Day 11 - Ishtar (1987)

If you think about notorious box-office flops, certain titles spring immediately to mind - Heaven's Gate, for instance, or Cutthroat Island. Or Ishtar, for that matter, even though it doesn't appear anywhere on the Wikipedia list of box-office bombs. Nevertheless, it has a reputation as a big, expensive failure, despite some fairly illustrious self-proclaimed celebrity fans.

I've always been fascinated by the Ishtar mythos - even as a kid, when the poster depicting a cartoon camel singing in shades never failed to catch my attention on visits to the video rental shop. A look at the back of the case, however, inevitably reminded me of the absence of cartoon camels within the film (singing or otherwise) and I always put it back in favour of something where what was on the box and what was in the box seemed to match more closely.

Still, something about it evidently lingered within my subconscious, as when I first came up with the concept of re-examining badly received movies, it was one of the very first that sprang to mind.

1987 is a long time ago now, so I'll provide a quick plot re-cap for those who've forgotten, or who weren't actually born at the time. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman play a couple of truly abysmal lounge singers who've sacrificed love and (nominal) job success in order to try and get their shot at the big time. When offered a 9-week residency in Morocco, they aren't exactly delighted but see it as the only way to keep themselves from financial ruin. Shortly after their arrival, each of them separately run into a mysterious woman (Isabelle Adjani) who manages to involve them both in a plot to overthrow the government of the fictional country of Ishtar. Comical adventures naturally ensue.

The good

Ishtar's first act is a genuine joy, with Hoffman and Beatty demonstrating an easy chemistry I thoroughly enjoyed. This is due in no small part to the songs by Paul Williams, who creates some of the most plausibly bad songs I've ever heard - they're dreadful, yes, but in a low-key way that makes me cringe in delicious embarrassment. If the entire film had featured nothing more than the two leads trying to make it big in New York, I would have been more than happy.

The bad

Once the action moves to the Morocco, however, things go downhill fast, as a witty, elegant little character piece is transformed almost instantly into a big-budget, big-thrills action comedy that tries to occupy the same territory as Romancing the Stone. As goals go, this isn't an entirely unworthy one, but the abrupt tonal shift can't help but feel like a real disappointment. It's not that I'd suggest that Beatty and Hoffman are above the material, but neither does it truly play to their strengths as actors - they're neither big enough nor stupid enough to carry such a big, stupid story.

Given that Ishtar is a comedy produced by Warren Beatty and set primarily in North Africa, I probably shouldn't have been surprised by the casual sexism and racism. In addition to being saddled with the thankless task of playing a walking, talking MacGuffin, Isabelle Adjani (of half-Algerian descent, Wikipedia assures me) plays a North African character but bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Chrissie Hynde. Now, I have nothing against viewing the odd exposed breast - I see them every morning when I get dressed, in fact - but having her character flash Hoffman's Clarke to prove she was not, in fact, a gay male, is cheap and demeaning to everybody involved.

Hoffman himself, meanwhile, is lumbered with one scene that could have been taken straight from Team America: World Police, as Clarke decides to masquerade as a specialist in nomadic dialects presiding over an arms auction. I watched through my fingers, jaw dropped in sheer disbelief that something like this could ever have been considered acceptable.

The bald truth of it is that with the exception of those scenes featuring the two leads either performing or working on their lounge act, the movie simply isn't funny - any laughs to be garnered at images of Hoffman and Beatty in the desert shooting at a CIA helicopter are born of sheer incredulity, and thus don't count.

The verdict

Somewhere deep within the overblown, overbudgeted mess that is Ishtar, there's a beautiful little character comedy that was just waiting for its own shot at stardom. Unfortunately, it gets thoroughly lost within the sound and fury, offering the audience only occasional, tantalising glimpses of what might have been.

C+ - needs more singing cartoon camels.