Ishtar (film)
Encyclopedia
Ishtar is a 1987
American comedy film
directed by Elaine May
and starring Warren Beatty
and Dustin Hoffman
as "Rogers and Clarke" – a duo of incredibly untalented lounge singers who travel to Morocco
looking for work, and stumble into a four-party Cold War
standoff.
It also starred Isabelle Adjani
and Charles Grodin
and was shot by Vittorio Storaro
. The songs in the film were written by Paul Williams
, with additional input from Hoffman and May.
The motion picture's production, carried out on location in Morocco
and in New York City
, drew media attention before its release due to its lavish budget and cost overruns, even given its well-paid stars. May and many of the others involved with the project, particularly Beatty, clashed regularly to the point that longstanding friendships suffered. A change in studio management during the post-production phase also led to interpersonal difficulties that affected the film.
The film received mixed reviews, and was a notorious failure at the box office. Janet Maslin, in the New York Times, wrote "The worst of it is painless; the best is funny, sly, cheerful and, here and there, even genuinely inspired," while Roger Ebert called it "truly dreadful." As of 2010, it has yet to be released on DVD
in North America
, although it has been released on DVD
in Europe
.
. Their songs with titles like "THAT A LAWNMOWER CAN DO ALL THAT" and "The Echo Song" are performed badly, and are not liked by the audiences. Their agent, Marty (Weston) books them as lounge singers in a Hotel in Morocco in North Africa, to entertain troops stationed there. They unwittingly become involved in plot to overthrow the Emir of the fictional neighboring country of Ishtar. A mysterious woman named Shirra (Adjani) has a map she needs to get to the leftist guerrillas opposing the government of Ishtar. Jim (Grodin) is a CIA agent who gets involved when Shirra contacts Lyle and Chuck, because he is attempting to prevent the overthrow.
had done a major uncredited
rewrite on the script of his Academy Award-winning Reds and helped immensely with its postproduction. He began looking for a project to do with her, one she could write and direct. She had never, he believed, had a sufficiently protective producer, and by starring in and producing her next film he could give her the chance to make the film he believed her to be creatively and commercially capable of making.
At a dinner with Beatty and Bert Fields, their agent
, May said she would like to do a variant on the Road to...
movies of Bing Crosby
and Bob Hope
, set in the Middle East
. Her idea would feature Beatty and a costar as a mediocre singer-songwriter
duo who would go to Morocco
and get caught in the crossfire between the Central Intelligence Agency
and a local left-wing guerrilla group. She thought it would be funny to cast Beatty against type as the Hope part, the bumbler of the duo, while the costar, possibly Dustin Hoffman
, would play the self-assured ladies' man that Crosby usually took.
Hoffman, who was also indebted to May for her extensive uncredited rewrite on Tootsie
, initially turned it down due to "misgivings". At Beatty's request, the two met with May and Hoffman's creative confidant, playwright Murray Schisgal
. The latter two felt that the action plot in Morocco overwhelmed the rest of the film and that it "should not leave New York". Hoffman was finally persuaded by Beatty's assurances that he would provide May with the room she needed to work.
When May finished the script, Beatty, Hoffman, and some other friends including Charles Grodin
, had a meeting and read-through
at Beatty's house. All present agreed that the script needed work, but it was funny and could be a hit.
Beatty went to Columbia Pictures
production head Guy McElwaine, who years before had been his publicist
, instructing Fields, "Bert, anything she wants. Period. That's my negotiating position." Despite the prospect of having two major stars on the same project with a well-regarded writer, McElwaine did not immediately greenlight
it. He worried about the effects of having Beatty, Hoffman and May on the same set, since they were all known as perfectionists
. May, in particular, had a reputation for shooting as much raw footage as Beatty himself or Stanley Kubrick
. But McElwaine was also afraid the property could be a hit for another studio if Columbia passed, since Beatty had a solid record of commercial success in his four movies as producer and star.
The two bankable star
s and May received $12.5 million ($ adjusted for inflation) in salaries before principal photography
began. Beatty and Hoffman offered to defer theirs but Columbia declined; Fields says an agreement the studio had with HBO covered most of that cost. Beatty, Hoffman and May all had final cut
input, as well (although Beatty denies this). The film's original budget was set at $27.5 million.
Other roles were cast through connections to the three. Grodin was a friend of May's and had starred in a successful comedy she directed, the original version of The Heartbreak Kid
. Isabelle Adjani
, who played the female lead disguised as a boy for most of the film, was Beatty's girlfriend at the time. Original cinematographer
Giuseppe Rotunno
was replaced by Vittorio Storaro
when he was unable to change his schedule to accommodate a delay in the shooting schedule.
