Ishtar (1987) - May and Beatty's infamous Saharan stinker

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Two Bedouins are dragging something by a rope in the desert on this poster for Elaine May's Ishtar

Two middle-aged, unpersuasive singer/songwriters are looking for their big break-through, and they figure that they will find it in ... Ishtar, Morocco.

 

Ishtar is written and directed by Elaine May (A New Leaf (1971)).

You will need to read about this production to comprehend just why we have this thoroughly odd, deeply failed film before us. Ishtar works best at its outset, in which some may find a bit of amusement in the casting of Dustin Hoffman (John and Mary (1969)) as a great ladies' man and Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait (1978)) as the admiring dullard second banana. The whole adventure to the Middle East is attempted sauced into an archaic, painfully old-fashion 'charm', while Isabelle Adjani (Peter von Kant (2022)) performs in an awkward, strange role, and the two male stars yell and generally make asses of themselves among strangers in a strange land in scene after scene, all consisting of unfunny material.

Ishtar is enormously poorly executed, a head-shaking waste of resources. It is also a film that will forever remind us just how low and how deep Hoffman and Beatty are able to fall. The lesson of Ishtar? Don't put together a movie out of bad conscience for a woman (or for any person probably) with dubious abilities as a filmmaker. Some people, mostly in some way connected to its stars and other involved talents, have 're-evaluated' Ishtar and celebrated it, but these opinions are merely transparent attempts to please the still highly respected veterans in the miserable affair.

 

Related post:

 

Elaine May: Primary Colors (1998) - Nichols' bloated political caricature bomb (writer)

 

  

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 51 mil. $

Box office: 14.3 mil. $ (North America only)

= Mega-flop (projected return of 0.39 times its cost)

[Ishtar was released 15 March (North America) and runs 107 minutes. Beatty put the film together, talking Hoffman, his own girlfriend Adjani and the studio into doing it because he felt indebted to May for helping write some of his recent hit films, and the idea for the film came from her. Beatty and Hoffman reportedly received 5.5 mil. $ and May 1.5 mil. $ for their labor prior to production, with Beatty and Hoffman receiving another 500k $ by its completion, so that 12.5 mil. $ were spent on the three before the production began. Budgeted at 27.5 mil. $, the film would wind up going 23 mil. $ over-budget. Against the studio's wishes, production was allowed in Morocco in the Sahara Desert due to its parent company Coca Cola having funds locked there that could then be used for the production. Shooting took place from October 1985 - March 1986 in Morocco, including Marrakesh, and in New York. May's direction and detail-orientation led to fights with her cinematographer and Beatty , which made the shoot prolonged and costs rise alarmingly. When the shoot returned to New York, Beatty confessed to Columbia's CEO that May could not direct but refused firing her due to his image as a supporter of women's rights. The solution became that every scene be subsequently shot twice; in May's way and then in Beatty's way, involving further cost overruns. Fights persisted during editing of the enormous amount of film shot, as the film's Christmas release became impossible. Despite the many signs that the film would bomb the studio released it with copious marketing to the tune of (another) 20 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 4.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4), grossing 14.3 mil. $. The film's international numbers are regrettably kept hidden, but the film did sell 40k tickets in the small country Denmark, grossing around 320k $ there. A conservative estimation of the final gross may be 20 mil. $. Roger Ebert gave the film a 0.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. May never returned to directing, turning more to writing and acting. Beatty returned in Dick Tracy (1990); Hoffman in Rain Man (1988); and Adjani in Camille Claudel (1988). Ishtar is rotten at 40 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Ishtar? 

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Penn and Beatty's true-crime classic marks a turn in American film

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The wild, lawless allure of the subjects attract on this poster for Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are young and aimless in Texas in the doldrums of 1931's Depression-era US, but they find each other and discover a new kind of freedom, - based on robbing banks.

 
Bonnie and Clyde is written by Robert Benton (What's Up Doc? (1972)) and David Newman (Still of the Night (1982)), with uncredited contributions by Robert Towne (Tequila Sunrise (1988)), and directed by Arthur Penn (The Left Handed Gun (1958)). It is a heist/road movie/drama-romance based on the historical figures.

The film is a very entertaining, albeit perhaps a bit overrated, American classic, first and foremost because it is also very funny, which it seems to be with a charming ease. One example from the film could be Clyde's brother Buck's cow joke. Often the film blends comedy and crass violence for the audience to digest with some ambiguity. 

Gene Hackman (The French Connection (1971)) is Buck, and Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)) debuts in a supporting role. Warren Beatty (Reds (1981)) produced and co-stars; he is great as Clyde. Faye Dunaway (Chinatown (1974)) is beautiful and lost as Bonnie.
Beatty and Dunaway's scenes together are wonderful. The language and the images of Bonnie and Clyde contribute to its distinguished magic. It is a good, oft cited and distinctive film.
But in the outlaw couple sub-genre, I find that both Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), both, however, inevitably influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, are greater films.
Bonnie and Clyde was very trendsetting, and served as an indicator for the arrival of the New Hollywood era with young, strong-minded directors like Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese, who revitalized American cinema. It also marked a change in the depiction of violence; a change for the more boldly realistic, explicit and transgressive.
Bonnie and Clyde is heavily influenced by the French New Wave, and the direction of the film was, in fact, offered to both François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, the two most famous directors of the French New Wave, before it ended up with Penn. SPOILER To those who have seen Bonnie and Clyde and wondered at Clyde's sexual problem in the film, it was originally the idea for the character to be portrayed as bisexual, but for reasons of censorship and possibly Beatty being against the idea, Clyde, in the film, is instead meant to be impotent.

