luchador films
lucha libre hero from hero games is based off the lucha films mentioned above .
pokken tournament introduces pikachu libre, who is basically the luchador - wearing cosplay pikachu in a cameo. and it indeed fights like a luchador .
wrestlemaniac had a homicidal mutant luchador, whose mo was to tear off your face .
in snowfall, el oso gets his nickname from his career as a masked luchador .
pokemon x and y introduces hawlucha, a luchador hawk. it' s a fighting / flying type and attacks with flying presses, mirroring a luchador' s acrobatic fighting style .
there' s a luchador costume available as one of the many
costume themes .
you can also collect luchador trading cards in no more heroes, killer7' s spiritual successor .
we heart katamari includes a cousin named lucha, who appropriately enough has the appearance of a luchador .
lisa has rage' el rage' ironhead, and energetic luchador party member who attacks with his head .
el santo’s successful foray into feature films had a lot to do with timing, but even so, his first appearances as a masked sidekick to spanish - born luchador fernando osés in the films el cerebro del mal and hombres infernales hardly registered when they were released in 1958. it wasn’t until a few years later, in 1961, that el santo burst onto the mexican film scene with santo contra los zombis, a film directed by benito alazraki that set the stage for glut of pulpy wrestling films that would dominate mexican screens for nearly two decades .
in machete, during the invasion of sartana' s apartment, one of the mooks wears a luchador mask .
lucha libre, indeed, became so popular, that mexico’s comparatively small filmmaking industry was quick to pick up luchadors as film heroes. the first feature film to star a luchador was the obscure 1952 film huracán ramírez, a mild success in its day. despite the obscurity and dubious artistic merit of the film, it launched a trend. a subgenre was born. soon all manner of luchadors began appearing in films, and real - life kings of the ring began to make the transition to film. some film scholars have numbered luchador films at about 150, but it’s more likely that there are hundreds more low - budget mexican wrestling films that are lost to history .
i recall seeing luchador films on the spanish - language tv stations as a child. these were films unlike any i had seen before. they resembled low - budget american monster films in many ways (they often had monsters or vampires in them), but had a strange kind of earnest energy to them that i couldn’t describe. there was an efficiency to the storytelling that american filmmakers rarely captured. these were films that existed solely to lionize an already - popular folk hero, playing himself, and extend his myth into a supernatural place where he would defeat all his opponents in the ring, best any supernatural monster that beset him, and still have time to wear nice suits, drive nice cars, and pick up beautiful mexican women. they were shamelessly self - aggrandizing, always very cheap (none of the luchador films had big budgets), and often hopelessly convoluted. but they had something many exploitation movies of the america lacked: they had a myth .
world wonder ring stardom' s mask fiesta turns everyone who is not already a masked luchador one for the night .
luchador films enjoyed a cult audience in america thanks to a film producer named k. gordon murray (1922 - 1979), a well - known exporter of fantasy b - movies and an exploitation luminary. any semi - serious student of trash cinema ought to know the name of k. gordon murray. murray would travel to other countries, find some of the little - known fairy tale films, and redub them into english for american audiences. he’s often cited as one of the kings of the early 1950s “kiddie matinees, ” back in the day when children’s features were shown in local american cinemas before the more grown - up fare later in the evening. films like santa claus (1959), the robot vs. the aztec mummy (1957), and the golden goose (1969) are well known to a generation of trash - film lovers thanks to murray. some of his films, in turn, became featured on mystery science theater 3000, and the generational trash torch was passed. murray was the one who carried the luchador films to the u. s. , sometimes (bafflingly) redubbing el santo’s name as “sampson. ” the kids who grew up looking through the back corners of uhf stations would find luchador movies sandwiched in between lesser - known japanese kaiju films. nothing can be more striking that discovering these movies at just the right age .
padre fray tormenta has inspired films and wrestled all over the world, but he never sought out fame; all he wanted was to support the orphans of his parish .
while following a familiar formula of el santo vs. some supernatural enemy menacing humanity, santo contra las mujeres vampiro brought significantly higher production values and gave the luchador an elaborate mythology that places this amongst his greatest films. when the evil leader of a vampire coven kidnaps a professor’s daughter to bring his bride back to life, el santo is sent in to take on an army of luchador slaves and get her back home safe .
bane is partly luchador - inspired, though his mask and fighting movies may or may not closely resemble a luchador' s depending on the artist, and he hails from a fictional caribbean banana republic rather than mexico. batman 66 took this and ran with it .
the mummy of a luchador vanquished by an ancestor of el santo comes back to life to exact his revenge. santo teamed up with fellow wrestler - actor mil mascaras and lifelong rival blue demon to bring this beloved classic of luchador to mummy combat to the big screen .
if you are one of millions of wwe fans under the impression that only the world wrestling entertainment has superstars that turn to the film industry, such as john cena, hulk hogan, the rock and more, think again. none of them has ever completed 52 successful motion movies as well as comic books and other media appearances. in one of the most financially successful films he made he costarred with mil mascaras and blue demon with mexicans considering this one of the best ever luchador films in history .
