Elaine May has said: "If all of the people who hate Ishtar had seen it, I would be a rich woman today." She’s not really exaggerating–besides A Serbian Film, Elaine May’s Ishtar (1987) has got to be one of the most avoided films of all time. Its reputation has been dragged through the mud for decades, as typified in this famous Far Side comic, and the film was essentially dead on arrival due to a whisper campaign against it from the get-go. (Funny enough, it still managed to briefly be the top grossing film on its opening weekend! Something I talked about as a guest on The #1 Movie Podcast, take a listen.)

Ishtar became this weird punching bag that everybody seems to love to hate it, despite the fact that, as May said, nobody saw it. So I decided to boldly go where no man has gone before and finally sit down and watch the thing. Well, spoiler, Ishtar is fun as hell and genuinely hilarious from its opening credits onward. The longer I watched the film, it dawned on me that Ishtar is a prime example of a comedy that was clearly ahead of its time. Suddenly it’s rotten reputation began to stink of something else; a familiar stench that you might recognize as “Male Chauvinist Bullshit.”



Let’s start at the top: In the beginning, there was Chuck Clarke (Dustin Hoffman) and Lyle Rogers (Warren Beatty), just two singer-songwriters looking to hit it big. The problem is, well, they’re not very good. In fact, they’re so bad that the only gig they can book is in Morocco–where political unrest is causing all other acts to avoid the country. They decide to take the gig, but upon landing in the neighboring country of Ishtar, things start to go off the rails. Almost immediately after landing, Chuck ends up handing his passport over to a mysterious woman (Isabelle Adjani), strictly because he finds her attractive. Stranded, Lyle now has to press ahead to secure their gig in Morocco alone, while Chuck figures out how to get a new passport. Lucky for him, or unlucky as it quickly becomes apparent, the CIA has been monitoring the situation and steps in.



From then on the film becomes a game of cat, mouse and two guys who just wanna sing. Agent Jim Harrison (Charles Grodin) makes a deal with Chuck to be a CIA mole in exchange for a new passport, but he’s not allowed to let Lyle know. Meanwhile the mysterious woman is secretly coordinating with both Lyle and Chuck to help bring a map to guerrilla fighters who are working to overthrow the Emir of Ishtar. Chuck and Lyle are caught in the middle. All they really want to do is play their gig, but their egos keep dragging them further and further into the mess; they can’t bear to say no to an important government man or to a beautiful woman. Eventually they end up unwittingly in the middle of the desert, sent there to die by the CIA for knowing too much and being too useless. But they’re too dumb to even get that right and manage to survive the night. They even end up purchasing contraband military-grade weapons at an illegal arms auction. It proves to be a useful fumble, as they end up needing some rocket launchers to fight off the CIA helicopters that come to finish off the job.

Ishtar is laugh out loud funny. Its self-deprecating awareness is just a delight to watch. I also love how it heightens its already ridiculous premise by doubling down hard on the follow-through; that it ends with a bizarre big-budget shoot out is so wildly inappropriate that it comes full circle to hilarious. Ishtar would have felt completely at home had it come out in the early 2000s heyday of awkward humor. It’s more Flight of the Conchords or The Office than, say, its more contemporary Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Big-type comedies. The closest I can find in the decade might be This Is Spinal Tap, which similarly didn’t do so hot upon release (but notably, and rightfully, wasn’t a ripped-to-shreds career-ender the way Ishtar was for May).