Starting with 1967’s “The Graduate” and stretching into the 1990s, Dustin Hoffman was a thrillingly versatile movie star. He could do comedy, heart-rending dramas, or a combination of the two. He could play a charismatic cad or disappear into a character totally unlike him. He did both in “Tootsie!” Though he had a reputation for clashing with his directors, studios valued his bankability and Academy Awards track record. With Hoffman, you could make a killing at the box office and score at the Oscars.
So when equally esteemed star Warren Beatty decided to pay back writer-director Elaine May for crucial rewrites on “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds” (which won him Best Director) by producing her next film, it seemed like they had a preordained blockbuster when he convinced Hoffman to co-star. May was a critically acclaimed filmmaker who scared studios with her perfectionist reputation and penchant for going over budget by shooting loads of film. Beatty, however, believed in her, and loved her idea of making a “Road to…” comedy adventure in the style of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. After some hemming and hawing, Hoffman agreed to join this adventure about an untalented New York City songwriting duo who get caught up in CIA shenanigans while touring Morocco.
You might’ve heard of “Ishtar?”
The title has long been shorthand for an ego-driven Hollywood debacle (during production, Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” was dubbed “Fishtar”), but it’s actually a brilliantly silly comedy. Yes, it flopped by grossing $14.4 million against a $51 million budget, but that’s going to happen when your own studio sabotages your release. “Ishtar” deserved so much better, so it’s nice to see people embrace it almost 40 years later. But what went wrong in 1987?
Ishtar is a wrongly maligned triumph
You know your movie’s screwed when your small town little league teammates know a movie’s supposed to be a stinker. I experienced this first-hand. In fact, when my buddy’s dad drove us to the theater, he tried to talk us out of wasting our allowances on the film.
Why did everyone on the planet know “Ishtar” was a loser? David Puttnam. The newly installed CEO of Columbia Pictures hated overspending, and held grudges against Beatty and Hoffman. He felt the former should be “spanked in public” for going over-budget on “Reds,” and detested the latter for his behavior on the set of the 1979 failure “Agatha.” Though there’s no smoking gun, Beatty, Hoffman, and May blame Puttnam for planting negative stories in the media, which mainstream shows like “Entertainment Tonight” parroted. This went on for months. (May, who, decades later, finally had her day in the sun with “Ishtar,” considers Puttnam a “putz”).
As for the actual film, it’s a hoot! May hits the ground at a full sprint with a first act that finds Hoffman’s Chuck Clarke and Warren Beatty’s Lyle Rogers combining their songwriting non-expertise to give us such cringe-inducing classics as “Dangerous Business,” “Wardrobe of Love,” and, my personal favorite, “That a Lawnmower Can Do All That.” Paul Williams is the genius behind these disasters, and I’ve heard him say at Q&As that it’s harder to write a terrible song than a good one.
When the duo jets off to Marrakesh for a hotel residency, they encounter the CIA (represented by Charles Grodin) and a beautiful revolutionary (Isabelle Adjani). It all builds to a hilariously chaotic desert shootout during which Grodin puts on a slow-burn clinic. Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and Lena Dunham are avowed fans. Join the “Ishtar” army today!
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