I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember thinking it was actually funny. I still don't understand the hate for this film. Some of the criticisms against it (reversing the Hoffman and Beatty roles for one) seemed to suggest they missed the point. But that could just be me.

I actually enjoyed the songs quite a bit. I doubt there was ever a soundtrack, but I wonder if there was ever a good bootleg.

I would go so far as to say that the line of division between liking and disliking the film is whether or not you like the songs.

I think the critical and public response to Ishtar was more bafflement than outrage or disgust. What else could you expect from the director of The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and A New Leaf? I'm actually quite fond of it as well as all of Elaine May's films.

Ishtar has alot of funny bits. Like the auction in the desert. I laughed many times during the movie. And Chuck Grodin? Forget about it. He is a riot.

The songs are great. I'd kill for a soundtrack album.

"Tellin' the truth can be dangerous business
honest and popular don't go hand and hand".

Here's a real find: ELAINE MAY IN CONVERSATION WITH MIKE NICHOLS


http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/ja06/elainemay.htm

Awesome quote: "If all of the people who hate Ishtar had seen it, I would be a rich woman today."

Dustin Hoffman defends Ishtar

Transcript of Dustin Hoffman interview.

Where the hell is Ishtar on DVD? And I want a soundtrack CD included. Those songs are great and the movie is funny. Very funny. I mean, Chuck Grodin is in it. Need I say more?

Finally caught up to this one and it's neither the forgotten masterpiece nor terrible dog of a picture it's made out to be. It's an enjoyable, mostly entertaining lark that peaks very early. If the whole movie were as good as the first twenty minutes (which are astonishingly funny), it would indeed be a comedy classic. But once the film shifts to Morocco, it loses much of its momentum. There's plenty of humorous moments sprinkled around (I especially loved the most obvious tailing sequence ever captured), but the film constantly seems to be building to a much bigger payoff than it actually delivers. Surprisingly, despite its pedigree, the cinematography was fairly pedestrian. As mentioned by others, the songs are wonderfully awful, and it's really the two leads that keep the film afloat-- Beatty in particular seems to relish getting to play a total idiot and it shows.

It seemed like a movie that got eclipsed by its pre-release clippings. As with other pictures directed by May, there was lots and lots of rewriting, and going over budget, and over schedule. It's not a great film -- though I too am partial to the songs -- but on some level seemed like a victim of the worst sort of horserace journalism that came of age in the 1980s, along with newspapers printing the weekend grosses like baseball box scores.

ISHTAR was indeed a victim of "horserace journalism" (good description!) and a lot of it was fuelled by the overbudget/behind schedule bottom line assessment during its production. But this was all part and parcel of a critical/industry backlash against May. It went something like this: A NEW LEAF opens to generally good reviews but tanks at the box office, THE HEARTBREAK KID gets great reviews from those who liked LEAF and those who felt guilty for panning it, makes OK box office and garners several Oscar noms, she then gets the green light to make the even darker MIKEY AND NICKY, goes overbudget and behind on that, Paramount pulls the plug and she ends up stealing the negative for ransom to complete it her way. After that she's labeled unreliable, profligrate, unstable etc., but somehow gets a pass on ISHTAR (perhaps due to Beatty and Hoffman?) but is set up for the BIG FALL.

I remember when it opened sometime in April or May of '87 and my boss, the late Bobby Visciglia (who worked on MIKEY AND NICKY) read the news of its record low BO in Variety, wiped his brow in mock relief and exclaimed, "Thank God! The curse of HEAVEN'S GATE is lifted! I'm no longer the propmaster on the biggest flop in history!"

It was off the screens in record time and I never caught up with it on cable. Several friends saw and enjoyed it and over the years it seems to have found something of an audience (somewhat like the similarly maligned POCKET MONEY) through cable and TV screenings. I'd really be curious to see it now for myself.