Election (1999 Film)

''Election'' is a 1999 American satirical black comedy film directed by Alexander Payne from a screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor, based on Tom Perrotta's 1998 novel.

The plot revolves around a student body election and satirizes politics and high school life. The film stars Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister, a popular high school social studies teacher, and Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, an overachieving student whom he dislikes. When Tracy runs for student government president, McAllister sabotages her candidacy by backing a rival candidate and tampering with the ballot count.

Although not a commercial success, ''Election'' received widespread critical acclaim, along with an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Golden Globe nomination for Witherspoon for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and three Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature Film in 1999.

Plot

Jim McAllister is a teacher of U.S. history and civics at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. One of his students is Tracy Flick, an overachieving junior whose mother Judith encourages her to strive for success.

Earlier in the year, McAllister's colleague and best friend, geometry teacher Dave Novotny, was fired from his job and divorced by his wife Linda after engaging in a sexual relationship with Tracy. While McAllister agreed Dave needed to suffer consequences, he resents the lack of repercussions for Tracy.

McAllister struggles to conceive a child with his wife Diane, and subsequently begins to have sexual fantasies of both Linda and Tracy. Appalled by Tracy's unopposed run for student government president and dreading further proximity to her, McAllister persuades Paul Metzler, a popular and good-natured but dimwitted football player, to enter the race. Sidelined from football with a broken leg sustained in a skiing accident, Paul finds his candidacy gives him purpose. It also infuriates Tracy, who expects to run unchallenged and resents Paul's popularity and privileged upbringing.

Tammy Metzler, Paul's adopted younger sister, is dumped by her girlfriend Lisa Flanagan, who becomes Paul's girlfriend and campaign manager. Tammy exacts revenge by running for president herself. In her speech at a school assembly, she denounces student government as a sham and vows to dissolve it if she wins, rallying the students to a rowdy standing ovation. The principal, Walt Hendricks, retaliates by suspending her, which she does not see as a punishment, but rather a reward.

Late one Sunday night while working on the school yearbook, Tracy sees that one of her campaign posters has come unstuck from the wall. Trying to secure it, she accidentally rips the poster apart, then furiously destroys the other candidates' campaign posters and discards them in a dumpster, unaware that Tammy is watching.

The next day, McAllister confronts Tracy, suspecting that she removed the posters. She feigns innocence and trades threats with McAllister, but Tammy rescues her by appearing with the torn posters and falsely claiming responsibility in a bid to get herself expelled. Tammy is expelled and her name is struck from the ballot.

McAllister has a tryst with Dave's ex-wife Linda, the day before the election. She asks him to rent a motel room for an after-school rendezvous, but fails to attend. When McAllister drives to Linda's house to find her, he is stung by a bee on his eyelid. He returns home to find Linda and his wife Diane talking. Knowing Linda has exposed their encounter, he spends the night in his car.

McAllister oversees the tally of the ballots, which finds Tracy winning by a single vote. Seeing Tracy peering in on the vote count and preemptively celebrating, he spitefully disposes of two of Tracy's ballots, throwing the election to Paul.

The discarded ballots are later discovered by a janitor who dislikes McAllister, and Tracy becomes president. He is forced to resign, and the election rigging makes headlines. Diane divorces him, taking the house and most of their joint assets.

Publicly humiliated, McAllister leaves Nebraska and fulfills his dream of moving to New York City. He becomes a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and begins dating Jillian, a fellow museum worker.

Paul develops an active social life at the University of Nebraska, though without Lisa, who dumps him. Tammy finds a new girlfriend, Jennifer, at her all-girls private Catholic school. Tracy attends Georgetown University, where she similarly isolates herself from her peers due to her work-centric nature and is dismayed that many of her classmates were admitted primarily through connections and legacy admissions.

Tracy misses Dave's intellect and wonders if he became a novelist as she believed he would; the film shows Dave working in a hardware store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he now lives with his parents.

On a visit to Washington, D.C., McAllister spots Tracy getting into a limousine with congressman Mike Geiger, a Republican representative from Nebraska. Infuriated that she will go through life as she did at Carver, he hurls a cup of soda at the limousine's rear before fleeing. The film ends with McAllister at the museum posing a question to a group of elementary school children; an overeager little girl is the only one to very excitedly raise her hand. He looks at her, ignores her, then asks, "anybody?"...

Cast

Production

Producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa sent director Alexander Payne an unpublished manuscript from novelist Tom Perrotta called "Election" in 1996. Payne was initially uninterested in directing a high school movie but changed his mind after he read the manuscript. "It was set in a high school, but it wasn’t a high school story, per se. Also what attracted me was the formal exercise of doing a movie with multiple points of view and multiple voice-overs," said Payne. The novel's rights were sold to Payne in January 1997. It was officially published in March 1998.

