Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 American independent comedy film co-written and directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess and stars Jon Heder as the eponymous character Napoleon Dynamite. The film was Jared Hess's first full-length feature and is partially adapted from his earlier short film, Peluca.
Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and near Preston, Idaho, in the summer of 2003. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004. In June 2004 it was given a limited release. Its wide release followed in August. The film's total domestic gross was US $44.5 million.[1] Considering its budget of US $400,000, Napoleon Dynamite was a huge success, grossing over one hundred times its production cost. There were originally plans for a sequel, but current status is unknown and presumed to be cancelled.[2]
Plot
Napoleon Dynamite is a high school student from Preston, Idaho who lives with his grandmother, his elder brother Kip and their pet llama, Tina. Kip (Aaron Ruell), 32, is unemployed and boasts of spending hours in Internet chat rooms with 'babes' and training to be a cage fighter. Napoleon daydreams his way through school, doodling fantastic rare creatures and being bullied.
Napoleon's grandma breaks her coccyx in a dune buggy accident and, believing her grandsons cannot be trusted to look after themselves, she asks Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) to stay with them while she recovers. Uncle Rico is a middle-aged former high-school quarterback who lives in an orange 1975 Dodge Santana campervan and is mentally stuck in the year 1982 (a fact which caused a breakup with his girlfriend). His presence, although increasingly irksome to Napoleon, is a boon to Kip as he and Uncle Rico embark on a joint project to become door-to-door salesmen selling a Tupperware-like product. Kip reveals that he would like to earn some money to enable him to meet his new Internet girlfriend from Detroit, LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery). Uncle Rico is not averse to using Napoleon's name to gain credibility in his attempts to sell herbal breast-enhancement products to Napoleon's school mates, causing increasing friction between Uncle Rico and Napoleon.
As the plot progresses, Napoleon makes two new friends from high school, Deb and Pedro. Deb (Tina Majorino) is a shy and sensitive girl who seems to take a liking to Napoleon. The two have a falling out, however, when Uncle Rico attempts to sell her breast-enhancement herbs and implies that Napoleon suggested it. Pedro (Efren Ramirez) is a transfer student from Juárez, Mexico, who decides to run for class president against popular girl Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff). Despite a couple of hiccups, the campaign goes well until the time Pedro is about to deliver his final speech, when he discovers that each candidate must perform a skit afterwards. Having not prepared a routine, a despondent Pedro gives a lackluster speech, believing that his candidacy is over. However, Napoleon displays uncharacteristic quick wit by giving a music tape he had received from the visiting LaFawnduh to the sound engineer and performing a passionate, energetic dance routine, which wins a standing ovation from the school audience.
The film closes out with a montage of scenes showing a happy ending for all concerned. Pedro wins the class presidency. LaFawnduh, smitten with Kip right from the start, transforms his fashion, and they leave town together. A fully recovered Grandma returns and has clearly missed Tina, the llama, more than her grandchildren. Uncle Rico's girlfriend returns to Rico, and while Napoleon is playing tether ball by himself, Deb shows up and starts playing with him, having forgiven her friend.
A post credits scene, added after the festival release, reveals Kip and LaFawnduh getting married.
Cast
- Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite: The film's protagonist is a rather awkward teenager who enjoys mundane diversions such as drawing, playing tetherball and hip-hop dancing. He regularly boasts about his 'skills' with weapons such as nunchucks (which he calls "numchucks") and bostaffs plus knowing all the "illegal ninja moves from the government." He wears vintage t-shirts tucked into waist-high beltless jeans, black moon boots and steel-rimmed glasses. He is active in the FFA and his school's sign language club (the "Happy Hands Club").
- Jon Gries as Uncle Rico: Napoleon and Kip's uncle, who lives in a field in his camper van. He played football in high school ("back in '82"), and desires to live in the past. He is often seen filming himself passing footballs to nobody for no apparent reason. Rico longs to go back in time and change his fortune, even buying a "time machine" from the Internet in an attempt to return to 1982. He fervently believes he had the potential to be a star quarterback in the National Football League, if only his coach had played him in the 4th quarter of the championship game, which he is sure he could have won for his team. Despite acting like a jock and adopting a condescending attitude, in reality he is just as geeky as Napoleon and Kip. His intention is to make money using unorthodox methods and to place the blame on Napoleon. However, toward the end, he learns his lesson after being beaten up by the local martial arts teacher for selling herbal breast enhancers to his bodybuilding wife. The notorious van which was used in many scenes in the movie is generally referred to as Uncle Rico's Van. It's actually a 1975 Dodge B300 Santana Camper Van which was recently sold on eBay and can be seen listed on Movie Star Motors here.