, and a - trak, mark and a - trak are forced to don luchador' s masks and fight other people in masks .
mil máscaras (
a thousand masks
), who was specifically created for the movies during a contract dispute between el santo and producer enrique vergara. he starred in 20 films .
what happened is that without my intending it, fray tormenta has become a symbol ,
he says .
the luchador priest .
dedicated to the quick commercialization of churros (‘quickies’ named after the doughy sweetmeat, a breakfast staple) …. myriad middle - class melodramas, increasingly boring comedies from cantinflas—whose humour had lost its cutting edge many years previously—prurient sex films which lacked the tacky dynamism of earlier ‘brothel’ films, copies of us adolescent rebellion films, non - rebels with a cause and without an aesthetic, series focusing on masked wrestlers (starring ‘el santo’…), attempts to gloss over the quality by employing colour or costly cinemascope–all contributed to an industry at the lowest point in its development (king 2000, 130) .
berated all his life by those around him, a monk follows his dream and dons a mask to moonlight as a luchador (mexican wrestler) .
one member of the superhero - rock band the justice force 5 is a vampire luchador. well, not really, but that' s his gimmick .
cheesy, fun, trashy, cheap, sporty, and tapping into the unfettered myth of a local people, luchador films are unique in the annals of cinema. if you want a regular old superhero story, go ahead and watch the dark knight again. if you want a truly epic hero, watch el santo at work. he is more important than batman .
the mascot of koodo mobile is an incredible shrinking luchador named el tabador, named such because the company allows you to have a tab instead of a contract .
, one of the vandenreich members is sternritter
s
, mask de masculine, a luchador. he manages to invert the character archetype and play it straight
as well as santo being a kind of saintly, moral guide, in this film he also takes it upon himself to become an orphaned young boy’s guardian or father figure. while many of the stories are fantastic, some can involve a historical or mythic figure and a familiar place. for example, santo en “el tesoro de moctezuma” (santo in “the treasure of moctezuma”, 1967), santo contra los cazadores de cabezas (santo versus the headhunters, 1969), las momias de guanajuato (the mummies of guanajuato, 1970), and the various films which invoke el día de los muertes (the day of the dead), such as santo en “los profanadores de tumbas” (santo in “the grave robbers”, 1965), and santo y blue demon en el mundo de los muertos (santo and the blue demon in the world of the dead, 1969). yet, none of these films deal with thematic elements of the wrestling genre. they are not interested in the struggles, brutality or raise and fall of santo, or any other luchador. even through in these films santo wrestles both in and outside the ring, there is only ever minor discussion of the fact that he is a luchad or. the audience brings to the films a prior understanding of santo, so there is no need for the films to establish his status. what we find is the direct transference of lucha libre matches into these hybrid films .
the true luchador wears, on his head, a mask. on his body, a sequined unitard. on his feet... disco boots !
in lobster johnson: the iron prometheus, it' s mentioned that, in the 50' s, mexican director eduardo fernandez created somewhere between nine and twelve low - budget films about lobster johnson, portraying him as a luchador hero. in fact, these were the source of the name
lobster johnson .
previously, all the fictional portrayals just referred to him as
the lobster .
spiderman was partially inspired by a famous luchador known as the blue demon, and spider - man first reveals his powers to the public in a wrestling match against crusher hogan .
gets murdered by a man in a luchador mask, and machete gets attacked by a squad of gun - toting luchadores. later, machete finds the mask of the murderer in
el santo wasn' t the only prominent luchador film star. other prominent series stars (some of whom would team up with each other and el santo on occasion) included :
in the supernatural episode
devil may care
( s09, ep02), kevin uncovers a photo of sergeant bates doing jello shots off a naked guy in a luchador mask .
in the omega ruby and alpha sapphire remakes, one of the outfits that cosplay pikachu can wear is a luchador outfit. like hawlucha, it knows flying press with this outfit .
however, king i, king ii and armor king i follow the more conventional wrestling style. armor king ii has some luchador - based moves, but not all. then in
there' s an entire luchador genre in mexico where the hero is a real luchador playing himself. the most popular series (52 films !) starred el santo, el enmascarado de plata (saint, the silver - masked man). in these, el santo has to rescue his love interest du jour from some fantastic threat, such as zombies, vampires, or mad scientists. while the movies are pretty crude, many mexicans from the time, to current college students to even a few children still consider these movies an important part of mexico' s film history and actually pretty entertaining .
