Place matters. And time. And people. And, like ingredients in the perfect cocktail, when the three come together, good things can happen.

I just watched the new film, All That is Sacred, the latest offering from YETI and perhaps its best short film ever. It’s a sadly late-to-the-party piece, as a few of the folks in the final presentation have passed. That, of course, isn’t lost on the filmmakers, who ably crafted a 34-minute masterpiece that explains the magic that took place in Key West in the late 60s and early 70s.

At the time, the funky little island town was an afterthought on the American tourism landscape. Housing was cheap. Booze was cheap. Drugs were cheap. Living was easy.

And it was there that the likes of Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Jimmy Buffett, Guy

, Richard Brautigan, Russell Chatham and Carl Hiassen came up in the world together — their mutual friendships and penchant for the party brought them together as creatives. But their one joint project, a de la Valdene film simply called, “Tarpon,” brought them all together for a single common cause: to show the world that tarpon might be the single-best game fish on earth.

And they did this while trying like hell to stay off camera. Oddly, there was a feeling among the group of die-hard fly fishers that, somehow, their endorsement of the tarpon might somehow lead to its ultimate demise. While tarpon still persist, obviously, the lesson isn’t lost on any Key West old timer. For, as much as Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams did to put America’s southernmost island on the map among the cultural glitterati, this gathering of creative talent in Key West was the southern “equivalent of the Round Table at the Algonquin. It quickly became legendary,” Hiassen said.

Predictably, the gathering was short-lived. Just like any wonderful place, once the word gets out, things kind of go south.

The movie got made, but, as Buffett so succinctly put it, “I don’t think it ever got shown.” Its pieces and parts, though, persisted in de la Valdene’s basement, and, with fresher interviews enhanced by life lessons, a half a century of perspective and simple age, All That is Sacred came to be. It features some of the original footage salvaged from celluloid decay and a bit of the original film’s soundtrack crafted, of course, by Buffett.

Directed by Scott Ballew, All That is Sacred is bittersweet — a reminder of absolute greatness on two fronts. First, on the creative end, it ably explores the connections among McGuane, Harrison and Buffett (McGuane is actually Buffett’s brother-in-law — he married Laurie Buffett and, in time, whisked her off to Montana, where they still live today). Throw in the quick-witted Hiassen, the short-lived Brautigan, the wistful de la Valdene, the clever Hiassen and the legendary Chatham, and YETI’s new release is a film that will capture the imaginations of generations. The writing of Harrison and McGuane, Buffett’s music, Chatham’s art and the many creations of the others have shaped a literary fanbase that ranges from the romantics who favor the wordsmithing of McGuane and Harrison to the more down-to-earth craftiness incorporated into Buffett’s words that ended up in songs (although he, too, was a novelist).

Second, it serves as a reminder — and cautionary one at that — that incredible places often contribute to the arts as a whole. It also reminds us that perfection is generally a leave-it-like-you-found-it proposition. It’s fleeting, and that’s certainly the case with Key West then as compared to Key West now.

Then it oozed magic from its seedy pores. Today, it’s largely plastic and not all that inspiring (although it does hold on to its traditions – you can still have a cold beer at The Bull and wander down Duval and Caroline streets for some Bohemian inspiration).

Sadly, the cast is largely strewn to the wind. While most stayed in touch — and they did it the old-fashioned way — they scattered. Brautigan was the first to leave. He took his own life in 1984. The year prior, he showed up in Montana and delivered to McGuane a black Japanese urn.

“He said, ‘Someone will call you for the urn,’” McGuane remembered. “And the next year, I guess it was, I get a call for the urn. Richard had committed suicide and they wanted the urn for his ashes.”

Harrison died while writing — literally — in 2016, his pen still on the page. Chatham passed in November 2020, de la Valdene passed in March of 2023 and Buffett, who weeks up until his death, was still touring, succumbed to skin cancer on Sept. 1, 2023.

Guy de la Valdene, Tom McGuane and Richard Brautigan (photo: Tom Corcoran).

These losses, of course, make the interviews featuring Buffett and Chatham in All That is Sacred, absolutely priceless. Moreover, they add to an underlying theme of the film that simply this: sometimes, it’s too good to be true, and if you just leave it be, it’ll stay that way. The friendships forged by this incredible flock of creative minds in far-away Key West, attached to the mainland by a wispy stretch of concrete, lasted lifetimes and inspired millions.

Unfortunately, the victim of this greatness was Key West, but, thankfully, reminders of its past still persist. Even though Ballew’s wonderful film share’s this outcome, as described in detail by the likes of Buffett and McGuane, the lesson remains. Once something hits the radar, there are minions of folks who, unknowingly, quickly tarnish perfection.

Perhaps the best thing that happened to the memorable cast of “Tarpon,” now brought together again in All That is Sacred, is that they, for one reason or another, managed to flee Key West when the fleeing was appropriate. Buffett, of course, never really left South Florida — it became thematic to his craft — but he also never really embraced what Key West has become in the years since Hiassen dubbed the gathering of creative perfection so aptly.

It’s proof, of course, that “place” can inspire and nurture, which can lead to wonderful things when the right people come together at the right time. All That is Sacred is proof of that, to be sure.