Paul Williams began working on the songs the lead duo would sing. "The real task was to write songs that were believably bad. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had in my life. I've never had more fun on a picture, but I've never worked harder." May preferred that Williams write whole songs, even if she intended to use only a few lines, and then teach them to the stars and have them perform them, necessitating more time and money.
The studio had wanted, if possible, to shoot the desert scenes in the Southwest
in order to keep costs down and production under control. But Columbia's parent company at the time, Coca-Cola
, had money in Morocco it could not repatriate, so the studio relented and allowed production to take place in the real Sahara Desert. It was expected that shooting in Morocco would take ten weeks, after which the New York scenes would be shot.
. Israeli warplanes had just bombed
Palestinian Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis
, and 7 days later, the Palestine Liberation Front
hijacked a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro
, executing a wheelchair-bound elderly Jewish American, Leon Klinghoffer
. The Moroccan military was fighting the Polisario Front
guerrillas at the time as well. There were rumors Palestinian terrorists might try to kidnap Hoffman, and some locations had to be checked for land mine
s before shooting could begin.
There were also production difficulties. The filmmakers appreciated the Moroccans' hospitality and willingness to cooperate, but there was no one in the country with experience supporting a major Hollywood film production. Requests by the producers were sometimes unfulfilled, and calls for local extras
led to thousands of people showing up.
Some of the movie's production woes have become Hollywood lore. The film's animal trainer went looking for a blue-eyed camel in the Marrakech
market, and found one he considered perfect. But he chose not to buy it right away, expecting he could find others and use that knowledge to bargain with the first trader for a better price. He did not realize that blue-eyed camels were rare, and couldn't find another camel good enough. He returned to the first trader, who had since eaten the camel.
Another frequently related incident, related by production designer
Paul Sylbert
but disputed by others on the film, concerns the dune
s where scenes with Beatty and Hoffman lost in the desert would be shot. Sylbert had scouted dunes in the U.S. and Morocco but none seemed to fit the vision of May, who was very uncomfortable in the desert environment. She suffered from toothache
s which she refused to have treated locally, and took extensive measures to shelter herself from the harsh sun, not only spending much of her time under a large parasol but wearing large sunglasses and wrapping her face in a white gauze
veil, to the point that her appearance was compared to a Star Wars
stormtrooper. After one unsuccessful search for dunes, Sylbert says, May suddenly announced she wanted a flat landscape instead. It took ten days to level an area of a square mile (2.6 km²).
May feuded with others on set as well. She and Storaro frequently differed over camera placements, since she was looking for the ideal comic effect while the cinematographer, who had little experience making comedies, sought the most ideal composition
. Beatty often took his sides in disputes between him and May. "She probably felt ganged up on by the two of them," Hoffman observed later on. Eventually Beatty and May began quarreling, and Hoffman sometimes served as the mediator. He claims there were times when the two weren't speaking to each other. May also didn't get along with Adjani, which adversely affected the latter's relationship with Beatty.
The director remained aloof from the film's editing staff, taking copious notes during dailies
but refusing to share them. As a result, the production began to run low on paper and pencils. As Columbia had feared, she shot lots of film as well, reportedly in one instance calling for 50 take
s of vulture
s landing next to Beatty and Hoffman.
Expenses continued to grow. "This was the kind of film where nobody would say 'Sorry, we can't afford that,'" according to Mac Brown, who monitored the budget. When a replacement part was needed for a camera, it was sent over to Morocco with a New York-based location coordinator instead of just being shipped, out of fear it might get lost or held up at customs
. The coordinator's airfare and a week's hotel stay were paid for by the production.
Privately, both Beatty and May began to confess they had made a mistake. "I was going to give this gift to Elaine, and it turned out to be the opposite," Hoffman recalls Beatty telling him. Matters came to a head when it came time to shoot the film's climactic battle scenes. They were far outside her background in improvisational theatre
, and during a confrontation with Beatty, May said, "You want it done? You shoot it!" Many crewmembers said that, on any other film, the director would have been fired
. Beatty knew that if he called the bluff, he would have had to finish directing the film himself, which would have been a major embarrassment given that his main objective in making the film was to give May the chance she had never had. He compromised by scaling back the battle scenes.
When the film returned to New York, Beatty told Fay Vincent
, then Columbia's chief executive officer
, that May couldn't direct. But he demurred another suggestion to fire her, citing his image as a liberal
supportive of women's rights. Vincent said he would do it, but Beatty said if he did then he and Hoffman would leave the uncompleted film as well. He proposed instead that every scene be shot twice, his way and May's, effectively doubling the movie's cost.
The New York scenes were shot after a monthlong break, in early 1986, at Kaufman Astoria Studios
and various locations. Due to union work rule
s, Storaro's Italian crew had to be doubled by a local standby crew, who were not needed much but drew full pay for the entire shoot. It was also necessary to stop production for several days so Beatty and Hoffman could rehearse their songs. In April 1986, a month after principal photography wrapped, Vincent fired McElwaine.