7. elsewhere i have discussed the ritual elements of cinema, specifically in the western. see gabrielle murray, this wounded cinema, this wounded life: violence and utopia in the films of sam peckinpah (connecticut: praeger, 2004) .
in the amazing spider man, peter gets the initial idea for the spider - man mask upon seeing a poster of a luchador mask with a similar red - and - blue coloring .
gabrielle murray is a lecturer in the cinema studies program at la trobe university in australia. she has published in several journals, edited anthologies and is the author of this wounded cinema, this wounded life: violence and utopia in the films of sam peckinpah .
neutron, a black - masked hero who resembled strong bad, starred in dozens of films, but only three had an english dub. one, neutron the atomic superman vs. the death robots (aka losautómatas de la muerte) was a riff trax vod .
blue demon, who was a rudo, would become a tecnico and would feud with santo for over a year, culminating in a series of matches in 1952 and 1953. blue demon would have a five year - run as nwa world welterweight champion, defeating santo for the title in 1953, and holding it until 1958. the demon - santo rivalry never truly died; they weren' t friends in real life, though the two starred in nine luchador films together (demon starred in 25 films altogether from 1964 - 1977). throughout the 1960s, he had a heated rivalry with el rayo de jalisco. the rivalry would span into the late 1980s, defeating him in a mask vs. mask match in 1988 .
an episode of the middleman featured a gang of luchadores obsessed with killing the middleman' s martial arts trainer and mentor, sensei ping (who also, incidentally, wore the mask of a luchador) .
speaking of the macho man, he also voices the superhuman luchador
wrass - lor
in an episode of dial m for monkey. the plot :
fight me or i destroy the earth !
from there it took several decades before guzmán’s career took off, and he wrestled under a number of monikers – including el hombre rojo and el demonio negro – before settling on the saintly title that would define his career. but beyond his beloved persona inside the ring, el santo solidified his status as mexico’s quintessential masked luchador through a whole network of pop culture spinoffs, including a comic book series and, most notably, the 52 wrestling - themed films that cemented his legend on the silver screen .
the legendary blue demon, alejandro munoz moreno who made his debut a few years after el santo in march 1948, also retired years after el santo, in 1989. also making a massive impact in the history of mexico, the blue demon with his legendary blue mask had his first encounter with el santo in 1952. blue demon who held the championship until 1958 defeated the famous el santo, who was the nwa world welterweight champion in 1952 and 1953. the two famous wrestlers remained rivals although they also featured in mexican films together. in 1961 blue demon appeared in one of his first ever mexican films, an overall of 25 films, nine of which he costarred with his rival el santo. the producer of most of el santoâ€™s movies was ready to cultivate yet another wrestler cum movie star with blue demon who also continued his wrestling career until his retirement .
the movie was part of a tide of luchador films that swept mexico from the 1950s through the 1970s. the country' s most iconic wrestlers, el santo and blue demon, gained their greatest fame as movie stars fighting zombies, aliens, and vampires. el señor tormenta was a minor wrestling film. it did feature a couple of big names, black shadow and cavernario galindo (he dressed as a caveman), but only in supporting parts. what makes the movie special is that it came true .
oh the varieties of lucha libre are endless. there are luchadors who dress as cats. there are dwarf luchador divisions. there are female luchador divisions. each lucha match is usually a rudo (the bad guy) vs. a técnico (the good guy). the luchadors would invent entire personae for themselves, giving themselves mysterious histories and elaborate in - ring personalities. this is another tradition that has passed into american pro - wrestling .
in kenichi: the mightiest disciple, a villainous luchador shows up to be trashed by kenichi' s masters a few times. later the manga introduces the much more dangerous smiling fist diego carlos and his student rachel stanley .
one popular legend about fray tormenta is that he received specific permission from the vatican to be a luchador. this he denies. but in other interviews, he has mentioned that he received the blessing of pope john paul ii .
new leaf introduces a villager actually named
lucha
. he' s a bird with a face that' s stylized to look like a lucha mask. another villager with a luchador theme is stinky, a jock cat .
the films were made quickly and cheaply, and while a modern audience is more likely to be reminded of adam west - era batman, they were successful enough to open the floodgates for mexico’s luchadoras (wrestling women) as well as various imitators. here are the 10 pictures you need to check out .
jaime reyes, the third blue beetle, wears an armor with a faceplate that just happens to look like a luchador mask to go with his mexican heritage. done intentionally and explained as the mask being modeled after its creators' faces .
