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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 is written by Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess, and Mike White. The producers are Jack Black, David Klawans, Julia Pistor, and Mike White. The date was originally set to be May 2006, but was changed by Paramount to avoid competition from Fox's The Last Stand and one of Paramount's other films, 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".

Plot

Paramount Pictures' precis of the Nacho Libre story is as follows:

Nacho (Jack Black) is a holy man without skills. After growing up as an orphan in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery’s cook, but doesn’t fit in and is often looked down upon. Nacho cares deeply for the orphans he feeds, but his food is terrible – mostly, if you ask him, a result of his terrible ingredients. He realizes that he must hatch a plan to make money to buy better food for “the young orphans, who have nothing” (…and if in doing so Nacho can impress the lovely Sister Encarnación, that would be a big plus). When Nacho is struck by the idea to earn money as a Lucha Libre wrestler, he finds that he has a natural, raw talent for wrestling. As he teams with his rail-thin, unconventional partner, Esqueleto (the Skeleton), Nacho feels for the first time in his life that he has something to fight for and a place where he belongs. As Lucha is strictly forbidden by the church elders at the monastery, Nacho is forced to lead a double life. Disguised by a sky blue mask, Nacho conceals his true identity as he takes on Mexico’s most famous wrestlers and takes on a comedic quest to make life a little sweeter at the orphanage.

Podcast

During the filming, Jack Black began doing a production diary video podcast called Jack Black's Nacho Libre Confessional. In every episode, Jack is filmed with a hand-held camera inside his trailer. He introduces the viewer to the cast and set, and gives a brief description of what he has been up to.

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 Jack whilst having his chest waxed in Episode 3 of the podcast.

Main cast

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 the same off-beat humor that made his Napoleon Dynamite a cult hit"[http://www.michaelmedved.com/pg/jsp/charts/streamingAudioMaster.jsp?dispid=307&headerDest=L3BnL2pzcC9tZWRpYS9mbGFzaHdlbGNvbWUuanNwP3BpZD0yODQ5 Read Michael Medved's Full Review Score of 2.5/4 Stars.

The film currently has a "rotten" 35% rating at RottenTomatoes (as of July 13, 2006)See Nacho Libre on Rotten Tomatoes.

Comparing the film with the director's preceding film, Napoleon Dynamite, Joe Dunn (Joe Loves Crappy Movies) wrote, "Napoleon is certainly more quotable, but I think Black screaming, “I don‘t want no corn!” in a busted Mexican accent is light-years funnier than any “Gosh!” [Jon Heder has to offer." Review And Parody Comic of Nacho Libre by Joe Dunn Score of 6.5/10

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rated the film "morally offensive" by for several charges including "pervasive irreverence", "slapstick violence", and "crude humor including flatulence"http://www.nccbuscc.org/movies/n/nacholibre.shtml.

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.

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. Paramount hired Elfman without telling Hess. They were to have Elfman record bits of the score, and then present those bits to Hess, hoping to convince Hess to use Elfman's work instead of Beck's. When presented with Elfman's recordings, Hess didn't feel that they were the right style for Nacho Libre, and wanted to stick with Beck's score. However, Paramount switched a lot of Elfman's score in during post-production.

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. *

Since the soundtrack is not officially released, this is a rough list of the music used: *

Multiple versions of the theatrical trailer were released which contained songs such as E-Pro by Beck and I Need a Hero by Bonnie Tyler.

Possible Collaboration with Wrestling Industry

Before the release of the movie World Wrestling Entertainment added Ignacio A.K.A. Nacho to the SmackDown! brand roster on their website. Whether this is simply promotion for the movie or if Jack Black will be making an appearance on the show remains to be announced or seen. The SmackDown! profile can be viewed here.

Also at ECW One Night Stand, a pay-per-view run by the WWE, fans chanted "Nacho Libre" towards Mexican wrestler Super Crazy.

Also at the June 20, 2006, edition on ECW's television show, Black's character was parodied with "Macho Libre". Macho Libre was a wrestler dressed like Ignacio, only speaking in "Macho Man" Randy Savage's voice with a Hispanic accent.

Trivia

  • Fray Tormenta ("Brother Tempest"), aka Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, is 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.
  • Jack Black trained with a real luchador prior to filming.
  • Many fans of Jared Hess's film Napoleon Dynamite have called Nacho Libre "Napoleon Dynamite + Lucha Libre", or a "Spanish Napoleon Dynamite". Incidentally, Paramount Pictures, the distributors of Nacho Libre, released Napoleon Dynamite outside the US.
  • Lucha Libre - wrestling is more accurately translated as free fighting. Libre meaning freedom (from the Latin libris which English derived into the word liberty). In a way the title may be called Nacho is Free.
  • There are many wrestling in-jokes spread throughout the movie, such as Nacho using the guitar to hit someone over the head with, Jeff Jarrett style.
  • The film's "theme song", played during the opening credits and several times thereafter, is "Religious Man", written and recorded in 1975 by the Mexican band Mister Loco.
  • According to an interview with Jack Black, the movie takes place in the early 1970s.
  • Jack Black trained in New Japan Pro Wrestling's Los Angeles Dojo to hone his wrestling skills in preparation for the movie.
  • Professional wrestler Human Tornado appears in the movie as "El Snowflake"

Moves Portrayed

  • Tombstone Piledriver
  • Tiger Feint Kick a.k.a. 619
  • Frog Splash
  • Hurricanrana
  • Gorilla Press Slam
  • Hip Toss
  • Fireman's Carry Slam
  • Sleeper Hold

Notes

External links

2006 films | Comedy films | Lucha libre | Films shot in Mexico | Paramount films | Fictional luchadores

ナッチョ・リブレ

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Nacho Libre".

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