Napoleon Dynamite
Produced by Jory Weitz, Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt, Sean Covel
Directed by Jared Hess
Screenplay by Jared Hess
Screenplay by Jerusha Hess
Premiere Date: January 2004
Length: 95 min.
 

Genre:   Film
Production Type:
Mormon Contributor(s)
Content Types:
Narrative Film
No Obvious Mormon Elements
Distribution Types:
Commercial Theaters
Summary:
From the DVD cover:

"Napoleon Dynamite is a new kind of hero, complete with a tight 'fro, sweet moon boots, and skills that can't be topped. Napoleon spends his days drawing mythical beasts, duking it out with his brother Kip and avoiding his scheming Uncle Rico. When two new friends enter Napoleon's life--shy Deb and mustachioed Pedro--the trio launches a campaign to elect Pedro for class president and make the student body's wildest dreams come true. But if Pedro is to beat stuck-up Summer, Napoleon will have to unleash his secret weapon..."

Annotations:
See Mormon Film: Key Films of the Fifth Wave

Peluca, the short black and white film on which Napoleon Dynamite is based, was shot in Preston, Idaho over a single weekend by a few BYU students like Jared Hess and actor Jon Heder in early 2002. It proved popular at the student film festival Final Cut, and Hess and after graduation Hess and his wife Jerusha decided to make a feature. Scrapped together for $400,000, Napoleon Dynamite proved a surprise hit at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. It was picked up by Fox Searchlight, Twentieth-Century Fox's classics division, and went on to gross $44.5 million in domestic box office alone, making instant celebrities of Hess and its stars.

Though there is no LDS content more explicit than a Rick's College t-shirt or a trip to the local Deseret Industries, many Latter-day Saint film enthusiasts have claimed it as their own and extensively discussed it as a model for LDS filmmaking, particularly in crossing-over. For their part, Hess, Heder and the others have moved on to other mainstream projects; the only participant to return to something with even a slightly Mormon flare is nonMormon actress Tina Majorino, who has a recurring role as the LDS friend Heather Tuttle on HBO's series Big Love.

Quotes:
He's out to prove he's got nothing to prove.

Awards:
Best Movie, MTV Movie Award 2005; nine other wins and eighteen nominations

Additional details at Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374900/

View BYU Library catalog record
http://catalog.lib.byu.edu/uhtbin/ckey-search/3539576

HBLL Call No: DVDMM 251
Medium: 35mm color
Cast Members: Jon Heder - Napoleon Dynamite; Jon Gries - Uncle Rico; Aaron Ruell - Kip; Efren Ramirez - Pedro Sanchez; Tina Majorino - Deb
Music Composed by: John Swihart
Film Editor: Jeremy Coon
Cinematographer: Munn Powell
Country: USA
Language: English
Certification: MPAA: PG
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Adapted From Film:
Peluca Directed by Jared Hess,Writer Jared Hess,Cinematographer Jared Hess,Produced by Jerusha Hess,Film Editor Jeremy Coon,Produced by Sam DemkeFilm



Reviewed In:
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Orson Scott Card
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Eric D. Snider
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Jeff Vice
'Napoleon Dynamite' embraces teen misfits and mines their quirks by Sean Axmaker
Nerdy and peculiar, 'Napoleon' turns on charm by Ty Burr
[Review of]Napoleon Dynamite by Roger Ebert
'Napoleon Dynamite': Misfits Like a Glove by Stephen Hunter
Tale of a 12th-grade nothing is 'Dynamite,' indeed by Cody Clark
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Todd McCarthy
A Nerdy Nobody of a Hero Who Proves to Be Napoleonic by A. O. Scott
'Napoleon' falls too much in love with its own nerdiness by Carla Meyer
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Michael Wilmington
My Own Private Waterloo: Napoleon Dynamite is a charming ode to nerds. by David Edelstein
Sa-Weet! by Melissa Levine
'Napoleon Dynamite': Nerd Is the Word by Desson Thomson
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Marrit Ingman
Unleashing his inner geek by Rene Rodriguez
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Kevin Crust
Geek Implosion by Scott Foundas
'Napoleon Dynamite' Misfits in a strange land by Jean Lowerison
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Adrian Hennigan
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Calvin Wilson
Teen film packs some humorous 'Dynamite' inside by Ed Blank
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Philippa Hawker
[Review of] Napoleon Dynamite by Amy Biancolli






Total Queries: 42. Total Execution Time: 0.023 sec.
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