there is no attempt in these films to create an aesthetic integration between the wrestling and other generic elements. although in real life santo lost some of his wrestling matches, in the films he might lose a bout but he ultimately always wins. the films literally intercut large sections of recorded and sometimes staged footage of often complete lucha libre matches. generally there are at least two sections of lucha libre that can run from seven to fifteen minutes in any of the el santo films, which run between eighty to ninety - five minutes. so the wrestling matches can take approximately between fifteen to thirty minutes of the reel time. sometimes a match will open a film, sometimes conclude it, or a story will be interrupted to allow santoto fight. although the film santo contra la invasion de los marcianos integrates the fantasy story and the wrestling, ultimately concluding with santo fighting a martian in the ring; there is rarely any attempt to introduce the wrestling matches or integrate them into the story other than a casual comment from santo that he needs to retire or leave as he has a fight. the real - live footage is in particularly sharp contrast to the general b grade fantasy and crime aesthetic. it inverts the way the lucha libre arena functions, in which we go from the everyday into a frenzied, circus atmosphere. in the films, the wrestling footage works against the fantasy aesthetic to generate something “real”—a kind of social realist or documentary feel that acts as a point of direct contact with the ritual performance of lucha libre. furthermore, while the action is sometimes heightened by the introduction of the re - enactment of close - ups of certain stunts that the single roving camera used at the lucha libre has missed, the audience is often in the background. the distancing of the audience is then compensated for by cut - aways to both real and studio audiences. so the films attempt to literally reanimate the experience of lucha libre .
i should point out that el santo’s movies, as well as the vast bulk of lucha movies, were hardly professional. they were badly lit, the sound was rarely properly audible, the stories would meander, and the dialogue (dubbed or not) would contain some of the weirdest mutilations of english (or spanish) this side of an ed wood movie. by all conventional professional accounts, these were bad films. like all b - movies, the lucha films were often produced quickly and on the cheap. studios would release several in the span of a year. like slasher films today, studios saw lucha films as a quick buck, as people would see them even if they weren’t expensively made. i wouldn’t have it any other way. a slick, big - budget version of an el santo movie would only serve to erode its charm. there is a certain joy in the earnestness of a badly made film. el santo was so, well, saintly, that his heroic purity would only be amplified by the film’s cheapness. there was something about el santo – some “it” quality – that left him untainted, no matter how much canonical double - backing and confusion he had applied to him. he was like superman, but with the benefit of being a real athlete .
johnny
the mayor
bledsoe, the mayor of hill valley on the bizarre the oblongs, wore a luchador mask (and a business suit), although he acted more like an american wrestler—
macho man
randy savage, specifically .
on a sunday evening in compton, california, a crowd slowly enters an old dance hall. tonight it will house a very different type of dancing - - the dance of the luchador. the crowd begins to... see full summary »
el santo, you will find, is one of the most recognizable faces in all pop culture history. not only was he a folk hero and wrestling icon, but he starred in his own comic books, and he was a pertinent film star. in 1958, santo was invited to appear in a feature film called el cerebro del mal (the bad brain), in which he wore his signature mask, but only acted as sidekick to another luchador named el incognito. el santo’s career wouldn’t take off in earnest until the early 1960s, and he would make some of the finest of lucha films .
in the hellboy in mexico one - shot, released on cinco de mayo, hellboy teams up with three luchador brothers in 1950s mexico to fight vampires. it' s exactly as awesome as (and in the end, far more touching than) it sounds .
jesus burgess from one piece is a masked luchador pirate, introduced standing on a building and challenging an entire city to fight. later on, he shows his strength by hurling a hotel at an opponent. he' s actually one of those rare luchadores who are evil .
fray tormenta is our father ,
says brazo de plata, a luchador who served as fray tormenta' s tag - team partner .
he is our lucha libre priest. for me it' s an honor, considering his age, to have wrestled alongside him .
the masked luchador is a particularly popular character in modern surf music. there are several bands that wear mexican wrestling masks and adopt mexican - sounding names as part of their stage shows, or even write songs about lucha films and luchadores (the song los campiones del justicio by the ghastly ones). it is believed that the american surf band los straitjackets is responsible for this, as they adopted the masks early in their career and subsequently made the genre popular through mexico because of this, spanning bands like sr. bikini or the blue demons, all adopting the masks and hiding identity. there' s even a french surf band adopting the masks, called the bikini men .
strangely enough, the mexican wrestling masks have been also adopted by several goregrind and grindcore bands, most notably gut from germany. even more strange, the porno - grind bands seem to have an affinity for the masked luchador: gut of course, but check guys like ultimo mondo cannibale or spasm .
