92 in the Shade

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Thomas McGuane’s “92 in the Shade” points to a past Key West where inhabitants were salty and squinting, and the shadows were long and sinister. The film, at just over 90 minutes, is a quirky idyll filled with shifty people who would gladly grind their teeth if you stare. The odd story with its slow rhythm sneaks up on you softly and then hits you with a punch, similar in tone to Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” (1969).

Tom (Peter Fonda) is a young boat captain trying to make ends meet. A surly and uncouth rival Nichol (Warren Oates) makes the rash decision to play a joke on Tom by making his rich clients suddenly vanish without a trace.

During a bar party the next evening, Tom retaliates by soaking Nichol’s prized boat with gasoline and blowing it up.

Tom is left with few options. He resorts to talking to his lecherous grandfather (Burgess Meridith) who is invariably crude with remarks that would make Captain Tony blush.

The actor William Hickey, known for his eccentric roles, does a good turn as Tom’s reclusive and formerly debauched father. He resembles a ghostly Dorian Gray sickened by the tropical heat, mummified by mosquito netting.

Harry Dean Stanton appears as a spaced out boat captain, opaque and monosyllabic, overwhelmed by the hostilities that seem to rise and fall suddenly, without reason or predictability. Margot Kidder ably co-stars as Tom’s love interest.

This is a somewhat campy and melancholy film that nonetheless captures the place perfectly as it existed in the 1970s with its odd slowness and its dappled sunlight which made all things both summery and macabre. Though it is not a perfect film, “92 in the Shade” is special in its sloppiness, a definitive island time capsule, frozen in one era, illuminating all that was once Key West— lackadaisical and licentious.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com