Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite is certainly a film that splits opinion. Although it is by far one of the greatest commercial cult successes that I will write about here (a success created solely on word of mouth alone,) and has a quite impressive 71% rating (sweet,) on Rotten Tomatoes, the quirky film still divides. There are those who love it beyond awesomeness and those who walked out on the first movie. It’s safe to say that I hope a lot of people to this site will, like myself, fall into the former because Napoleon Dynamite still owns a small chunk of my heart.
Set in the small town of Preston, Idaho, Napoleon Dynamite is a high school teen living with his older brother Kip and his grandmother. Not very popular at school, Napoleon loses himself in his own fantastical stories, mythical creature drawing and whatever skill he wants to take up. When new boy Pedro starts and Uncle Rico comes to look after the boys, Napoleon Dynamite finds his world shift into a whole new direction where his aloof personality must rise to many an occasion. A perfect remedy for teenager movies, Napoleon Dynamite is the kid we all know and probably were.
(I often had an ethnic friend who wore a tupee...)
Napoleon started off as a student project where the character was called Seth and he and his friend bunked off school to buy a wig. Written by Jared and Jerusha Hess, after much success the short Pecula soon evolved into the uninterested character we all love and loathe today. Napoleon Dynamite works on many levels. For a start Jon Header is brilliant as the titular character. Delivering the humorous lines with such dead pan and unflinching acting ironically brings life to the character. Instead of a character that is over-done and over played, Napoleon is a unique protagonist that doesn’t really care about anything but him-self and trying to be cool.
You add a whole host of odd ball characters and you have yourself a fantastic movie. There is internet dating Kip who finds true love in La Fawnduh. There is timid Mexican Pedro running for cast President. Deb, Napoleons interest, who has such an innocence about her that you can’t help but route for her. And let’s not forget, creepy Uncle Rico with mad capped schemes and memories of the glory days of high school. This mix may seem weird at first but if you look deeply at each of the characters you’ll find a person you know there.
(More romantic than my prom...)
Why I think Napoleon Dynamite really works, besides the dialogue that will have you quoting for years to come (Yesssss,) is because essentially it is a great small town portrayal. Trust me, I grew up in one. Napoleon lives in a world where the only mildly successful people are jocks trying for class president and even they haven’t broken the big world. And Napoleon is quintessential in this because so many teenagers relate to him. Why? Because he wants something but cannot be bothered to do anything. Or he wants something but there is no capacity to accommodate him.
Many have argued that it is hard to like Napoleon but you don’t need to. Who says that you have to really like the main character anyway? You just have to like his journey or his story and however ordinary it seems, Napoleon is surely a representation of us all. The scenes in this film are well structured and co-ordinated to make you giggle including one of the best dance sequences in movie history. There is everything, sibiling riviarly (one of the best scenes is the fight between him and Kip,) love (“I like your sleeves, their pretty big”) friendship (“Vote for Pedro”) and family. And the best thing about this weird and wonderful world is that despite the hilarity and jokes, it seems pretty real to me.
TTFN
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