- Aaron Ruell as Kip Dynamite: Napoleon's wimpy older brother. Kip often brags to Napoleon that he is online all day chatting on the computer with "babes". His full name is revealed at the wedding as "Kipland Ronald Dynamite."
- Efren Ramirez as Pedro Sánchez: A new student to Preston High, originally from Juárez, Mexico. He becomes Napoleon's best friend, and his campaign for class president is one of the main plot points in the film.
- Tina Majorino as Deborah "Deb": Napoleon's schoolfriend and major love interest. She goes door-to-door selling "Deb's Glamour Shots" and homemade boondoggle key chains, "a must-have for this season's fashion". Deb seems to be the most articulate character among the three friends in the film.
- Diedrich Bader as Rex: Local martial arts instructor and founder of the "Rex Kwon Do" center.
- Haylie Duff as Summer Wheatley: The popular girl at Napoleon's school and the film's antagonist. She runs for class president against Pedro.
- Trevor Snarr as Don: Summer's jock boyfriend who makes fun of Napoleon at school.
- Sandy Martin as Grandma Dynamite: Napoleon and Kip's grandmother who is taken to the hospital after a dune-buggy accident.
- Shondrella Avery as LaFawnduh Lucas: Kip's girlfriend and later wife, whom he meets online.
- Bracken Johnson as Randy: Kid who regularly bullies Napoleon at school.
- Carmen Brady as Starla: Rex's bodybuilder wife.
Background
Setting
Preston is a real town in southeastern Idaho, located near the Utah border. Since the release of Napoleon Dynamite, it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with Preston High School being a main feature. Also with its premiere in 2004, Preston has held a Napoleon Dynamite Festival every summer to celebrate the filming of Napoleon Dynamite in Preston and nearby towns. In April 2005, the Idaho Legislature approved a resolution commending the filmmakers for producing Napoleon Dynamite, specifically enumerating the benefits the movie has brought to Idaho, as well as for showcasing various aspects of Idaho's culture and economy.[3]. Most of the film was filmed in Idaho, except for the diner scenes in Richmond, Utah.
Origin of the name "Napoleon Dynamite"
Upon the film's release, it was noted that the name "Napoleon Dynamite" had originally been used by musician Elvis Costello, most visibly on his 1986 album Blood and Chocolate[4][5], although he had used the pseudonym on a single B-side as early as 1982.[6] Filmmaker Jared Hess claims that he was not aware of Costello's use of the name until two days before the end of shooting, when he was informed by a teenage extra.[7] He later said, "Had I known that name was used by anybody else prior to shooting the whole film, it definitely would have been changed ... I listen to hip-hop, dude. It's a pretty embarrassing coincidence."[7] Hess claims that "Napoleon Dynamite" was the name of a man he met around the year 2000 on the streets of Cicero, Illinois, while doing missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[8][9]
Costello believes that Hess stole the name: "The guy just denies completely that I made the name up... but I invented it. Maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came about it by chance. But it's two words that you're never going to hear together."[10] Costello has taken no legal action against the film.
Reception
The film has a 71% "fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[11] Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice praised the film as "an epic, magisterially observed pastiche on all-American geek-hood, flooring the competition with a petulant shove."[12] Prominent film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ stars, noting that he felt that "the movie makes no attempt to make [Napoleon] likable" and that it contained "a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor".[13]
It is surprisingly difficult to predict how viewers will react to Napoleon Dynamite as it tends to polarize audiences in a "love it or hate it" fashion. Researchers and algorithm workers at Netflix have found that they are unable to predict whether or not a particular viewer will like Napoleon Dynamite based on their ratings of previously viewed films, making it one of only a select few movies that pose this problem.[14]
References in other works
Awards
- Best Feature Film at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival the same year. The film's budget was only $400,000. When the film rights were sold to a major distributor, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox supplied additional funds for the post-credits scene.
- In 2005, the film—itself an MTV Films production—won three MTV Movie Awards, for Breakthrough Male Performance, Best Musical Performance, and Best Movie. This film is number 14 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
- It won the 2005 Golden Trailer Awards for Best Comedy.
- It won the 2005 Golden Satellite Award for Best Original Score (John Swihart).
- Four awards at the Teen Choice Awards. Best Movie Breakout Performance - Female for Haylie Duff, Best Movie Dance Scene, Best Movie Hissy Fit for Jon Heder, and Best Comedy.
- The 2004 Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Feature
Soundtrack
An asterisk(*) denotes a song that is not in the soundtrack album.
See also
References
External links
