039 - 92 in the shade

Synopsis: Young guy sets up as fishing guide in competition to the 2 regulars

Director: Thomas McGuane

Actors: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Burgess Meredith, Elizabeth Ashley, Margot Kidder, Sylvia Miles

Date: 1975

How viewed: Bought from J4HI.com

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:

.. dark daring wit, stellar understated performances, and the director's gift for capturing American rhythms of speech. It's a cult film for adults: smart, loose, funny, and too ironic for its own good. 

I say:

As I discovered when I used to spend too much time and money on obscure CDs, the reason some music (and some films) are difficult to find, out of print, unreleased, etc, is that they deserve to be! Admit it, there's very few undiscovered gems out there folks! This is a strange little film - the story, such as it is, involves Tom (Fonda) deciding that the only thing he's any good at is taking tourists out to fish in some Florida backwater, but the 2 guys who have the business (Oates and Stanton) take exception, and despite the fact that they're all friends, Oates threatens to shoot him (he's always fooling around with a pistol). Thomas McGuane wrote the script (he also wrote stuff like Tom Horn, Rancho Deluxe and The Missouri Breaks) but this was the only film he directed - and (from other reviews) it sounds like he and a bunch of his movie pals had a holiday in Key West and filmed this. So on the one hand it's always a pleasure to watch the likes of Fonda, Oates, Stanton, Meredith and the rest enjoy playing some crazy characters, but Fonda especially, sleepwalks through the whole thing, and there's no tension, no edge, no passion. The one moment that make you sit up is the ending, but the DVD also includes the alternative happy ending that the studio insisted on, which is just a joke! Anyway, the best scenes are those with Meredith (as Fonda's grandfather), William Hickey (as Fonda's father) and Miles (as Meredith's secretary) - because the one thing that McGuane does well is write good dialogue. Anyway, Brownie points to J4HI.com for making films like this available, even if they don't live up to expectations!