His replacement as head of production was David Puttnam
, producer of Chariots of Fire
and a longtime critic of Hollywood budgetary excesses. Among those films he had specifically criticized in the latter category was Reds, singling out Beatty in particular. He had also publicly criticized Hoffman for allegedly using his star power to force rewrites to the 1978 film Agatha
, which had relocated his minor character to a lead. After quitting as a producer of that film, Puttnam called Hoffman "the most malevolent person I have ever worked with".
' s postproduction. But Beatty and Hoffman felt that was subtly intended to undermine the film, by suggesting it was a failure he wanted to avoid responsibility for. They worried it would hurt the film when it was released before Christmas 1986.
Interpersonal difficulties from Morocco continued in postproduction. May was supposed to direct actors when they looped
their lines in a recording studio, but sometimes left the job to Beatty or one of the editors. Most of those absences were in sessions with Adjani, who was required to lower her voice since her character had to pass as a boy for most of the film. This strained her relationship with Beatty even more.
The film's raw footage came to 108 hours, more than three times that typical for a comedy. Three teams of editors, one each for Beatty, Hoffman and May, worked almost continuously to produce cuts of the film to each principal's liking. Since McElwaine, whom he had tried to please as a friend, was no longer in charge, Beatty eventually relented to letting May cut the film her way, partly because he detested Puttnam and believed he was leaking negative information about Ishtar to the media. "Just tell the asshole to keep paying the bills", he is reported to have told another Columbia executive. The costs, which Puttnam had believed would come under control in postproduction, instead continued to mount.
Eventually it became clear the film would not be ready in time for Christmas. When the release
date of late spring of 1987 was announced, later than that which had been expected, stories in the media about the film's troubles increased. Industry insiders began to refer to it as The Road to Ruin and Warrensgate, after the expensive 1981 flop Heaven's Gate
. Beatty, who had kept the media off the set during production, took these gibes personally. He and May began to fight more frequently in the editing room.
Finally, with the new release date looming, Bert Fields was called in to mediate between the director and stars. Beatty denies this, but Fields and others say he was actually present in the editing room. The agent has been described as having final cut, although he claims that was May's. Tensions continued as Beatty was trying to placate Adjani and lobbied for more footage of her. When they were finished, the editors were furious as no one had gone over the complete film. Beatty refused to show Puttnam the final cut.
, a low-budget horror film with no stars, by only $100,000. Ultimately it grossed only $14.3 million in North American box office receipts against its $55 million budget.
Negative buzz about Ishtar and its outrageous budget was widespread in the press long before the film ever reached theaters, despite three successful previews. In an interview with Elaine May, Mike Nichols
describes the bomb as "the prime example that I know of in Hollywood of studio suicide", implying that Puttnam sandbagged
the project by leaking negative anecdotes to the media because of his grudges against Beatty and Hoffman.
Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum surmised that the media was eager to torpedo Ishtar in retaliation for instances of Beatty's perceived "high-handed way with members of the press". The film had been completely closed to the media, with no reporters at all permitted on set during production, a restriction greater than Beatty's previous productions.
The film was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay in the 1987 Golden Raspberry Awards
, winning one for Worst Director. The movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and holds a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
. Ishtar has since become synonymous with "box office flop
".
However, not all critics were hostile. Vincent Canby
of The New York Times
listed it as a runner up to his top films of 1987.
Warren Beatty defended the film despite all the severe trouble and misery he went through making it, is quoted as saying, "There was almost no review that didn't in the first paragraph deal with the cost of the movie. That was an eye-opener – about the business, and the relationship of the entertainment press to business. Ishtar is a very good, not very big, comedy, made by a brilliant woman. And I think it's funny." Dustin Hoffman also defended the film, stating that he would "do it again in a second."
.
The film's failure didn't affect the friendship between Beatty and Hoffman, who both liked the final cut of the film; Beatty later cast his former Ishtar co-star in the more successful Dick Tracy.
Beatty and May barely spoke for two years afterwards, and friends of hers say she remains slightly bitter about the experience. It was nine years before she took another screenwriting credit (for The Birdcage
). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Primary Colors, but has not directed another film since Ishtar.
's The Far Side
comic strips, captioned "Hell's Video Store", the entire store is stocked with nothing but copies of the movie Ishtar. Larson later apologized, saying "When I drew the above cartoon, I had not actually seen Ishtar. ... Years later, I saw it on an airplane, and was stunned at what was happening to me: I was actually being entertained. Sure, maybe it's not the greatest film ever made, but my cartoon was way off the mark. There are so many cartoons for which I should probably write an apology, but this is the only one which compels me to do so."