in 1952, a publisher named jose cruz started a comic book featuring santo’s adventures fighting crimes and monsters, while also continuing to wrestle. the comic books portrayed santo as a superhero although until then he had performed as a rudo in the ring. but with the creation of the comic book and his increasing popularity, it was decided that he should undergo a gradual change and eventually become a técnico (cotter 2005, 22). considered one of the most famous superhero comic books in mexico, it ran continuously for 35 years. 3 santo’s status as a luchador and therefore a “popular hero, ” along with the comic books, further developed his hero status with mexican audiences. although initially declining film offers, the success of the comic books encouraged him to appear in films. he first appeared in cerebro del mal (brain of evil) in 1958; however, it was in 1961 that producer alberto lopez hired him to star as “el santo” in the classic santo contra los zombies (santo versus the zombies). between 1958 and 1982, santo starred in fifty - two mexican films as “el santo” .
what could have been example: hideo kojima' s first draft for the war - based game he was told to design was a game called lost warld, starring a masked luchadora (a female luchador). tragically, the game got canned, and now all we have is this boring snake guy instead .
the finest of all lucha films is widely held to be the 1962 classic santo contra mujeres vampiro, as it was one of the first santo film to give him a sort of background as a crimefighter, and regular battler of evil monsters. lucha films place their heroes somewhere between the real and the fanciful. they seem to be making part - documentaries about their subjects, despite the presence of vampire women and cheesy special effects. no other fantasy film has that quality. i’ve heard some argue that comic book superheroes of today are as important to us as greek heroes like odysseus were to the ancient greeks. this is not entirely accurate. the luchadors are perhaps a bit more of an appropriate analogy. odysseus was a half - real hero who was aided by gods. el santo, one could argue, fits that mold perfectly .
historically, many of the luchadors have often worn a saintly mantle due to their involvement in charity work, social justice, and politics. super barrio, champion of the rights of mexico’s poor, went into politics and joined the leftist prd (partido de la revolucíon democrática, all party of the democratic revolution). a crowd favorite, mr niebla is known outside the ring for his charitable work with disabled children. in mexico, the sport has also inspired a subculture of political activists who advocate their causes dressed in lucha libre garb. there is super ecologist, fighter for environmental causes; and super gay and super animal, masked crusaders for gay and animal rights. as a técnico santo brings to the el santo films this same heroic, saintly aura. he is a fighter for good, a masked figure the audience instantly recognizes. he is familiar because he is one of them but somehow he is also different: an invincible, powerful, authority figure. the audience’s champion, he conquers evil and enables justice to be carried out. yet the el santo films do more than just transfer the personae of santo to the screen, by intercutting real and staged footage of wrestling matchesthe films attempt to literally reproduce for the audience the ritual functions of lucha libre .
el santo’s films were full of action and supernatural intrigue, but they walked a fine comedic line that gave them a campy, surrealist touch. the excessive twists and turns of this particular film, in which a bumbling security guard disguises himself as el santo to take on a criminal gang that has kidnapped a scientist and his daughter, take a nosedive into the absurd when el santo and said security guard must fight off the security guard’s evil clone .
lala' s dad in school rumble is a luchador. tenma is a bit of a lucha libre fan, and both she and karen don her mask on occasion, confounding lala who can' t believe the disparity in her power (as karen is the only girl who has defeated lala, while tenma cannot fight at all) .
masked heroes were popular in the 1930s, the decade that saw the introduction of the lone ranger, the green hornet and batman. in mexico, crowds flocked to see masked combatants wrestle each other into submission, with each luchador giving such a theatrical performance that audiences knew who was the tecnico (good guy) and who was the rudo (villain) .
las luchadoras were a female tag team (lorena velázquez and gringa actress elizabeth campbell) who starred in six films, some of which made it into the english - language market (e. g. , wrestling women vs. the aztec mummy). the stars were actresses, not professional wrestlers. lady luchadoras did exist at the time, but few had movie - star good looks and most wouldn' t be recognized by the mexican comision de box y lucha libre until the 1980s .
lucha films are really effing weird. the wrestlers, playing themselves, would often be recast as well - dressed ladies’ men (but never lotharios) who would jet set around town, attending classy parties, and blessing the community with their presence. they never removed their masks. they were perfect, peerless heroes, capable of being wealthy, but still helping the little people. they would never fight for the wrong reason. they would wrestle with honor. then, to get the story going, they would be given an antagonist whom they would eventually have to fight. the antagonist in luchador films, though, was very rarely just another wrestler. it was usually a famous monster of some kind. in his film career, el santo fought dracula, a mummy, a banshee, a werewolf, frankenstein’s monster, and sexy vampire women. in one notable film, el santo teamed up with the very popular blue demon to fight a monster mash of several beasties. the 1969 film santo y blue demon contra los monstruos featured a sci - fi lab that simultaneously brainwashed a mummy, frankenstein’s monster (sporting a bandito mustache), a wolf man, and some sort of lizard dwarf creature with an exposed brain. the film looks as if someone cracked open my ten - year - old brain, and let every unfettered pop culture fantasy free .
