ISHTAR

US, 1987, 107 minutes, Colour.
Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Tess Harper, Carol Kane, Jack Weston.
Directed by Elaine May.

Ishtar has taken its place in the history of movies along with Cleopatra and Heaven's Gate. It cost 35 to 40 million dollars and seems, in conception, a modest comedy. It was written and directed by Elaine May. It stars Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, with amusing support from Charles Grodin and Jack Weston. Isabelle Adjani is the heroine and spends most of her time in the film veiled.

Comparisons might be made with Michael Douglas' production, Jewel of the Nile in its territory. But it is funnier, with more satirical point.

One of the features of the film is the selection of songs - both classic and those composed by Beatty and Hoffman as satiric for the film. The main actors try hard, particularly Hoffman, giving his role all that he can. However, it still remains an oddity.

1. Impact of the film? its place in film history? Expensive? Box office flop?

2. The use of New York locations, apartments, streets, bars? The transition to Morocco? The desert, the cities?

3. The musical score? The classic popular songs? The sones of Rogers and Clarke? Melody? Lyrics? Delivery?

4. The tradition of road films and buddies in foreign places? Ishtar as an example of the road movie? Comparisons with films like Jewel on the Nile?

5. The humour of the songs: Chuck and Lyle's delivery, types, lyrics, ironic rhyming, themes? Lyle and Clarke as types, their work together, ambitions, their attitudes towards women, the suicide attempt, working together, performance?

6. The sketch of the girls, their relationship with Lyle and Chuck? The men's familiarity, outings?

7. Marty Freed as agent, smooth talk, auditions, jobs in Honduras and Morocco? The satire on the agent?

8. The suicide attempt? intervention?

9. Presence at the airport, the passport, the coats?

10. The C.I.A and the Arab nations, monitoring visitors, the revolution, the complications? The blending of the comedy with the C.I.A. drama? The songs, their various contacts, their spying, against each other? Growing chaos?

11. In the desert, the thirst, the beads, the oasis, the guns, the helicopter, the jeep and the fire? Their being targets of the Arabs, the fanatics? The revolutionaries?

12. The picture of Arab states, complications, palace coups, need for social reform, American government working in with them?

13. Charles Grodin's comedy as Jim Harrison, the work of the C.I.A., changing plans and plots, intervention?

14. The final deal and the joke - social reform and their best-seller?

15. Did the film justify its existence, expense? Seen in the tradition of modest American comedies, buddies, satire?