Directors Quentin Tarantino
and Edgar Wright
have both gone on record as stating that they liked the film.
Famous director Martin Scorsese
has claimed that the film is one of his favorite movies of all time.
Both Marsha Zvonkin-Sterba and Jeannette Harshbarger have gone on the record as stating that they liked the film.
On 20 December 2010, Dustin Hoffman appeared on Late Show with David Letterman
alongside Robert De Niro. When Letterman asked De Niro if there are any films in his oeuvre that make him "wince", Hoffman answered that he, "speaks on behalf of De Niro" in saying that he (De Niro) regrets Ishtar, obviously referring to himself.
had announced that the film will be released only on Blu-ray Disc
(and finally in a digital format in North America) on January 4, 2011, but it was pulled from the studio's release schedule just prior to that date.
However, in a more recent interview, the film's director had this say:
They tell me now — Sony — that they’re going to release this on Blu-ray, and it will really look wonderful and sound wonderful. If they don’t, you’ll be the last 80 or 90 or however many people to see this movie in this particular version. […] If you all clap your hands and believe it! They say they want to and they’ll do it soon, and I have great faith that they’ll do it.”
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....
American comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
and starring Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
and Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
as "Rogers and Clarke" – a duo of incredibly untalented lounge singers who travel to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
looking for work, and stumble into a four-party Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
standoff.
It also starred Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession , One Deadly Summer , Camille Claudel , Queen Margot and Skirt Day...
and Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...
and was shot by Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...
. The songs in the film were written by Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
, with additional input from Hoffman and May.
The motion picture's production, carried out on location in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, drew media attention before its release due to its lavish budget and cost overruns, even given its well-paid stars. May and many of the others involved with the project, particularly Beatty, clashed regularly to the point that longstanding friendships suffered. A change in studio management during the post-production phase also led to interpersonal difficulties that affected the film.
The film received mixed reviews, and was a notorious failure at the box office. Janet Maslin, in the New York Times, wrote "The worst of it is painless; the best is funny, sly, cheerful and, here and there, even genuinely inspired," while Roger Ebert called it "truly dreadful." As of 2010, it has yet to be released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, although it has been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Cast
- Warren BeattyWarren BeattyWarren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
as Lyle Rogers - Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
as Chuck Clarke - Isabelle AdjaniIsabelle AdjaniIsabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession , One Deadly Summer , Camille Claudel , Queen Margot and Skirt Day...
as Shirra Assel - Charles GrodinCharles GrodinCharles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...
as Jim Harrison - Jack Weston as Marty Freed
- Tess HarperTess HarperTess Harper is an American actress.-Early life:Born Tessie Jean Washam on August 15, 1950 in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. Her parents' names are Ed and Rosemary Washam. She grew up around lots of quilts and quilt makers. On her own time, she liked to sit on the porch-swing and read...
as Willa - Carol KaneCarol KaneCarolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
as Carol - Aharon Ipalé as Emir Yousef
- Fijad Hageb as Abdul (billed as Fuad Hageb)
- David MarguliesDavid MarguliesDavid Joseph Margulies is an American actor.Margulies was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Runya , a nurse and museum worker, and Harry David Margulies, a lawyer. Margulies graduated from City College of New York. Immediately afterward, he made his stage debut in the off-Broadway play Golden 6...
as Mr. Clarke - Rose Arrick as Mrs. Clarke
- Julie Garfield as Dorothy
- Bill BaileyBill Bailey (American actor)Bill Bailey is an American actor, primarily providing supporting roles in film and television throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He appeared in Superman , Superman II , and Haunted Honeymoon , as well as a number of BBC programs including Yes, Prime Minister , Jeeves and Wooster , and Agatha...
as General Westlake - Cristine RoseCristine RoseCristine Sue Rose is an American actress. She has also been credited as Christine Rose. She's best known for her role as Angela Petrelli on the hit NBC science fiction drama Heroes.-Early life:...
as Siri Darma (billed as Christine Rose) - Robert V. Girolami as Bartender (billed as Bob Girolami)
- Abe Kroll as Mr. Thomopoulos
- Matt FrewerMatt FrewerMatthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...
as a CIA agent
Plot
Lyle (Beatty) and Chuck (Hoffman) are poor-quality songwriters who dream of becoming a popular singing duo like Simon and GarfunkelSimon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the...
. Their songs with titles like "THAT A LAWNMOWER CAN DO ALL THAT" and "The Echo Song" are performed badly, and are not liked by the audiences. Their agent, Marty (Weston) books them as lounge singers in a Hotel in Morocco in North Africa, to entertain troops stationed there. They unwittingly become involved in plot to overthrow the Emir of the fictional neighboring country of Ishtar. A mysterious woman named Shirra (Adjani) has a map she needs to get to the leftist guerrillas opposing the government of Ishtar. Jim (Grodin) is a CIA agent who gets involved when Shirra contacts Lyle and Chuck, because he is attempting to prevent the overthrow.