The novel was inspired by the following two key events: the 1992 United States presidential election, in which Ross Perot entered as a third-party candidate (a move echoed by Tammy Metzler), and a 1992 incident at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in which a pregnant student was elected homecoming queen, but staff announced a different winner and burned the ballots to cover it up.

The film uses several stylized techniques in its storytelling, particularly through the use of freeze frames, flashbacks, and voiceovers, which allow sections of the narrative to be delivered from the points of view of the four main characters (Mr. McAllister, Tracy, Paul, and Tammy).

The film was primarily shot on location around the Omaha metro area in the fall of 1997, most notably in Papillion, Bellevue and the Dundee neighborhood. Papillion-La Vista Senior High School portrayed the fictitious Carver High School with many of the background extras being actual enrolled students at the time. Minor scenes were filmed at Younkers in Westroads Mall, the Old Market, and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

Alternate ending

The film's original ending, received poorly by test audiences, was not known until a rough workprint was found in a box of VHS tapes at a yard sale in 2011. This ending also appears in the third draft of the script, which can be read online. It is faithful to the book: McAllister stays in Omaha and is hired as a used car salesman by one of his former students instead of moving to New York. Tracy encounters McAllister while looking to buy a car and the two settle their differences before she has him sign her yearbook.

Reception

''Election'' was not a box office success as it grossed only $17.2 million against a budget of $8.5-25 million.

Critical response

''Election'' received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 92%, based on 116 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The critical consensus reads, "''Election'' successfully combines dark humor and intelligent writing in this very witty and enjoyable film." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 83 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on a scale of A to F. It later placed at #5 in the first annual Village Voice Film Poll.

Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars, praising Witherspoon and Payne:

Todd McCarthy of '' Variety'' wrote: "Brandishes the sort of intelligent wit and bracing nastiness that will make it more appealing to discerning adults than to teens who just want to have fun."

Desson Howe from ''The Washington Post'' recommended the film, saying it was "the satire of the season, a hilarious, razor-sharp indictment of the American Dream," also praising Payne for finding "a perfect fulcrum between humor and tragedy, between black comedy and poignancy."

According to Payne, it is also President Barack Obama's favorite political film.

Accolades

''Election'' is ranked #61 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies", #389 on ''Empire'''s "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" and #9 on ''Entertainment Weeklys list of the "50 Best High School Movies", while Witherspoon's performance was ranked at #45 on the list of the "100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time" by ''Premiere''.

Home media

''Election'' was released on DVD on October 19, 1999, and Blu-ray on January 20, 2009. A special edition Blu-ray was released by The Criterion Collection on December 16, 2017, with a 4K restoration of the film.

Sequel

In December 2022, it was announced that a film adaptation of the novel's 2022 sequel, '' Tracy Flick Can't Win'', was being developed for Paramount+. Witherspoon is slated to reprise her role as Tracy Flick and co-produce under her Hello Sunshine banner, while Payne would return to direct and co-write with Jim Taylor. A year later, while promoting '' The Holdovers'' (2023), Payne reiterated interest in the project, but would like to pursue other projects first. Payne said that he wants to make a loose adaptation of the novel with Taylor that included Broderick's Jim McAllister character, as well as divert from the high school setting of the novel, attributing to his averseness to "making another high school movie," saying:

References

External links

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''Election: That’s Why It’s Destiny''
an essay by Dana Stevens at the Criterion Collection
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Ann Hornaday, "The 34 best political movies ever made" ''The Washington Post'' (Jan. 23, 2020)
ranked #16

{{MTV Films

1999 films
1999 black comedy films
1999 independent films
1990s high school films
1990s political satire films
1990s satirical films
1990s teen comedy films
1999 LGBTQ-related films
American black comedy films
American high school films
American independent films
American political satire films
American teen comedy films
American teen LGBTQ-related films
1990s English-language films
Films about academic scandals
Films about adultery in the United States
Films about elections
Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships
Films about teacher–student relationships
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Alexander Payne
Films scored by Rolfe Kent
Films set in Nebraska
Films set in New York City
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Films shot in Iowa
Films shot in Nebraska
Films shot in Washington, D.C.
Films with screenplays by Alexander Payne
Films with screenplays by Jim Taylor (writer)
Independent Spirit Award for Best Film winners
Lesbian-related films
LGBTQ-related black comedy films
LGBTQ-related satirical films
MTV Films films
Paramount Pictures films
1990s American films
English-language black comedy films
English-language independent films