Nacho Libre
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 Gutiérrez Benítez, a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador. The producers are Jack Black, David Klawans, Julia Pistor, and Mike White.
Plot
Ignacio (Jack Black) is an overweight luchador with a tag-team partner.
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, then died while Ignacio was young.
Having grown up as an orphan in a Mexican monastery, he is now a grown man and the monastery’s cook, but he is looked down upon by the other friars. Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans, having grown up in the orphanage himself, but his food is terrible due to a lack of funds with which to obtain quality 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.
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 loving feelings for the newly arrived tutor, Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera) with whom he finds he has much 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.
Donning a homemade mask, sweats, and a blouse, he enters the local competition, accompanied by the slender, atheistic street thief Steven (Héctor Jiménez). Steven, under the name of Esqueleto ("Skeleton"), becomes Ignacio's tag partner in wrestling.
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.
Later, Ignacio is caught wearing his wrestling undergarments by Chancho, one of the orphans. Chancho sees through the lie and Ignacio makes Chancho promise not 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 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. They sneak into a party and try to arrange an audience with the champion to try to become experts.
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. 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.
In the wilderness, Ignacio eats cactus and builds a crude framework of sticks, in an effort to create shelter.
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. Just as Nacho is about to lose, Sister Encarnación enters accompanied by the orphans, who are wearing masks to imitate Nacho.
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.
Main cast
Critical reaction and performance
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 the same off-beat humor that made his Napoleon Dynamite a cult hit".
The film currently has a "Rotten" 39% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, but it was a commercial and box office success. However, Paramount Pictures didn't think Beck's style fit the movie, and decided to try to get composer Danny Elfman to replace him.
An agreement was eventually reached where both Beck and Elfman were credited for their respective parts of the score. 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.
Interviews
Jack Black Nacho Libre
Video game
In 2006, a video game adaptation of Nacho Libre was published by Majesco Entertainment and was released for the Nintendo DS.