Preproduction
Beatty felt indebted to May, who in addition to cowriting his 1978 hit Heaven Can WaitHeaven Can Wait (1978 film)
Heaven Can Wait is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. It is the second film adaptation of Harry Segall's stageplay of the same name, preceded by Here Comes Mr. Jordan and followed by Down to Earth...
had done a major uncredited
WGA screenwriting credit system
In the United States, screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by either the Writers Guild of America, East or the Writers Guild of America, West . Since 1941, the Guilds have been the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing a...
rewrite on the script of his Academy Award-winning Reds and helped immensely with its postproduction. He began looking for a project to do with her, one she could write and direct. She had never, he believed, had a sufficiently protective producer, and by starring in and producing her next film he could give her the chance to make the film he believed her to be creatively and commercially capable of making.
At a dinner with Beatty and Bert Fields, their agent
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...
, May said she would like to do a variant on the Road to...
Road to...
Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music...
movies of Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, set in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Her idea would feature Beatty and a costar as a mediocre singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
duo who would go to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and get caught in the crossfire between the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and a local left-wing guerrilla group. She thought it would be funny to cast Beatty against type as the Hope part, the bumbler of the duo, while the costar, possibly Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, would play the self-assured ladies' man that Crosby usually took.
Hoffman, who was also indebted to May for her extensive uncredited rewrite on Tootsie
Tootsie
Tootsie is a 1982 American comedy film that tells the story of a talented but volatile actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange, with a supporting cast that includes Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman,...
, initially turned it down due to "misgivings". At Beatty's request, the two met with May and Hoffman's creative confidant, playwright Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal
Murray Schisgal is an American playwright and screenwriter.Native New Yorker Schisgal won his first recognition for the 1963 off-Broadway double-bill The Typists and The Tiger, which won him the Drama Desk Award. His 1965 Broadway debut, Luv, earned him Tony Award nominations for Best Play and...
. The latter two felt that the action plot in Morocco overwhelmed the rest of the film and that it "should not leave New York". Hoffman was finally persuaded by Beatty's assurances that he would provide May with the room she needed to work.
When May finished the script, Beatty, Hoffman, and some other friends including Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...
, had a meeting and read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....
at Beatty's house. All present agreed that the script needed work, but it was funny and could be a hit.
Beatty went to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
production head Guy McElwaine, who years before had been his publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
, instructing Fields, "Bert, anything she wants. Period. That's my negotiating position." Despite the prospect of having two major stars on the same project with a well-regarded writer, McElwaine did not immediately greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
it. He worried about the effects of having Beatty, Hoffman and May on the same set, since they were all known as perfectionists
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that a state of completeness and flawlessness can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable...
. May, in particular, had a reputation for shooting as much raw footage as Beatty himself or Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
. But McElwaine was also afraid the property could be a hit for another studio if Columbia passed, since Beatty had a solid record of commercial success in his four movies as producer and star.
The two bankable star
Bankable star
A bankable star is an actor famous or charismatic enough to be "capable of guaranteeing box-office success simply by showing up in a movie". A bankable director is a similar notion.- Overview :...
s and May received $12.5 million ($ adjusted for inflation) in salaries before principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began. Beatty and Hoffman offered to defer theirs but Columbia declined; Fields says an agreement the studio had with HBO covered most of that cost. Beatty, Hoffman and May all had final cut
Final cut privilege
Final cut privilege is a film industry term, usually used when a director has contractual authority over how a film is ultimately released for public viewing.- Condition :...
input, as well (although Beatty denies this). The film's original budget was set at $27.5 million.
Other roles were cast through connections to the three. Grodin was a friend of May's and had starred in a successful comedy she directed, the original version of The Heartbreak Kid
The Heartbreak Kid (1972 film)
The Heartbreak Kid is a 1972 dark romantic comedy film directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon, and starring Charles Grodin, Jeannie Berlin, and Cybill Shepherd...
. Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession , One Deadly Summer , Camille Claudel , Queen Margot and Skirt Day...
, who played the female lead disguised as a boy for most of the film, was Beatty's girlfriend at the time. Original cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Giuseppe Rotunno
Giuseppe Rotunno
Giuseppe Rotunno, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer. Sometimes credited as Peppino Rotunno, he was director of photography on eight films by Federico Fellini...
was replaced by Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...
when he was unable to change his schedule to accommodate a delay in the shooting schedule.
