Nacho Libre
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| Nacho Libre | |
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 Nacho Libre movie poster |
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| Directed by | Jared Hess |
| Produced by | Jack Black David Klawans Julia Pistor Mike White |
| Written by | Jared Hess Jerusha Hess Mike White |
| Starring | Jack Black |
| Music by | Beck Danny Elfman |
| Distributed by |  Paramount Pictures Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 16, 2006 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Nacho Libre is an American comedy film that was released on June 16, 2006, by Paramount Pictures, though it was released in select theaters earlier. The script was written by Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess, and Mike White. It was loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta ("Friar Storm"), aka Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador. He competed in order to support the orphanage he directed. The producers are Jack Black, David Klawans, Julia Pistor, and Mike White. The release date was originally set to be May 2006, but was changed by Paramount to avoid competition from Fox's X-Men: The Last Stand and one of Paramount's other film, Mission: Impossible III. It was then placed between the releases of Disney/Pixar's Cars (June 9) and Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' Superman Returns (June 28). The film was rated PG by the MPAA for "rough action and crude humor, including dialogue." It was released on DVD on October 24, 2006. [1] It was distributed in Switzerland, Spain, and Netherlands by Universal Pictures.
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[edit] Plot
The film takes place in the early 1970s (according to an interview with Jack Black)[citation needed]. The Paramount Pictures' précis of the Nacho Libre story is as follows:
Ignacio (Jack Black) is a monk without skills. After growing up as an orphan in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery’s cook, but is often looked down upon by the other monks. Ignacio, all his life, has dreamed of becoming a luchador (wrestler); since it was forbidden by the monastery, his dream was constantly crushed. Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans he feeds, but his food is terrible due to a lack of funds by which to obtain better ingredients.
He decides that he must hatch a plan to make money to buy better food for “the young orphans, who have nothing”. During the same few days, he reveals that he additionally desires to be respected and admired, as the luchadores are; that he is particularly hostile to one monk, who behaves in a sanctimonious way toward him; and that he harbors sexual feelings for the newly arrived denizen of the monastery, Sister Encarnación, with whom he has many favorites in common. It is partly to impress Sister Encarnación with the idea that he is a good man that Ignacio calculates his later actions.
Ignacio eventually decides to become a luchador, so as to earn money for the orphans. Donning a mask, sweat pants, and a grey blouse, he enters the local competition, accompanied by a tough, slender, atheistic street thief called Steven. This Steven, under the name of Esqueleto ("Skeleton"), becomes Ignacio's partner in wrestling. Ignacio, in order to keep his identity secret from the monastic order, shortens his own name to "Nacho" while in the arena.
In their first match, Nacho and Esqueleto are defeated. To their surprise, however, an announcer pays them money, explaining to the effect that the crowd had enjoyed their performance. At every subsequent match, Nacho and Steven lose, albeit having made a much-appreciated effort to win.
Nacho becomes frustrated for having lost, and looks for help. Steven brings him to a gypsy-like man who tells Nacho to climb to an eagle's nest, crack open the egg, and swallow the yolk. This, he claims, will give him the powers of an eagle. Nacho obeys, but still loses the following night's wrestling bout. He is very annoyed for having been disappointed. Later, he decides to seek advice from Ramses, the champion luchador. Several times he tries to arrange an audience with this champion, but each time he is refused.
His frustration increases at this, to the extent that he insults Ramses out of the latter's hearing. He and Steven argue, and so break off their partnership.
Later, both Steven and Nacho compete with several other popular wrestlers in order to earn the right to challenge Ramses. The wrestler Silencio ("silence") wins; Nacho comes in second place.
Ignacio is revealed to the monastery as a luchador, when his robe catches fire during a prayer. Because he is at the time thinking primarily of his confused motivations for wrestling and the clarification thereof, he does not notice when one of the candles by which he is surrounded falls down, igniting his robe. Beneath it are the colorful trousers of his wrestling costume. Thus exposed, Nacho leaves the monastery to live in the nearby hills, taking only his clothes and a machete belonging to one of the orphans.
Ignacio, in the hills, eats cacti and insects, builds a crude framework of sticks, and sleeps in it. In the morning, Steven finds him and tells him that Silencio has been injured and therefore cannot fight Ramses. Nacho is himself free to do so. During Steven's explanation, the viewer is shown a flashback, wherein Steven ran a motorized tricycle belonging to Ignacio over Silencio's foot, having seen him quarrel with a tiny child over a loaf of bread.
