May Retrospective: “Ishtar” (1987)
Friday, May 22, 2020 at 3:00PM 
As we've seen in our analysis of Elaine May's first three pictures as a director, she was a consummate auteur. It's true that a farce about marital homicide followed by a cruel comedy of adultery which, in turn, is followed by a New York-set character study may suggest a somewhat chaotic filmography. However, her themes were consistent, her work with actors always inspired, and her cinematic language showed a through-line of bizarre human behavior anchored by material realism.
This is never more evident than when autopsying the carcass of May's final picture, Ishtar, where all these threads coalesce and reach their apotheosis in the form of a mainstream flop of epic proportions. Tales of a troubled production had made headlines long before the movie reached theaters and, when its box-office results proved catastrophic, Elaine May's career as a director went down the drain…
Ishtar is a wild experiment in mainstream filmmaking bent out of shape by the ambitions of a daring auteur. Its opulence and millionaire budget are vaguely at odds with the rest of May's filmography, but the final picture isn't. In fact, its best qualities all come from the mind of the inspired director, from the way in which Ishtar is a quintessential Elaine May film.
This tale of two talentless lounge singers somehow embroiled in Middle Eastern politics proves to be the perfect vessel for May to take her trademark comedy of humiliation to its ungainly limits. Indeed, the American-set first act is virtually flawless, while its following chapters are the ones that buckle under the weight of an extravagant production, one that tries to marry light sitcom humor with a vicious satire of American imperialism in the decade of Reagan.
Even when everything implodes in increasingly complicated plot shenanigans, the lead performances of Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty are impeccable and the production values are so lush that we can see where May sank her 50-million-dollar budget. Ishtar was a box-office failure but it's far from being an out-of-control train wreck. This infamous bomb is neither an unfairly maligned masterpiece nor a discombobulated mess devoid of any artistic value. It's merely Elaine May's least impressive picture.
No matter how much May's reputation was damaged by all this, Ishtar didn't stop her from continuing to find work as a writer and an actress. Consider, for instance, that she is a two-time Academy award nominated screenwriter. Her first nomination came in 1978 for Heaven Can Wait, and the second in 1998 (post-Ishtar) for Primary Colors. She'd have another nod if her work sprucing up Tootsie's script hadn't gone uncredited. For fans of her directing efforts, there's also another ray of hope. Reportedly, Elaine May is set to film her fifth feature in the near future, with the title of Crackpot and Dakota Johnson in the leading role. We can't wait to see how this turns out.
Ishtar is available to stream on Showtime and Fubo. You can also rent it from Youtube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, VUDU, and others.
Reader Comments (10)
I enjoy the stateside scenes here (hey, Carol Kane and Tess Harper!) but May really does seem to lose control once it goes overseas. Still, it's hardly the all-around catastrophe its reputation suggests.
andrew - yup. I LOVE the first half. and i think overall the movie ends up in the "recommended" pile so i dont get why there was so much hate. It's very funny.
This was during the era when critics reviewed budgets as much as they reviewed films. In the wake of super-bombs like Howard the Duck, critics had their ammo ready for any movie that got a lot of ink for going over-budget -- and Ishtar, with its two marquee stars, got all sorts of bad publicity before anyone had seen a frame. As I recall, the reviews weren't exactly terrible (as they had been for Howard), but -- to paraphrase what was said about Citizen Kane -- it wasn't successful enough to offset the expenditure scandal.
Like many, I didn't see the film till it came to home video, and I had the experience others are citing here: at the end of the prologue, I thought, the critics have never been more wrong; this is terrific. The remainder of the film wasn't nearly as distinguished, but it never feel short of at least pleasant amusement -- kind of a latter day Hope/Crosby Road picture. Again: the film's real failing was not being special enough to justiify the (then) huge amount of money spent making it.
Elaine May is also very funny in an under-appreciated movie "In the Spirit" from 1990. It teams her with Marlo Thomas and they are great together. Jeannie Berlin co-wrote the film and also appears in it.
May gave the greatest performance I have ever seen in a play in "The Waverly Gallery." She is just phenomenal.
Cláudio - I really enjoyed your writing about Elaine May, perhaps more than any of your other writing for the site. Writing in a more positive register suits you - sometimes your acidic asides in other pieces have annoyed me (offhandedly insulting something I enjoy will turn me off your writing!). But a lovely sense of discovery comes through in your writing here, and without sacrificing your incisiveness as a critic. More please!
Had it not been for the bad press, and the knife in the back by studio head David Puttnam, ISHTAR could have been a modest success along the lines of ROMANCING THE STONE. Smarter, for sure, but not that much more impressive. The money spent can seem jarring, considering the "Road to..." shagginess. There are establishing shots that would have made David Lean proud, and they overwhelm the script.
The 80s was notorious for massive box office flops as a lot of them had been unfairly maligned for its time. Sure, they were flawed but they were worth watching. Heaven's Gate and One from the Heart are key examples of films that got more attention for their inflated budget and filmmakers going overboard but they at least have been given a second chance. I've seen some of Ishtar and didn't think it was that bad as I want to see it as a whole and see if it really deserved the scorn it got. And let's not forget, there's been worse films out there that came before and since. It is still unfair of the treatment that Elaine May had yet Hollywood still let Michael Bay make awful films.
Elaine May should have been Oscar nominated a third time: best supporting actress for Small Time Crooks.
@Antonio-Oh, I totally agree with you as she was a hoot in that film.
I'm with those who say that the critics reviewed the budget not the film. I saw Ishtar in the theatre at the time, and I laughed through most of the film. The friend I was with enjoyed it too. Any director spending 50 million would have come in for criticism but I think the knives were really out for a Female director spending so much money.