Ishtar (1987 Box Office Flop)

Published: Sept. 6, 2023, 6 a.m.

The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1987 features the year’s biggest flop, Elaine May’s Ishtar. Written and directed by Elaine May and starring Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani and Charles Grodin, Ishtar was May’s final narrative film as a director.

The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ishtar-1987), Hal Hinson in The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/ishtarpg13hinson_a0c971.htm), and Janet Maslin in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/15/movies/film-hoffman-and-beatty-in-elaine-may-s-ishtar.html).

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Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1987 installment, featuring the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, Maurice Pialat’s Under the Sun of Satan.