Novelist and screenwriter (Rancho Deluxe, Missouri Breaks) Thomas McGuane made his directorial debut with this adaptation of his own 1973 novel. Set in Key West, Florida, Ninety-Two In the Shade unfolds in an atmosphere of wilting heat, the crazy-tough world of boat captains and fishermen, and a constant, if nebulous, corruption and potential violence. Onto this shady scene wanders Peter Fonda, a self-indulgent rich kid looking for something to do besides grow eccentric and insane like the rest of his family, but wanders smack up against Warren Oates, a confused, self-destructive fisherman who threatens to kill the upstart Fonda.
Rich in its characterizations, and perhaps a bit old-fashioned for that, as well as for its Hemingwayesque setting, the film plays with its traditional aspects in a completely contemporary and original manner.

“The camera is inconspicuous to the point of being run-of-the-mill modern, with... a few moments of visual eloquence.... (The film's) real business and strength lie in the crawling, silly non-sequiturs out of which the characters emerge....” --R. McGuinness, Soho Weekly News.

“It's full of odd, headstrong, seemingly disconnected moments that only a novelist would dare, and it's a field day for its actors. I think of Elizabeth Ashley demonstrating the art of baton-twirling to a startled tourist in a sleazy, otherwise empty Key West Saloon, or of Burgess Meredith arguing obscenely with his son, William Hickey, who has withdrawn from life into a crib-like, mosquito-netted bed on the front gallery of his Key West mansion.” --Vincent Canby, NY Times.

“Simply in terms of the originality, energy and density of his characterizations, McGuane's achievement here is unrivaled in contemporary filmmaking.” --R. McGuinness