''Nacho Libre'' is a 2006

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Jared Hess Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on '' Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004), '' Nacho Libre'' (2006) and '' Gentlemen Bronc ...

and written by

Jared and Jerusha Hess Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on ''Napoleon Dynamite'' (2004), '' Nacho Libre'' (2006) and ''Gentlemen Broncos ...

and Mike White. It stars

Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), '' Shallow Hal'' (2001), '' Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ' ...

as Ignacio, a Catholic

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

and

lucha libre Lucha libre (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term used in Latin America for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form ...

fan who secretly moonlights as a luchador to earn money for the orphanage where he works. The film is loosely based on the story of

Fray Tormenta Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez (born May 9, 1945) is a Mexican Catholic priest who supported an orphanage for 23 years as a lucha libre wrestler. While performing, he wore a red and yellow mask and used the ring name Fray Tormenta ("Friar Storm"). ...

("Friar Storm", a.k.a. Rev. Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez), a real-life Mexican

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador to support the orphanage he directed. The film was produced by Black, White, David Klawans and Julia Pistor. The film was released on June 16, 2006, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. 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, a Scandinavian

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

missionary and a Mexican

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

, both died while he was still a baby. Now a cook for the

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...

monastery orphanage where he was raised, Ignacio dreams of becoming a '' luchador'', but wrestling is strictly forbidden by the monastery as it is considered a sin of

vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic ...

. Though Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans, he is unable to provide decent meals for them due to a lack of funds. He also struggles with his feelings for Sister Encarnación, a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

who has just arrived to teach at the orphanage. One night, while collecting a bag of

tortilla chips A tortilla chip is a snack food made from corn tortillas, which are cut into triangles and then fried or baked (alternatively they may be discs pressed out of corn masa then fried or baked). Corn tortillas are made of nixtamalized corn, vege ...

for the orphans, Ignacio gets mugged for the chips by a street thief named Steven. Having had enough, Ignacio decides to disregard the monastery's rules and become a ''luchador'' to make money. He convinces Steven to join him by promising to share the prize money if they win, and the two join a local competition as tag partners. Ignacio fights with the moniker "Nacho" to keep his identity secret, while Steven adopts the name "Esqueleto". They get defeated in their first match but still get paid nicely, as wrestlers are entitled to a portion of the total revenue. They prove popular with the crowd so are invited back. They continue to wrestle every week, with Ignacio using the money to acquire better food for the orphans but becoming frustrated that the duo can never achieve victory in the ring. Ignacio tries everything he can think of, including a folk remedy to acquire the powers of an eagle, but success still eludes the two. He then seeks advice from champion ''luchador'' Ramses, who arrogantly rebuffs his attempts at conversation. Undeterred, the duo infiltrates a party Ramses's manager holds for the best wrestlers. Steven climbs over a wall to get inside, where he discovers that in order to be considered a professional, one must be the last luchador standing in the ring at an upcoming free-for-all match. Ignacio gets in by disguising himself as a band member playing for the party, but does not know their material and improvises; Ramses finds Ignacio's performance annoying and ousts him. Attending the party causes Ignacio to fall behind on his responsibilities to the orphans, for which he angrily blames Steven, who retaliates by declaring he hates all orphans; they acrimoniously end their partnership. Ignacio's secret is revealed to the entire monastery when his robe catches fire during

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

, exposing his wrestling costume and forcing him to admit that he is a ''luchador''. He declares that he intends to fight at a battle royale for the right to take on Ramses for a cash prize, which he will use to buy a bus for the orphans. During the match, wrestler Silencio ultimately emerges the victor after defeating Ignacio, who comes in second place. Ignacio is banished from the monastery, so he goes to live in the "wilderness", which is actually very close to the nearby village. The next morning, Steven comes to tell him that Silencio has been injured and cannot fight, and that as the second-place finisher, Ignacio now has the right to fight Ramses; Ignacio and Steven agree to team up again. That night, Ignacio sends a message to Encarnación, explaining his plan and confessing his love to her. Ignacio overcomes difficulty and manages to do well in the match, winning the crowd's support, but Ramses cheats and nearly wins until Ignacio sees Encarnación enter the arena with the orphans. Inspired by their support, Nacho rallies himself and defeats Ramses with a diving technique. Ignacio becomes a professional wrestler and eventually manages to buy a bus for the orphans with his prize money; he then takes the orphans, Steven, and Sister Encarnación on a field trip to

Monte Albán Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (17.043° N, 96.767°W). The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in th ...