Paul Williams began working on the songs the lead duo would sing. "The real task was to write songs that were believably bad. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had in my life. I've never had more fun on a picture, but I've never worked harder." May preferred that Williams write whole songs, even if she intended to use only a few lines, and then teach them to the stars and have them perform them, necessitating more time and money.
The studio had wanted, if possible, to shoot the desert scenes in the Southwest
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
in order to keep costs down and production under control. But Columbia's parent company at the time, Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
, had money in Morocco it could not repatriate, so the studio relented and allowed production to take place in the real Sahara Desert. It was expected that shooting in Morocco would take ten weeks, after which the New York scenes would be shot.
Principal photography
Ishtar began shooting in October 1985, amidst high political tensions in North AfricaNorth Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. Israeli warplanes had just bombed
Operation Wooden Leg
Operation Wooden Leg was an attack by Israel on the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, Tunisia, 12 miles from the capital of Tunis. It took place on October 1, 1985. Taking place 1,280 miles away, this was the furthest operation from Israel undertaken by the...
Palestinian Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, and 7 days later, the Palestine Liberation Front
Palestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
hijacked a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro
MS Achille Lauro
MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. Built between 1939 and 1947 as MS Willem Ruys, a passenger liner for the Rotterdamsche Lloyd. It is most remembered for its 1985 hijacking...
, executing a wheelchair-bound elderly Jewish American, Leon Klinghoffer
Leon Klinghoffer
Leon Klinghoffer was a disabled American appliance manufacturer who was murdered and thrown overboard by Palestinian terrorists in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985.-Hijacking and murder:...
. The Moroccan military was fighting the Polisario Front
Polisario Front
The POLISARIO, Polisario Front, or Frente Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco...
guerrillas at the time as well. There were rumors Palestinian terrorists might try to kidnap Hoffman, and some locations had to be checked for land mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
s before shooting could begin.
There were also production difficulties. The filmmakers appreciated the Moroccans' hospitality and willingness to cooperate, but there was no one in the country with experience supporting a major Hollywood film production. Requests by the producers were sometimes unfulfilled, and calls for local extras
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
led to thousands of people showing up.
Some of the movie's production woes have become Hollywood lore. The film's animal trainer went looking for a blue-eyed camel in the Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...
market, and found one he considered perfect. But he chose not to buy it right away, expecting he could find others and use that knowledge to bargain with the first trader for a better price. He did not realize that blue-eyed camels were rare, and couldn't find another camel good enough. He returned to the first trader, who had since eaten the camel.
Another frequently related incident, related by production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
Paul Sylbert
Paul Sylbert
Paul Sylbert is an American Academy Award-winning production designer, art director, and set designer who directed on occasion....
but disputed by others on the film, concerns the dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
s where scenes with Beatty and Hoffman lost in the desert would be shot. Sylbert had scouted dunes in the U.S. and Morocco but none seemed to fit the vision of May, who was very uncomfortable in the desert environment. She suffered from toothache
Toothache
A toothache, also known as odontalgia or, less frequently, as odontalgy, is an aching pain in or around a tooth.-Causes:* Dental etiology, In most cases toothaches are caused by problems in the tooth or jaw, such as** Dental caries...
s which she refused to have treated locally, and took extensive measures to shelter herself from the harsh sun, not only spending much of her time under a large parasol but wearing large sunglasses and wrapping her face in a white gauze
Gauze
Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave.-Uses and types:Gauze was originally made of silk and was used for clothing. It is now used for many different things, including gauze sponges for medical purposes. When used as a medical dressing, gauze is generally made of cotton...
veil, to the point that her appearance was compared to a Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
stormtrooper. After one unsuccessful search for dunes, Sylbert says, May suddenly announced she wanted a flat landscape instead. It took ten days to level an area of a square mile (2.6 km²).
May feuded with others on set as well. She and Storaro frequently differed over camera placements, since she was looking for the ideal comic effect while the cinematographer, who had little experience making comedies, sought the most ideal composition
Composition (visual arts)
In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...
. Beatty often took his sides in disputes between him and May. "She probably felt ganged up on by the two of them," Hoffman observed later on. Eventually Beatty and May began quarreling, and Hoffman sometimes served as the mediator. He claims there were times when the two weren't speaking to each other. May also didn't get along with Adjani, which adversely affected the latter's relationship with Beatty.
The director remained aloof from the film's editing staff, taking copious notes during dailies
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
but refusing to share them. As a result, the production began to run low on paper and pencils. As Columbia had feared, she shot lots of film as well, reportedly in one instance calling for 50 take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
s of vulture
Vulture
Vulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains...
s landing next to Beatty and Hoffman.
Expenses continued to grow. "This was the kind of film where nobody would say 'Sorry, we can't afford that,'" according to Mac Brown, who monitored the budget. When a replacement part was needed for a camera, it was sent over to Morocco with a New York-based location coordinator instead of just being shipped, out of fear it might get lost or held up at customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
. The coordinator's airfare and a week's hotel stay were paid for by the production.
