Nacho Libre is a 2006 Mexican-American sportscomedy-drama film directed by Jared Hess and written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and Mike White. It stars Jack Black, and is loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta, a real-life Mexican Catholicpriest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador and competed in order to support the orphanage he directed. The film was produced by Black, White, David Klawans and Julia Pistor. The film was released on June 2, 2006 by Paramount Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $99.3 million at the worldwide box office against its $35 million production budget.
Plot
Ignacio's parents were a Scandinavian Lutheran missionary and a Mexican deacon, who both died when Ignacio was a baby. Now a cook for the Oaxaca monastery orphanage where he was raised, Ignacio dreams of becoming a luchador, but wrestling is strictly forbidden by the monastery as it is a sin of vanity. Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans and loves them with all his heart, but his food is terrible because he cannot afford quality ingredients. He also struggles over his feelings for Sister Encarnación, a nun who teaches at the orphanage. One night, while collecting a bag of donated tortilla chips for the orphans, Ignacio is mugged of the chips by a street thief named Steven. After a fight between the two, Ignacio decides to disregard the monastery's rules and become a luchador in order to make money. He convinces Steven to join him with the promise of remuneration if they win, and the two join a local competition as tag partners. Ignacio changes his name to "Nacho" to keep his identity secret, while Steven adopts the name "Esqueleto". They are defeated in their first match, but are nevertheless paid, as every wrestler is entitled to a portion of the total revenue. They continue to wrestle every week, with Ignacio using his pay to buy and prepare better food for the orphans. Ignacio gets used to losing some fights, but after a while, he gradually grows annoyed with the consistent losses. Steven brings him to a water gypsy who tells Ignacio to climb to an eagle's nest, crack open the egg and swallow the yolk, claiming that he will gain the powers of an eagle. Ignacio completes the task, but still loses the next several bouts, frustrating him. He seeks advice from champion luchador Ramses, but Ramses is vain and in no mood to help aspiring wrestlers. Ignacio's secret is finally exposed to the entire monastery when his robe catches fire during church, exposing his wrestling costume. He admits that he is Nacho and tells them that he intends to fight at a battle royale between eight luchadores for the right to take on Ramses, and for a cash prize, which he will use to buy a bus for the orphans. But the wrestler Silencio whose signature move is throwing people wins the match after piledriving Ignacio; Nacho comes in second place. Banished from the monastery, Ignacio leaves to live in the nearby wilderness. The next morning, Steven comes to tell him that Silencio has been injured and cannot fight, meaning that Nacho—as the second-place finisher—receives the right to fight Ramses. Ignacio and Steven agree to team up again. That night, Ignacio sends a message via Steven to Encarnación, explaining his plan and confessing his love to her. Despite initial difficulty, Nacho does well in the match. When the crowd begins to support Ignacio, Ramses resorts to cheating. Nacho is nearly defeated—indeed, unmasked—by Ramses, when Encarnación enters the arena with the orphans. Elated and inspired, Nacho rallies himself and defeats Ramses with an aerial diving technique. Ignacio becomes a professional wrestler and, true to his word, buys a bus for the orphans with his prize money. The film closes with Ignacio, Steven and Sister Encarnación taking the children on a field trip to the city ofMonte Albán.
Director Hess originally wanted musical artistBeck to be behind the soundtrack for the film. Beck, being a fan of Hess, accepted. However, Paramount Pictures did not think Beck's style fit the movie, composer Danny Elfman was brought in to replace him. Elfman then wrote a full score and recorded it in May 2006. However, 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 the film's score. Hess caught wind of this and would not allow the studio to remove Beck from the credits. When finding that he would not 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.
Release and reception
The release date was originally set for May 2006, but was changed by Paramount to avoid competition from Fox's ' and one of Paramount's other films, '. It was then placed between the releases of Disney/Pixar's Cars and Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' Superman Returns. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 24, 2006. It was distributed in Switzerland, Spain, and the Netherlands by Universal Pictures. During its opening weekend, Nacho Libre grossed $28,309,599, opening at #2 behind Cars second weekend. The total domestic box office stands at $80,197,993 and a worldwide total of $99,255,460. The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approving rating of 40%, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus states: "At times hilarious, but other times offensive, director Jared Hess is unable to recapture the collective charisma of his Napoleon Dynamite characters, and instead, relies on a one-joke concept that runs out of steam. Sure to entertain the adolescents, however". According to Roger Ebert, "it takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work, but Nacho Libre does it". Michael Medved gave the film two and a half stars calling it "amusing, but resistable ", but adding that "director Jared Hess the same off-beat humor that made his Napoleon Dynamite a cult hit".Metacritic gave film a score of 52 based on 36 reviews, indicating "mixed to average reviews".
Soundtrack
The track listing for the official soundtrack to Nacho Libre. The soundtrack was released October 24, 2006
"Beneath the Clothes We Find the Man..." - Jack Black
Forbidden Nectar - Jack Black and Mucho Macho Acapulco
Some songs that were not included on the soundtrack, but were in the movie, are "Mucha Muchacha" by Esquivel, "Bubblegum" by Mister Loco, "Holy Man" by Beck and "Bat Macumba" by Os Mutantes.
In November 2006, Jack Black, when asked, expressed his interest in a sequel; "I sure hope so, I love working with Jared. I think it's a good bet that we'll collaborate on something again. Mike had an idea that it would be Nacho goes to Japan, we'll see though." However, Jared Hess revealed in October 2009 that Paramount had never approached him about doing a sequel to Nacho Libre, though he said he would "love to work with Black again".
