President. And as PandoraSpocks points out, in the play and the movie, neither of the rival candidates actually gets the nomination. It seems pretty obvious that Vidal's main inspiration was mostly the 1952 Democratic convention, when Harry S Truman threw his support to the dark horse Adlai Stevenson.

If there were any hint that the character of the sleazy, blackmailing Cantwell was based on JFK, surely no studio in their right mind would cast Cliff Robertson, who had already played the real Kennedy in PT 109 the previous year. When I saw a revival of The Best Man a few years ago, Chris Noth in the part seemed like a very handsome version of Richard Nixon, not JFK at all.

La Cieca

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> @ginger rant: Good eye. That is Darren #1, Dick York.

jackvinyl

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> Okay, so I know this thread is supposed to be all intellectual and shit, but was that Darren Stevens in the clip?

ginger rant

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> @PandoraSpocks: You mean a yellow dog democrat?

Priam

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> The movie was excellent for its time and included a evangelical right-wing Democrat (played by Cliff Robertson) who was totally ruthless. As far as I recall any Kennedey parallel was pretty subtle since the eventual nominee turns out to be neither of the favorites.

PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> @GollyG: You expected something else from Gore Vidal?

LoveHandles

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> Comment on Gore Vidal Saw This Coming YES! great movie. fonda is the "intelligent wimp" and cliff robertson is the former first lady -- er, um -- dirty trickster -- um, er-- people's candidate. seems to me obama has been channeling fonda forever, what with his tall, lean frame, easy going style and those great narrow suits. fighting hard against the stevenson wimp thing, of course. anyway, no home video on the movie but TCM has it skedded for june 20. enjoy!

VaraneseHaedjinn

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> So Vidal wrote this scathing play about "his good friend"? And then Hollywood released the movie directly after Kennedy was assassinated? While everyone was still in mourning? Tacky, all round.

GollyG

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> I've seen the movie twice.

I'm a big Henry Fonda (rather than his contemporaries Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne) fan.

8Millionth

]]> <![CDATA[Gore Vidal Saw This Coming]]> He's still around?

Smitros

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