in santo, el enmascarado de plata álvaron a. fernández reyes notes that within the immense cultural productions of modern mexico, the ritual and myths that revolve around the heroic figure of santo, are peculiarly diverse, embodying the creation of new traditions and the recuperation of old ones. santo is a “real” flesh and blood figure, the silver - masked wrestler; he is the fictional wrestling star of crime, horror and fantasy films, a “saint” who battles bad guys, vampires and mummies, and for his predominately mexican audience, santo is a also a magical “superhero” (fernández reyes 2004). 1 to understand santo’s immense popular appeal, we need to explore his different manifestations of wrestler, saint and superhero. in turn, this will enable us to investigate the generic hybridity of the films, whereby a noirish crime or a campy vampire tale will be interrupted to allow santo to engage in wrestling matches, with little attempt within the narrative, or in the film’s aesthetic sensibility to integrate the matches .
padre sergio fell by the wayside as more and more of his parishioners began to call him padre tormenta, or simply el fray. if his identity as a luchador was ever secret (accounts conflict), the secret was not kept long. with his wrestling earnings, he was able to buy an actual building to house some of the boys, known affectionately as his cachorros, or cubs .
one of the sample characters in the martial arts supplement for gurps is
del duque
, a heroic crimefighter in a luchador - style mask hailing from a world that seems to operate on low - budget - tv - series logic. he is also by far the most powerful of the sample characters (at 350 character points, he' s in the lower - end superhero range) .
el santo made 52 lucha films in his vast and varied career, spanning from 1958 to 1982. el santo retired in 1982, in that he removed his mask on national television. this was the only time he was seen to remove his mask in public. he had a heart attack in 1984, and died at the age of 66. his legacy lives on in the cultural consciousness of the mexican world, and in the form of other wrestlers with names like el hijo del santo (the son of the saint) .
the sacred heart faith in after the end a crusader kings ii mod counts el santo among its patron deities. followers of el santo can become luchadores themselves, and face each other in wrestling matches - unlike in el santo' s day, they fight for real. the sacred heart also has a holy order of luchador knights, la orden de la mascara (the order of the mask) .
homework for the week: they aren’t widely available on home video or on downloading services, but see if you can track down any lucha films. if you live near the mexican border, find a flyer for a real - life lucha libre match, and try to attend. take part in mexico’s grand tradition. consider the place fantasy heroes play in your life. how “real” are they in your mind? how much cognitive space do they take up? how does your view of your movie hero match with the world’s perception of them ?
yet if you are a fan, this period is considered the era of the ‘golden age’ of mexican b grade movies. much can be said about these films in relation to the way they display facets of the anxieties, repressions and fears of a particular social and cultural milieu. the main characters are nearly always played by actors who look european, and santo’s string of girlfriends are often blondes. mestizos and indigenous people generally play peones, other worldly creatures, or enact tales from their own pre - hispanic history. there are occurrences of anti - semitism and racial stereotypes such as the dopey, easily frightened professor in santo en “ la venganza de la momia ” (santo and “the vengeance of the mummy”, 1970); or eric, the treasure - hungry, evil coward, who comes to an unfortunate end in santo y blue demon contra dracula y el hombre lobo (santo and blue demon versus dracula and the wolf man, 1972). yet the above film is interesting in that the wolf man, in human form, is played by a blonde - haired, blue - eyed pretty boy. there is also a reoccurring theme of both the celebration and fear of science, modernity and new technology. however, what becomes fascinating about these santo films is the way in which santo functions as a kind of cipher for both the ritual functions of lucha libre and ancient and modern myths. in fact, these films embody what nelson hippolyte ortega calls a “striking example of a very strong latin american cultural trait: the concomitant use of the old and the new, sometimes at the same time” (ortega 1998, 80) .
this depression - era drama made headlines for being not only one of the best reviewed films of 2005, but one of the least well attended. after four weeks of release the film had taken around us $ 50 million, which even during the box - office slump of the time was a disappointment, especially considering the good buzz. amc theatres hoped to keep the film and started a unique offer of a money - back guarantee. ticket buyers who did not like the film were promised that their money would be refunded, no questions asked .