Ignacio, at first, is skeptical of Steven's enthusiasm, due to the cause of their own argument which had been Steven's statement that he hated the orphans. Steven replies that he hates not anymore, and that the children need a hero– which Nacho may become. Nacho accepts the role.
In that night, Nacho sends a message via Steven to Sister Encarnación, wherein he explains his plan and confesses his attachment to her. She is moved to empathy by his words.
In the match, Nacho is nearly defeated by Ramses. Just as he is about to give up, Sister Encarnación enters accompanied by the children. Inspired by their evident well-wishing for him, Nacho throws Ramses off and defeats him spectacularly– seeming in the process to call upon the powers of an eagle.
Ignacio uses the reward of money to arrange field trips for the children. The film closes on one such trip, wherein Nacho, Steven, and Sister Encarnación take the children to see an ancient city, Monte Albán, built by the Zapotec civilization. Ignacio, by now, has earned Encarnación's favor, as demonstrated by her signs of encouragement and his somewhat awkward acknowledgement thereof.
[edit] Podcast
During the filming, Jack Black began doing a production diary video podcast called "Jack Black's Nacho Libre Confessional". In every episode, Black was filmed with a hand-held camera inside his trailer. He introduced the viewer to the cast and set, and gave a brief "nacho" description of what he has been up to. This series was also available for free, to subscribers of Xbox Live via the Xbox 360's Marketplace service.
Each episode of the podcast begins and ends with an intro/outro featuring Beck's song "E-Pro" from the album Guero. This is likely a reference to the fact that Nacho is himself a güero or "white boy" due to his half-Scandinavian heritage, as explained by Black while having his chest waxed in Episode 3 of the podcast.
[edit] Main cast
- Jack Black as Nacho
- Ana de la Reguera as Sister Encarnación
- Héctor Jiménez as Steven Esqueleto
- Troy Gentile as Nacho (young age)
- Carla Jiménez as Cándida
- Richard Montoya as Guillermo
- César González as Ramses
- Moises Arias as Juan Pablo
- Darius Rose as Chancho
- Peter Stormare as Emperor
[edit] Reviews and reaction
Reviews of the film were generally mixed.
According to Roger Ebert, "It takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work, but Nacho Libre does it." However, the Hollywood Reporter was very positive about it, calling it, "One of the most inspired comedies in ages."
Michael Medved gave the film two and a half stars (out of four) calling it, "Amusing, but resistible." and adding that, "Director Jared Hess [employs] the same off-beat humor that made his Napoleon Dynamite a cult hit"[1].
The film currently has a "rotten" 37% rating at RottenTomatoes (as of August 24, 2006)[2].
The film has done well commercially. On its opening weekend in the U.S. Nacho Libre earned $28.3 million, second only to Cars for that weekend. The total domestic box office for the film stands at $80.2 million. [2]
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rated the film "O - morally offensive" for "Pervasive irreverence, slapstick violence in and out of the ring, including an impaling, innuendo, crude humor including flatulence, vulgar costuming, partial nudity and heedless thievery."[citation needed]
[edit] Music
Director Jared Hess originally wanted musical artist Beck to be behind the soundtrack for the film. Beck, being a fan of Hess, accepted. However, Paramount Pictures didn't think Beck's style fit the movie, and decided to try to get composer Danny Elfman to replace him. Elfman then wrote a full score and recorded it in May 2006.[3] But then, only about 2/3 of Elfman's score ended up in the movie.
