Nacho Libre

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Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre movie poster
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
Editing by Billy Weber
Distributed by Flag of the United States Paramount Pictures
Flag of World United International Pictures
Flag of Switzerland Universal Pictures
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. It is a production of Nickelodeon Movies. 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.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Ignacio (Jack Black) is a Mexican friar without skills. His mother was a Lutheran missionary from Scandinavia and his father was a Deacon from Mexico. They tried to convert each other but instead got married, and died while Ignacio was young. After growing up as an orphan in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery’s cook, but is looked down upon by the other friars. All his life, Ignacio has dreamed of becoming a luchador (masked wrestler); because wrestling was forbidden by the monastery, his dream was crushed. Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans he feeds, but his food is terrible due to a lack of funds with which to obtain better ingredients.

After being robbed in an alley of the orphans' tortilla chips, 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 friar, who behaves in a sanctimonious way toward him; and that he harbors sexual feelings for the newly arrived tutor, 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. He pairs up with the tortilla chip thief to earn money for the orphans. Donning a homemade mask, sweats, and a blouse, he enters the local competition, accompanied by the slender, atheistic street thief Steven (Hector Jimenez). Steven, under the name of Esqueleto ("Skeleton"), becomes Ignacio's tag partner in wrestling. Ignacio, in order to keep his identity secret from the monastic order, shortens his given name to "Nacho" while in the ring.

In their first match, Nacho and Esqueleto are defeated. To their surprise, the manager pays them anyway, explaining that every wrestler is entitled to a portion of the total revenue. He adds that the crowd has enjoyed their performance and asks them to return next week to fight another bout. By this means, their wrestling career begins.Later,Ignacio is caught wearing his wrestling undergaments by Chancho. Nacho tells Chancho that when you get older it is fun to play dress up. Chancho sees through the lie and Ignacio makes Chancho promise no to tell anyone that he has become a Luchador.

Ignacio becomes frustrated by losing every fight (irrelevant to his annoyance, but notable, is the observation that some of his opponents cheat) and looks for help. Steven, eager to help, brings him to a gypsy-like man (Peter Stormare) who tells Ignacio 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. Ignacio obeys, but still loses the following night's wrestling bout. He is very annoyed at having been disappointed. Later, he decides to seek advice from Ramses, the champion luchador. They sneak into a party and try to arrange an audience with the champion to try to become experts. They fail and are thrown out. Nacho is rather disgusted by Ramses' treatment of them, which disappoints Nacho immensely and kills his hero-worship of the champion.

Thereafter both Esqueleto 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, Ignacio leaves the monastery to live in the nearby wilderness, taking only his clothes and a lucky machete given to him by Chancho (one of the orphans).

In the wilderness, Ignacio eats cactus and builds a crude framework of sticks, in an effort to create shelter. In the morning, Steven comes to see him. He tells him that Silencio's bunions are swollen and therefore cannot fight Ramses; because Nacho came in second, he now has the right to fight Ramses in Silencio's stead. During Steven's explanation, the viewer is shown a flashback, wherein Steven ran a motorized tricycle 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 an argument in which Steven had stated that he hated all the orphans in the whole world. Steven replies that he does not hate them anymore, and that the children need a hero. Ignacio accepts the role.

That night, Ignacio sends a message via Steven to Sister Encarnación, wherein he explains his plan and confesses his love to her. In the match, Nacho is nearly defeated - indeed, unmasked - by Ramses. Although the unmasking is a very significant move, suggestive of the player's defeat, the match continues with minimal acknowledgment of the act. Just as Nacho is about to lose, Sister Encarnación enters accompanied by the orphans, who are wearing masks to imitate Nacho. Inspired, Nacho throws Ramses off, chases him out of the ring, and jumps onto him with a flair recalling his earlier brush with eagle eggs and their supposed power. By doing so, Nacho beats Ramses and becomes champion.

Ignacio uses the prize money to buy a bus for field trips for the children. The film closes on one such trip, wherein Ignacio, 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 acknowledgment thereof.

[edit] Release Date

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 the Netherlands by Universal Pictures.

[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 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

Actor Role
Jack Black Nacho
Ana de la Reguera Sister Encarnación
Héctor Jiménez Steven Esqueleto
Troy Gentile Nacho (young age)
Carla Jimenez Cándida
Richard Montoya Guillermo
César González Ramses
Moises Arias Juan Pablo
Dan Fleury John Rooney
Darius Rose Chancho
Peter Stormare Emperor
Neil Comte Pepi
Kevin Nieves Doctor Cockso

[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." 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" 38% rating at RottenTomatoes (as of April 12, 2008)[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 $80,197,993.00. [2]
Despite negative reviews from the media and pop. culture, "Nacho" and "Esqueleto" have continued to influence children living in poverty and help them strive for success in life.

[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

  1. Hombre Religioso (Religious Man) - Mister Loco
  2. "A Nice Pile-Drive To The Face" - Nacho (Dialog)
  3. Move, Move, Move - Alan Hawkshaw & Alan Parker
  4. Papas - Mister Loco
  5. Singing At The Party - Jack Black with Ismael Garcia Ruiz Y Su Trio
  6. Ramses Suite - Danny Elfman
  7. "All The Orphans In The World" - Nacho & Esqueleto (Dialog)
  8. There Is No Place In This World For Me - Beck
  9. "I'm Serious" - Nacho (Dialog)
  10. 10,000 Pesos - Beck
  11. Irene - Caetano Veloso
  12. Pump A Jam (Ramses) - Cholotronic
  13. Black Is Black - Eddie Santiago
  14. Half Forgotten Daydreams - John Cameron
  15. Encarnación - Jack Black
  16. Tender Beasts Of The Spangled Night - Beck
  17. Saint Behind The Glass - Los Lobos
  18. "Beneath The Clothes We Find The Man..." - Nacho (Dialog)
  19. Forbidden Nectar - Jack Black & Mucho Macho Acapulco

One song that was not included on the soundtrack, but was in the movie, was "Bubblegum" by Mr. Loco

[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 "Macho 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". Mexican professional luchador César González also appears as Ramses

[edit] Moves portrayed

  • There are five 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.
    • The battle royal is less than accurately 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 as is later revealed in the film.
    • 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.
    • It is illegal to remove another luchador's mask unless the victor defeats him in a mascara contra mascara match.

[edit] Interviews

[edit] Video game

In 2006, Nacho Libre was published by Majesco Entertainment for the Nintendo DS. It is a cartoonish wrestling game based upon the film. It is not available for any other platforms yet.[3]

[edit] External links

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Nickelodeon Movies