Privately, both Beatty and May began to confess they had made a mistake. "I was going to give this gift to Elaine, and it turned out to be the opposite," Hoffman recalls Beatty telling him. Matters came to a head when it came time to shoot the film's climactic battle scenes. They were far outside her background in improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
, and during a confrontation with Beatty, May said, "You want it done? You shoot it!" Many crewmembers said that, on any other film, the director would have been fired
Termination of employment
-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...
. Beatty knew that if he called the bluff, he would have had to finish directing the film himself, which would have been a major embarrassment given that his main objective in making the film was to give May the chance she had never had. He compromised by scaling back the battle scenes.
When the film returned to New York, Beatty told Fay Vincent
Fay Vincent
Francis Thomas "Fay" Vincent, Jr. is a former entertainment lawyer and sports executive who served as the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from September 13, 1989 to September 7, 1992.-Early life and career:...
, then Columbia's chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, that May couldn't direct. But he demurred another suggestion to fire her, citing his image as a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
supportive of women's rights. Vincent said he would do it, but Beatty said if he did then he and Hoffman would leave the uncompleted film as well. He proposed instead that every scene be shot twice, his way and May's, effectively doubling the movie's cost.
The New York scenes were shot after a monthlong break, in early 1986, at Kaufman Astoria Studios
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
and various locations. Due to union work rule
Work Rule
A work rule is a negotiated stipulation in a labor contract that limits the conditions under which management may direct the performance of labor....
s, Storaro's Italian crew had to be doubled by a local standby crew, who were not needed much but drew full pay for the entire shoot. It was also necessary to stop production for several days so Beatty and Hoffman could rehearse their songs. In April 1986, a month after principal photography wrapped, Vincent fired McElwaine.
His replacement as head of production was David Puttnam
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA is a British film producer. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, although he is not principally a politician.-Early life:...
, producer of Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
and a longtime critic of Hollywood budgetary excesses. Among those films he had specifically criticized in the latter category was Reds, singling out Beatty in particular. He had also publicly criticized Hoffman for allegedly using his star power to force rewrites to the 1978 film Agatha
Agatha (film)
Agatha is a 1979 drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton, and written by Kathleen Tynan...
, which had relocated his minor character to a lead. After quitting as a producer of that film, Puttnam called Hoffman "the most malevolent person I have ever worked with".
Post production
Due to his history with both stars, the new studio head promised to stay out of IshtarInterpersonal difficulties from Morocco continued in postproduction. May was supposed to direct actors when they looped
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
their lines in a recording studio, but sometimes left the job to Beatty or one of the editors. Most of those absences were in sessions with Adjani, who was required to lower her voice since her character had to pass as a boy for most of the film. This strained her relationship with Beatty even more.
The film's raw footage came to 108 hours, more than three times that typical for a comedy. Three teams of editors, one each for Beatty, Hoffman and May, worked almost continuously to produce cuts of the film to each principal's liking. Since McElwaine, whom he had tried to please as a friend, was no longer in charge, Beatty eventually relented to letting May cut the film her way, partly because he detested Puttnam and believed he was leaking negative information about Ishtar to the media. "Just tell the asshole to keep paying the bills", he is reported to have told another Columbia executive. The costs, which Puttnam had believed would come under control in postproduction, instead continued to mount.
Eventually it became clear the film would not be ready in time for Christmas. When the release
Film release
A film release is the stage at which a completed film is legally authorized by its owner for public distribution.The process includes locating a distributor to handle the film...
date of late spring of 1987 was announced, later than that which had been expected, stories in the media about the film's troubles increased. Industry insiders began to refer to it as The Road to Ruin and Warrensgate, after the expensive 1981 flop Heaven's Gate
Heaven's Gate (film)
Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film based on the Johnson County War, a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s...
. Beatty, who had kept the media off the set during production, took these gibes personally. He and May began to fight more frequently in the editing room.
Finally, with the new release date looming, Bert Fields was called in to mediate between the director and stars. Beatty denies this, but Fields and others say he was actually present in the editing room. The agent has been described as having final cut, although he claims that was May's. Tensions continued as Beatty was trying to placate Adjani and lobbied for more footage of her. When they were finished, the editors were furious as no one had gone over the complete film. Beatty refused to show Puttnam the final cut.
Reception
Three previews went well. Beatty described one in Toronto as the best he'd ever had, and he and the studio considered striking more prints. Those discussions ended after the opening weekend, May 22, 1987. Ishtar, on more than a thousand screens across the country, took in $4.2 million ($ in contemporary dollars) in receipts, winning the weekend and #1 at the box office. But it beat The GateThe Gate (film)
The Gate is a 1987 horror movie starring Stephen Dorff and directed by Tibor Takács. The movie utilizes stop motion, Harryhausen-esque creatures.-Plot:...
