Tarpon/All That is Sacred

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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This upcoming screening of “Tarpon” and “All That Is Sacred” are being billed as a double feature … but both barely make a typical movie’s length. Each chronicles the hippie years in Key West of writer Thomas McGuane and his pals Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, and Jimmy Buffett.

Thomas Francis McGuane III’s writings include ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, along with three collections of essays devoted to the outdoors. Today, his recognition by three organizations define the parameters of his life at 85 – the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Cuting Horse Association Hall of Fame, and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.

But back in his longhair days, before settling down with wife Laurie (Jimmy Buffett’s sister) on a ranch in Montana, he and his first wife spent the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in Key West in a house on Ann Street (among other locations). He spent that time with writing, fishing, bedding women, and doing drugs.

Tom McGuane also made a movie in Key West based on his third novel, “Ninety-Two in the Shade,” the story of rival fishing guides. It starred Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Elizabeth Ashley, and Margot Kidder.

The personal relationships were more complex than the movie’s plot: Oates was having an affair with McGuane’s wife Portia; McGuane was having a fling with Elizabeth Ashley; wife Portia wound up marrying Peter Fonda; and McGuane briefly married Margot Kidder.

Finally, McGuane married Laurie Buffett in 1977 and seems content. “She thinks I’m funny,” he explains their longevity. She met him in Key West when he was lying drunk on the Chart Room floor.

As one observer put it, “There will never be anything like Key West in the early ‘70s. If you were lucky enough to survive it.”

“Tarpon” is a short film, less than an hour long. It was made by two of McGuane’s buddies, Guy de la Valdene and Christian Odasso, but never got distribution.

A rarely seen cult classic, newscaster Tom Brokaw called it “a timeless and beautifully executed film about life, sport, and culture. You’ll be moved, amused, outraged, and, most of all, entertained.”

Considered the first of the modern fishing films, “Tarpon” captures Tom McGuane, Richard Brautigan, and Jim Harrison fishing with legendary flats guides Woody Sexton, Gil Drake, and Steve Huff. Amid a backdrop of “treasure hunters, smugglers, hippies and eccentrics,” the stunning cinematography and tarpon fishing are top notch.

Unfortunately, the film canisters were packed away in a French barn for 35 years and all but forgotten until Guy de la Valdene’s daughter dug them out and had the deteriorating film restored. That provided excerpts for a new 2023 documentary by filmmaker Scott Ballew called “All that Is Sacred,” itself only 34 minutes long.

McGuane recalls how this latest film took roots. “Scott wanted to do kind of a fishing movie with me, but I just had shoulder surgeries and I couldn’t fish. So we were scrambling about what to do.” This nostalgic turn to yesteryear was the result.

Recently, I met with Tom McGuane to talk about his time in Key West. Even though he and I lived on the island in different decades, we knew many people in common – long-gone friends like Tom Corcoran and Dink Bruce and others. I had the privilege of introducing Tom McGuane when he won the 2023 Key West Film Festival’s Golden Key Award.

I promised to send Tom a copy of my book, “The First Gonzo Journalist,” a collection of participatory articles that I’d written for the Florida Times-Union some ten years before McGuane’s old pal Dr. Hunter S. Thompson claimed that Gonzo Journalist title. “When I get the book, I’ll dig Hunter up and rub it in his face,” he joked.

The double feature – “Tarpon” and “All That Is Sacred” – will be playing at the Tropic Cinema beginning on January 5th. And on January 9th the films will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker.

You will want to be reminded of Key West in the early ‘70s, of tarpon fishing at its finest, and at those unruly writers and artists who followed the trail of Hemingway and broke the ground for all those scribes who followed.

Tom McGuane said of the film, “It is a gem and, frankly, a window on better days. Without a profound respect for tarpon, this celebration of their majestic power and the enchantment of their pursuit, could never have been made. Tarpon fishing was and is a dream, and this may be the only time it’s been captured.”

As for “All That Is Sacred,” McGuane says, “I hadn’t understood how powerful it was going be. We’ve shown it to a lot of people – we’ve just shown it to Tom and Meredith Brokaw – and I mean, everybody that sees it seems to burst into tears. It’s just a strong little movie and I think Scott did a great job of it.”

McGuane adds ruefully, “Some people in it have died and others are in poor health. I told my brother-in-law Jimmy Buffett, ‘You should do a song called “Last Man Standing-ville.”’ He said, ‘That’s too close for comfort.’” It was. Jimmy passed away shortly after that.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com