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.

Cast

as Ignacio/Nacho, a Oaxaca monastery cook who dreams of becoming a luchador **

Troy Gentile Troy Gentile (born Troy Francis Farshi; October 27, 1993) is an American actor best known for his role as Mark in '' Hotel for Dogs'' and Barry Goldberg on the comedy series '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present), and for playing young versions of J ...

as Young Ignacio *

Ana de la Reguera Anabell Gardoqui de la Reguera (; born 8 April 1977) is a Mexican actress. She has starred in telenovelas, films, the HBO television series ''Eastbound & Down'' and ''Capadocia'', the Amazon television series ''Goliath'', and the 2006 comedy '' ...

as Sister Encarnación, a nun at the monastery * Héctor Jiménez as Steven/Esqueleto, Ignacio's tag partner * Silver King as Ramses, the luchador champion and Ignacio's idol * Carla Jimenez as Cándida, a portly woman who tries to court Steven at the luchador's party * Richard Montoya as Guillermo * Enrique Muñoz as Señor Ramon, Ramses' manager *

Moisés Arias Moisés Arias (born April 18, 1994), is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Rico in the Disney Channel series ''Hannah Montana'', Biaggio in the 2013 Sundance film ''The Kings of Summer'', Cokestraw in the 2019 SXSW comedy-drama ...

as Juan Pablo * Donald Chambers as Silencio, one of the wrestlers who defeats Nacho but is disqualified when Esqueleto runs over him, injuring his foot * Darius Rose as Chancho *

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

as Emperor, the local magic-man who claims that eating eagle eggs will give Ignachio the eagle's power * Diego Eduardo Gomez as Chuy *

Human Tornado Craig Williams (born May 1, 1983), better known by his ring name, Human Tornado, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler. His character was that of a 1970s blaxploitation street pimp. He performed primarily on the California independent ...

as El Snowflake, one of the luchadors who faces Nacho *

Mascarita Dorada Mascarita Dorada (Spanish: ''Little Golden Mask''; born February 19, 1982), is the ring name of a Mexican '' Luchador enmascarado'', or masked professional wrestler, who works in the '' Mini-Estrella'' division, comparable to midget wrestling. ...

as one of Los Duendes

Production

Black was a fan of the film

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...

and its director

, and the two met in Los Angeles to discuss collaborating. Black was drawn to Hess' idea of a man of the Lord secretly living a life of violence via his love of lucha libre wrestling. While filming, Black sustained a gash on his eye after diving out of the wrestling ring during a stunt. He was rushed to the hospital but was able to continue filming. The film was shot entirely in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Music

Director

originally wanted musical artist

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

to be behind the soundtrack for the film. Beck, being a fan of Hess, accepted. However,

did not think Beck's style fit the movie, so composer

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internation ...

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 (with one of the songs, Ramses Suite, appearing in the released soundtrack). 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. However, Elfman appears with sole credit in the official billing block on promotional material.

Soundtrack

The track listing for the official soundtrack to ''Nacho Libre''. The soundtrack was released October 24, 2006 # Hombre Religioso (Religious Man) -

Mister Loco Mr. Loco, also known as Mister Loco or Mr. Loco Band, is a Mexican band formed in 1975. They sing mostly in English and occasionally in Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group i ...