, the generic luchador. the twist is that he' s canadian. while he' s billed as being from tijuana, and speaks very little english when in character, what makes it funnier is that even if you don' t know anything about the man under the mask, you can tell at first glance that he' s really a white guy; he' s kind of pale, and he also sports a red goatee .
el santo needs very little introduction around these parts. more than a beloved athlete or an iconic actor, the diminutive masked luchador truly deserves to be called a legend of mexican popular culture. over his 48 - year career, rodolfo guzmán huerta truly lived the part of the wrestler - super hero he played on screen and in the arenas night after night, and his shining silver alter - ego has been woven into the fabric of mexican folklore .
despite the mask and attitude, japanese wrestler rainbow mika from street fighter alpha is a subversion. her and her fighting style are actually based off puroesu, a type of women' s pro wrestling that originated in japan. she' s often mistaken as a straight example of a masked luchador thanks to puroesu being relatively unknown outside of japan, and the fact that el fuerte happens to be a huge fan of hers doesn' t help matters .
a chance meeting with mexican wrestler rolando vera got him interested in lucha libre wrestling. under the training of vera, he began wrestling without a mask in march 1948. later in the year, he would return to mexico and adopt the persona of the blue demon. demon would form a tag team with fellow luchador the black shadow and became los hermanos shadow (the shadow brothers). the partnership lasted until 1952, when black shadow lost his mask to el santo .
homestar runner: strong bad' s look is based on this, although the mask is apparently his actual face. he actually wrestles in a few toons, although he makes it clear in one of them that
being an awesome wrestler has nothing to do with awesome wrestling moves .
furthermore, in the same toon he goes through a variety of gimmicks none of which are the straight masked luchador gimmick — the final one even involves facepaint over his
mask
!
the stock characterization for a luchador is a kindly gentle giant who loves kids. this is from the story of fray tormenta (friar storm), a catholic priest who started wrestling to earn money for his orphanage. villainous luchadores are pretty rare. outside mexico, though, where luchadores attract considerably less reverence, they' re much more common - big burly dudes with concealed faces are scary, after all, and it' s a good way to give your malevolent masked man some exotic flair .
a big influence in the evolution of the shocker mooks in the original kamen rider: initially the henchmen were guys in berets with creepy facepaint. in episode 14, shocker brings in their top agent from mexico, a cactus - themed luchador - esque monster named sabetregon. he had his own personal minions, who dressed in black tights and wore lucha masks with a cactus on them. apparently, someone liked the look, because afterwards, the main shocker forces began wearing similar costumes, only with a skeleton motif replacing the cactus one .
it' s also not uncommon for non - luchadores to pretend to be one as a trick. if a heel does it, like when kurt angle became
el gran luchador
during his feud with eddie guerrero, it' s a sign of them being a devious wang, whereas if it' s a face that pulls it off, like when kaz hayashi became
el gringo
for a night, it' s usually so they can get their hands on a cowardly heel who has been ducking them in straight - up fights .
most of the luchadors you see in lucha films were, you see, real - life wrestling champs outside of the film. known only by their specialty wrestling names, and never, ever seen without their masks, luchadors became local folk heroes of a sort. they would fight for their honor, and for the honor of their fans. despite the cartoony appeal they possess these days, luchadors were superhuman bastions of their communities. we know the names and histories of some of the more popular luchadors today, but mentioning the name of rodolfo guzmán huerta will only elicit blank looks from most people. but watch their faces fly into expressions of ecstasy as you mention the hallowed named of el santo, the single biggest superstar in all lucha history .
discover more esma animation movies by subscribing: urltoken découvrez encore plus de films d’animation de l' esma en vous abonnant: urltoken au mexique, deux grand - pères font leur marché. les petites chamailleries et les vieilles rancunes les mèneront - elles sur le ring? mexico, two grandfathers are shopping at the market. will a few squabblings and some old rancors lead them to enter the ring? réalisateurs / directors: sara bacro, camille chandelier, clément pierre, vincent plagniol, alexis renault music: mathieu parisot voices: josé vicente, guillermo fernandez, ambar gonzalez bouab sound: josé vicente – studio des aviateurs film d' animation réalisé dans le cadre de la formation cinéma d' animation 3d de l' école esma (promo 2015). © esma - ecole supérieure des métiers artistiques
between the schlock scary premise and the occasional lapses into satisfying surrealism (gotta love the killer robot which appears to be built out of old steam table parts), mil mascaras: resurrection rivals any super hero movie made in the mainstream. it provides enough fun to satisfy a schoolyard full of genre geeks, while never once looking down on or mocking its famed figurehead. anyone who knows the luchadore films understands that these are examples of pure hero worship, idolatry without a lick of irony or self - imposed satire. throw in a few flying drop kicks and you' ve got yourself a franchise. besides, the audience believes in these men and they are not afraid to show their adoration. that' s why mil mascaras: resurrection often feels like a religious experience. our lead is the messiah of the squared circle, a man beloved for his ability in the ring, and ethos outside of it. and his followers love every barrel - chested moment .
