It's not that I'm happy about the death of the lizard-like arch-conservative William Buckley. In fact, in the current neo-conservative landscape, in which the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are allowed influence beyond their station, Buckley's preening intellectual act would seem like a breath of fresh air.
Nonetheless, Buckley thought Joe McCarthy was A-OK, believed whites were genetically superior to other races and was an unapologetic imperialist. When, late in his life, the conservative movement he had helped found turned on him, it had some of the ham-fisted irony of an old EC comic book. I, for one, won't shed a tear, largely because his noxious views continue to inexplicably shape political discourse to this very day.
If you want to mourn someone, mourn the death of cinematographer David Watkin. He was the brilliant eye for director Richard Lester on a string of amazing films--The Knack; Help!; How I Won The War; The Three Musketeers--that are some of the greatest things cinema has to offer. His use of available light was highly influential--Steven Soderbergh rightly regards him as one of the greatest cameramen of all time--and in addition to his superlative work with Lester, he worked with Ken Russell, Sidney Lumet, Tony Richardson...a long, distinguished list.
He also shot Yentl, but we won't hold that against him.