# "A Nice Pile-Drive to the Face" (''dialogue'') -

# Move, Move, Move -

Alan Hawkshaw William Alan Hawkshaw (27 March 1937 – 16 October 2021) was a British composer and performer, particularly of library music used as themes for movies and television programs. Hawkshaw worked extensively for the KPM production music company ...

and Alan Parker # Papas - Mister Loco # Piel Canela (Singing at the Party) - Jack Black with Ismael Garcia Ruiz y Su Trio # Ramses Suite -

# "All the Orphans in the World" (''dialogue'') - Jack Black and Héctor Jiménez # There is No Place in This World for Me -

# "I'm Serious" (''dialogue'') - Jack Black # 10,000 Pesos - Beck # Irene -

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...

# Pump a Jam (Ramses) - Cholotronic # Black is Black -

Eddie Santiago Eddie Santiago (born Eduardo Santiago Rodríguez, August 18, 1955) is a salsa singer from Puerto Rico. Early years At a young age, Santiago demonstrated great love for salsa music. He performed with several groups, including Generación 2000, ...

# Half Forgotten Daydreams - John Cameron # Encarnación - Jack Black # Tender Beasts of the Spangled Night - Beck # Saint Behind the Glass -

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cu ...

# "Beneath the Clothes We Find the Man..." (''dialogue'') - 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, "Bat Macumba" by

Os Mutantes Os Mutantes (meaning '' the mutants''; ) are an influential Brazilian rock band that were linked with the Tropicália movement, a dissident musical movement during the Brazilian dictatorship of the late 1960s. The band is considered to be one ...

, and “La Llorona Loca” by Little Joe and the Latinaires.

Release and reception

The release date was originally set for May 2006, but was changed by Paramount to avoid competition from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

's '' X-Men: The Last Stand'' and one of Paramount's other films, '' Mission: Impossible III''. It was then placed between the releases of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

's ''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

'' (June 9) and Warner Bros. and

Legendary Pictures Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC ( doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborate ...

' ''

Superman Returns ''Superman Returns'' is a 2006 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris from a story by Singer, Dougherty and Harris based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the sixth and fina ...

'' (June 28). It was released on DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on October 24, 2006. It was distributed in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

. During its opening weekend, ''Nacho Libre'' grossed $28,309,599, opening at #2 behind ''

'' 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

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approving rating of 40% based on 166 reviews, 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 ''

'' characters, and instead, relies on a one-joke concept that runs out of steam. Sure to entertain the adolescents, however".

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' wrote: "it takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work, but ''Nacho Libre'' does it".

Mick LaSalle Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...

of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' thought the comedy was "hit and miss, with good bits interrupted by dead patches".

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave it a positive review and called it "endearingly ridiculous".

Video game

A video game adaptation of the film was published by

Majesco Entertainment Majesco Entertainment Company (formerly Majesco Sales Inc.) is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held com ...

and was released for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

. It is a cartoon-style wrestling game based upon the film.

Possible sequel

In November 2006,

, when asked, expressed his interest in a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

: "I sure hope so, I love working with

Jared Jared is a given name of Biblical derivation. Origin In the Book of Genesis, the biblical patriarch Jared (יֶרֶד) was the sixth in the ten pre-flood generations between Adam and Noah; he was the son of Mahalaleel and the father of En ...

. I think it's a good bet that we'll collaborate on something again.

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

had an idea that it would be Nacho goes to Japan, we'll see though." However, Jared Hess (who directed the original movie) 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".

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nacho Libre 2006 films 2000s buddy films 2000s sports comedy films American buddy films American sports comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s Spanish-language films Films scored by Danny Elfman Films about orphans Films about religion Films directed by Jared Hess Films set in Mexico Films shot in California Films shot in Mexico Films with screenplays by Mike White Lucha libre films Nickelodeon Movies films Paramount Pictures films Professional wrestling films Sport wrestling films 2006 comedy films American children's comedy films 2000s children's comedy films Hispanic and Latino American comedy films 2000s American films Spanish-language American films