in fact, the lack of legitimate violence (there are a couple of minor gore effects) and the constant recounting of mil' s moralistic code makes a movie like resurrection appear greater than its goofball parts. after all, you wouldn' t expect a narrative that features a ranting pile of bandages to offer up sound personal principles. and yet that' s the key to the entire category' s endearing timelessness. these films are really aimed at kids, lobbing life lessons over their head while keeping them on the straight and narrow. someone like mil mascaras offers up the valuable tutorials on such important issues as fair play, education, clean living, and the benefits of an unlimited sparkly wardrobe. sure, this could seem like reaching, especially when many of the old school storylines seemed to regress into good guy / bad being dullness. thanks to the careful consideration of ulhmann and his collaborators, mil mascaras: resurrection reestablishes the real legacy of the luchadore .
bunny kisaragi from welcome to the el - paracio specifically evokes this image, being el - paracio' s resident babyface and extremely popular with the neighborhood kids. the mask is actually an important part of her backstory, as she was driven to suicide for yet - unspecified reasons, only to be interrupted by ouka, who put a luchador mask on her head and convinced her to
start over from a clean slate
, resulting in bunny refusing to acknowledge her former identity. as a result she practically never takes off her mask, even in the bath (the one time she did, tadasuke saw her stepping out of the shower, making him the only person other than ouka who' s seen her real face) .
masked luchadors did not actually start in mexico, believe it or not, though no one is sure exactly where that was for certain; the first man on record to wrestle professionally with a mask was the french
masked wrestler
and the first to bring it into the country of mexico was known as
the masked marvel
, and his secret identity gimmick had been going on long enough in the usa already for him to be a legacy character. still ,
maravilla enmascarada
caught on in mexico like nowhere else before, so emll booker salvador lutteroth tried to duplicate this success with el santo. in the end, maravilla' s success wasn' t duplicated but dwarfed, as el santo became mexico' s most famous luchador .
he made his international debut in los angeles at the olympic auditorium in 1968 against american greats such as black gordman, john tolos, ernie ladd, and goliath. at the wwf, which is now called wwe he performed several times through the years until he won his title mexican wwa world heavyweight championship at the age of 49. that was during the 1991 fight and this title he holds until today. in 1966, mil mascaras starred in his first luchador film of which he completed 19 altogether while remaining a wrestler. the very same producer who turned el santo and blue demon into movie superstars took serious notice of this famous wrestler. el santo left the producer due to a contractual dispute, blue diamond was injured, and this was the opportunity for luis enrique vergara to transform yet another newcomer. a true mexican icon who made an impression on the world, mil mascaras took part in a tokyo event in december 2013, with team mate don caras and won the tokyo world tag team championship .
cast: mil mascaras, jeffrey uhlmann, willard e. pugh, gary ambrosia, richard lynch, marco lanzagorta
they stand as titans, not just in their area of expertise, but in the hearts of their fellow faithful countrymen. foreigners scoff at such devotion, chalking it up to a lack of cultural sophistication and an allegiance to outdated tradition. but when you look around the world, you see them everywhere. japan has its kaiju, while india enjoys those bigger than life bollywood gods. yet no one can top mexico and its worship of all things wrestling. under the lucha libre label, a number of unstoppable heroes have managed to become media superstars - and none are bigger than the man mountain himself, mil mascaras. returning to movies after years in semi - retirement, the suplex sensation reminds us that, no matter how comical they appear to the outside world, masked marvels like el santo, blue demon, and himself stand as wonderful symbols of universal morays - and amazing movie entertainment like his latest offering, resurrection.
luchador films are mexican professional wrestling/action/science-fiction / horror films starring some of the most popular masked luchadores in lucha libre . the luchadores are portrayed as superheroes engaging in battles against a range of characters from spies , to vampires and martians . these films were low-budget and produced quickly . nearly all lucha films included fist-fighting and wrestling action sequences which were choreographed and performed by the stars without the aid of stunt doubles . the genre 's popularity peaked during the mid-1960s to early-1970s . at least 150 luchador films were produced starting with the 1952 film huracán ramírez . 
luchador films are mexican professional wrestling/action/science-fiction / horror films starring some of the most popular masked luchadores in lucha libre. the luchadores are portrayed as superheroes engaging in battles against a range of characters from spies, to vampires and martians. these films were low-budget and produced quickly. nearly all lucha films included fist-fighting and wrestling action sequences which were choreographed and performed by the stars without the aid of stunt doubles. the genre's popularity peaked during the mid-1960s to early-1970s. at least 150 luchador films were produced starting with the 1952 film huracán ramírez.
luchador films are mexican professional wrestling/action/science-fiction / horror films starring some of the most popular masked luchadores in lucha libre. the luchadores are portrayed as superheroes engaging in battles against a range of characters from spies, to vampires and martians. these films were low-budget and produced quickly. nearly all lucha films included fist-fighting and wrestling action sequences which were choreographed and performed by the stars without the aid of stunt doubles. the genre's popularity peaked during the mid-1960s to early-1970s. at least 150 luchador films were produced starting with the 1952 film huracán ramírez.