 

Related post:

 

Arthur Penn: Top 10: Best heist movies

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 70 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 28 times its cost)

[Bonnie and Clyde premiered 4 August (Montréal Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. Truffaut passed on directing the film in favor of his Fahrenheit 451 (1966); Godard wanted to shoot in New Jersey (not Texas) and was not hired as a consequence; Penn was reportedly asked several times to direct by Beatty before accepting. Beatty's deal with Warner Bros. secured himself 40 % of the film's profits (if it would make any); and 10 % for Penn; eventually netting the two more than 6 mil. $ (Beatty) and more than 2 mil. $ (Penn). Dunaway was paid 60k $ for her performance in the film; Estelle Parsons (Diane (2018)) 5k $. Shooting took place from October 1966 - January 1967 in Texas, including in Dallas, and in California. Warner Bros. were unsupportive of the film, which ran over budget, and tried to give it a small release without marketing it, but its impressive reception (and Beatty's threat to sue) made them change their tune, and the film became their 2nd highest-grossing film up to that point, only beaten by My Fair Lady (1964). It was in the North-American top 12 for 22 weeks, becoming one of the 5 highest-grossing films overall in 1967.The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Supporting Actress (Parsons) and Cinematography (Burnett Guffey (The Split (1968)). It lost Best Actor (Beatty) to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night; Supporting Actor (Hackman; Michael J. Pollard (Forever Lulu (2000))) to George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke; Actress (Dunaway) to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Costume Design to Camelot; Director to Mike Nichols for The Graduate; Picture to In the Heat of the Night; and Original Screenplay to William Rose for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It also won 1/4 BAFTA award nominations, 2 David di Donatello awards and was nominated for 7 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Penn returned with Flesh and Blood (1968, TV movie) and theatrically with Alice's Restaurant (1969). Beatty returned in The Only Game in Town (1970); Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Bonnie and Clyde is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bonnie and Clyde?

Bugsy (1991) - Levinson and Beatty serve a delicious gangster treat

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A glamorous embrace between two glamorous Hollywood stars makes up this poster for Barry Levinson's Bugsy

Bugsy is the story of the larger-than-life character Benny Siegel, who left his family to prance around Hollywood and later build the Flamingo casino in the Mojave desert, thus founding Las Vegas, (although this is not historically accurate, as the building of the Flamingo was mostly Siegel's partner William Wilkerson's project.) SPOILER This all takes place before Siegel gets whacked.

 
Bugsy is written by James Toback (Exposed (1983)) and co-produced and directed by great Marylander filmmaker Barry Levinson (Diner (1982)), based on the real-life gangster.
In the leads, Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) and Annette Bening (American Beauty (1999)) are a wonderful couple, and in supporting roles, Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant (1992)) and Ben Kingsley (Gandhi (1982)) are masterly.
Toback based his script on Dean Jennings' non-fiction book We Only Kill Each Other (1967) and does very well; his lines in Bugsy are a joy, and particularly the scene in which the titular Benny 'Ben' Siegel runs between a child birthday, his phone and a gangster meeting in Las Vegas is memorable.
Weighing down on Bugsy is its title, which was a nickname that Benny Siegel himself hated, and therefore it makes little sense to call the entire movie of his life just that. Also the story of his impressive life could have been served with some higher focus on one or a few select areas than the film provides.
Still, Bugsy is a good and very enjoyable romantic gangster drama with some great movie stars.

Related posts:

Barry Levinson: Top 10: Best heist movies

2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Bandits (2001) - Barry Levinson's great, funny heist movie

1991 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 49.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain but likely a flop (projected return of 2 times its cost)

[Bugsy premiered 10 December (New York) and runs 137 minutes. More than a decade in pre-production, the film was a dream of co-producer/co-star Beatty, who also cast his future wife Bening as his co-star. Shooting took place from January - March 1991 in Nevada and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #13 to a 140k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it grossed 49.1 mil. $. International numbers are regrettably no public, but the film did sell 33,034 tickets in Denmark, a modest number coming to approximately 260k $. If we take that as an indication that foreign interest was modest for the film, a 60 mil. $ final gross is likely. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Costume Design. It lost Best Actor (Beatty) to Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Supporting Actor (Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley) to Jack Palance in City Slickers, Cinematography (Allan Daviau) to Robert Richardson for JFK, Director to Jonathan Demme for The Silence of the Lambs, Score (Ennio Morricone) to Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast), Picture to The Silence of the Lambs and Original Screenplay to Callie Khouri for Thelma & Louise. It also won 1/8 Golden Globe nominations and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Levinson returned with Toys (1992). Both Beatty and Bening returned in Love Affair (1994). Bugsy is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bugsy?