, a low-budget horror film with no stars, by only $100,000. Ultimately it grossed only $14.3 million in North American box office receipts against its $55 million budget.
Negative buzz about Ishtar and its outrageous budget was widespread in the press long before the film ever reached theaters, despite three successful previews. In an interview with Elaine May, Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
describes the bomb as "the prime example that I know of in Hollywood of studio suicide", implying that Puttnam sandbagged
Sandbagging
Sandbagging, hiding the strength, skill or difficulty of something or someone early in an engagement, may refer to: in billiards and other games, deliberately playing below one's actual ability in order to fool opponents into accepting higher stakes bets, or to lower one's competitive rating in...
the project by leaking negative anecdotes to the media because of his grudges against Beatty and Hoffman.
Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum surmised that the media was eager to torpedo Ishtar in retaliation for instances of Beatty's perceived "high-handed way with members of the press". The film had been completely closed to the media, with no reporters at all permitted on set during production, a restriction greater than Beatty's previous productions.
The film was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay in the 1987 Golden Raspberry Awards
1987 Golden Raspberry Awards
The 8th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on April 10, 1988 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to recognize the worst the film industry had to offer in 1987. Leonard Part 6 was the biggest "winner" with three awards out of five nominations. Although he did not attend the ceremony,...
, winning one for Worst Director. The movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and holds a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Ishtar has since become synonymous with "box office flop
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
".
However, not all critics were hostile. Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
listed it as a runner up to his top films of 1987.
Warren Beatty defended the film despite all the severe trouble and misery he went through making it, is quoted as saying, "There was almost no review that didn't in the first paragraph deal with the cost of the movie. That was an eye-opener – about the business, and the relationship of the entertainment press to business. Ishtar is a very good, not very big, comedy, made by a brilliant woman. And I think it's funny." Dustin Hoffman also defended the film, stating that he would "do it again in a second."
Aftermath
As a result of the losses it suffered from the film and negative publicity, Coca-Cola re-evaluated its decision to enter the business. It spun off its entertainment holdings into a separate company called Columbia Pictures Entertainment, with Coca-Cola holding 49% of the stock. Two years later, it sold Columbia to SonySony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
.
The film's failure didn't affect the friendship between Beatty and Hoffman, who both liked the final cut of the film; Beatty later cast his former Ishtar co-star in the more successful Dick Tracy.
Beatty and May barely spoke for two years afterwards, and friends of hers say she remains slightly bitter about the experience. It was nine years before she took another screenwriting credit (for The Birdcage
The Birdcage
The Birdcage is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, and stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski. The script was written by Elaine May...
). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Primary Colors, but has not directed another film since Ishtar.
Legacy
In one of Gary LarsonGary Larson
Gary Larson is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to newspapers for 15 years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His 23 books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than 45 million...
's The Far Side
The Far Side
The Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...
comic strips, captioned "Hell's Video Store", the entire store is stocked with nothing but copies of the movie Ishtar. Larson later apologized, saying "When I drew the above cartoon, I had not actually seen Ishtar. ... Years later, I saw it on an airplane, and was stunned at what was happening to me: I was actually being entertained. Sure, maybe it's not the greatest film ever made, but my cartoon was way off the mark. There are so many cartoons for which I should probably write an apology, but this is the only one which compels me to do so."
Directors Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
and Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright
Edgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...
have both gone on record as stating that they liked the film.
Famous director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
has claimed that the film is one of his favorite movies of all time.
Both Marsha Zvonkin-Sterba and Jeannette Harshbarger have gone on the record as stating that they liked the film.
On 20 December 2010, Dustin Hoffman appeared on Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
alongside Robert De Niro. When Letterman asked De Niro if there are any films in his oeuvre that make him "wince", Hoffman answered that he, "speaks on behalf of De Niro" in saying that he (De Niro) regrets Ishtar, obviously referring to himself.
Home video
Ishtar was issued on VHS around the globe in late 1987 (then again in 1994), eventually generating over $7 million dollars in rental fees alone in the USA. In 2004, the film was released on DVD on every continent but North America. Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
had announced that the film will be released only on Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
(and finally in a digital format in North America) on January 4, 2011, but it was pulled from the studio's release schedule just prior to that date.
However, in a more recent interview, the film's director had this say:
They tell me now — Sony — that they’re going to release this on Blu-ray, and it will really look wonderful and sound wonderful. If they don’t, you’ll be the last 80 or 90 or however many people to see this movie in this particular version. […] If you all clap your hands and believe it! They say they want to and they’ll do it soon, and I have great faith that they’ll do it.”