Tribute to EL SANTO and CAPULINA

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2009)

I just had the opportunity to watch NACHO LIBRE for the second time and, even though I was predisposed (I didn't like it that much the first time; it is surprisingly ironic how most of the dialogs lost their meaning when translated to Spanish), I started smiling because I was getting the meaning from the very beginning. I loved the way the director captured the essence and the "involuntary comedy" of the Mexican movies of the 1960's-70's.
As a youngster, my cousins and I used to get together every Saturday to have lunch at my Grandma's, and always after lunch we watched the main station here (Televisa), which featured movies by Capulina and El Santo. Capulina is an adorable, lovable, silly fat guy with mustache, and sometimes acted with his skinny not as lovable "sideshow" Viruta. El Santo was considered as "national superhero" and occasionally had as "sideshow" Blue Demon. Capulina did comedies for kids where he always ended up by change defeating the evil ones and saving the goodies. On the other side, El Santo was a super famous wrestler that also did acting, but his movies weren't comedies, they were more adventure/mystery and sometimes horror movies. Things in common in movies that are featured by these two characters: very poor production, direction, and acting. Why where they famous? Because that was the only thing that was available at the time. Why did I watch them when I was young? Because as kid I thought they were the funniest or scariest and coolest pictures ever (I think most Mexicans of mygeneration would agree).
About a decade ago a trend started here in Mexico and even got into other countries. These icons I just mentioned where taken as cult. Their movies are entertaining to watch now, not because they are good movies, but because there's so much wrong going on. Capulina is supposedly fighting the evil guys at night and you can see a ball in the sky (sun), El Santo is driving his sports car but the speedometer is not marking a thing, El Santo was swimming with his suit (he wore a suit and a mask for going out) and when he gets out of the sea he is all dry, just to state only a few examples. And, above all, the plots where soooo lame and slow; most of the scenes were El Santo fighting on the ring or Capulina making his silly jokes.
That being said, I think Jared Hess watched the movies that I just wrote about, studying very well this trend and capturing it on his movie. The attires all characters wear (clearly from the 1970's), the way the bad guys act -Ramsés and his guys picture exactly how a wrestler would look like and fight like in one of El Santo's movies-, the simple plot, and the silly and good hearted personality of Ignacio (even the mustache!) are some few things from NACHO LIBRE that remind me of Capulina and El Santo.
NACHO LIBRE is kind of a tribute to them and there is nothing involuntary in it. Every little detail is well thought and cleverly transformed from the simple movies I wrote about to what NACHO LIBRE is. It not only has the influence of Napoleon Dynamite, but also reflects the pop culture that Mexicans grew up with from the 60's to the early 90's. And also, to clarify a lot of the comments, this movie is faaaaar from being racist!