Due to how much of Elfman's music filled the film, Elfman's representatives asked that Elfman be the only person credited for Nacho Libre's score. Hess caught wind of this and would not allow the studio to remove Beck from the credits. When finding that he wouldn't have the only music credit, Elfman told Paramount to remove his name from the film. An agreement was eventually reached where both Beck and Elfman were credited for their respective parts of the score. [4]
The track listing for the official soundtrack to Nacho Libre[5]. The soundtrack was released October 24, 2006
- Hombre Religioso (Religious Man) - Mister Loco
- "A Nice Pile-Drive To The Face" - Nacho (Dialog)
- Move, Move, Move - Alan Hawkshaw & Alan Parker
- Papas - Mister Loco
- Singing At The Party - Jack Black with Ismael Garcia Ruiz Y Su Trio
- Ramses Suite - Danny Elfman
- "All The Orphans In The World" - Nacho & Esqueleto (Dialog)
- There Is No Place In This World For Me - Beck
- "I'm Serious" - Nacho (Dialog)
- 10,000 Pesos - Beck
- Irene - Caetano Veloso
- Pump A Jam (Ramses) - Cholotronic
- Black Is Black - Eddie Santiago
- Half Forgotten Daydreams - John Cameron
- Encarnación - Jack Black
- Tender Beasts Of The Spangled Night - Beck
- Saint Behind The Glass - Los Lobos
- "Beneath The Clothes We Find The Man..." - Nacho (Dialog)
- Forbidden Nectar - Jack Black & Mucho Macho Acapulco
[edit] Collaboration with professional wrestling
To prepare for the role Jack Black trained in New Japan Pro Wrestling's Los Angeles dojo with real luchadores prior to filming.
Before the release of the movie, World Wrestling Entertainment added Nacho to the SmackDown! brand roster on their website. After a month his profile was removed without his making any appearances.
On the June 20, 2006, edition of ECW on Sci Fi the character was parodied as "Macho Libre", with wrestler Tony DeVito dressing like Nacho and speaking like "Mach Man" Randy Savage with a Hispanic accent. After a few minutes he was attacked by the Sandman, in keeping with his gimmick at the time.
In addition, professional wrestler Human Tornado appears in the film as one of Nacho's opponents, "El Snowflake".
[edit] Moves Portrayed
- Tombstone Piledriver (Used by Silencio to defeat Nacho)
- Tiger Feint Kick
- Frog splash
- Hurricanrana
- Gorilla Press Slam
- Fireman's Carry Slam
- Sleeper hold
- Bear hug
- La Magistral Cradle (Pin combo used by Nacho to defeat Ramses)
- Anaconda squeeze (Nacho used this in his first fight.)
- Moonsault
- Surfboard
- There are three notable mistakes/misinterpretations of how wrestling is ruled in Mexico.
- When Nacho loses his first fight the three second count is not shown (it appears he loses by TKO).
- When Nacho beats Ramses there is no count taking place outside the ring. Normally when both fighters are outside the ring a 20 second count begins for both of them to return to the ring.
- The battle royal is more for the movie than accurate within the rules, as Nacho is not pinned after the Tombstone Piledriver (Considered TKO), or, if the rules were to throw your opponents out of the ring to win (like the other combatants), Nacho was not. There was no stipulation of having lost, or that he even came in 2nd place like later revealed in the film.
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- It should also be noted that in Mexico, the Tombstone Piledriver is considered an illegal move. Using one's belt to strike an opponent is also deemed an illegal move.
[edit] Interviews
An online poll showed that common wrestling fans found the movie to be disrespectful of Lucha Libre in general, especially in the scene wherein Ramses pulls off Nacho's mask, which manouvere is of great significance in the sport. In the film, very little attention is apparently paid to this move.[citation needed]
[edit] Video Games
2006 Nacho Libre for Nintendo DS published by Majesco Entertainment is a cartoonish wrestling game based upon the film [3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Read Michael Medved's Full Review Score of 2.5/4 Stars
- ^ See Nacho Libre on Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ See Nacho Libre DS on Gamespot
[edit] External links
- The official web site
- The Original Lucha Libre Videos
- The official web site at Nick.com
- Nacho Libre at the Internet Movie Database
- Nacho Libre at Paramount Pictures
- "Nacho Libre" (Apple Quicktime Trailers)
- Nacho Libre at Rotten Tomatoes
- "Nacho Libre Comic Book"
- Listen to the MAIN SONG from the movie - Religious Man (Hombre Religioso) by Mr. Loco
- Jack Black's Nacho Libre Confessional videocast
- Danny Elfman's Nacho Libre score recording session
- Site with downloadable "Religious Man" by GABEMSTR
- Nacho Libre review at Mansized
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since April 2007 | 2006 films | American films | Lucha libre | English-language films | Films shot in Mexico | Paramount films | Fictional luchadores | Fictional Mexicans | Sports comedy films | Nickelodeon films
