Election (1999 film)
Election is a 1999 American black comedy film directed by Alexander Payne from a screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor, based on Tom Perrotta's 1998 novel of the same name. 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, Jim sabotages her candidacy by backing a rival candidate and tampering with the ballot count. Although a box office bomb, Election received critical acclaim. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Golden Globe nomination for Witherspoon for Best Actress, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film in 1999.
Plot
Jim McAllister is a beloved civics teacher at an Omaha, Nebraska, high school. One of his students, Tracy Flick, is an overachieving senior whom he resents. Dave Novotny, Jim's best friend and fellow teacher, lost his job and his wife after Tracy's mother discovered that her daughter was having a sexual relationship with him. Jim is bitter that his best friend suffered grave consequences for the relationship, while Tracy's mother intervened to protect Tracy and her reputation from further harm.Tracy announces that she is running for student body president and informs Jim that they will be spending time together, since he oversees student government. Appalled by this and the fact that Tracy is running unopposed, Jim encourages Paul Metzler, a popular football player, to enter the race. Sidelined because of a broken leg, Paul finds his candidacy gives him new purpose; it also infuriates Tracy, who resents Paul's effortless popularity and privileged upbringing.
Paul's younger sister Tammy is dumped by her girlfriend, Lisa Flanagan, who becomes Paul's girlfriend and campaign manager. Deeply hurt, Tammy exacts revenge by running for president on a nihilistic platform that student government is a sham.
The three candidates make their campaign speeches to the student body at an assembly. Tracy draws polite applause while Paul receives a warm reception, despite giving a halting and lackluster speech. Tammy delivers a defiant address in which she denounces the election and vows to dissolve student government if she wins. Tammy's speech rallies the students to a rowdy standing ovation, but it also gets her suspended from school.
While working on a yearbook project during the weekend, Tracy sees that one of her campaign posters has come untaped from the wall. She tries to secure it but accidentally rips the poster apart. In a fit of rage, she destroys the other candidates' campaign posters and discards them in a dumpster, unaware that Tammy sees this. When Jim confronts Tracy the next day with his suspicion that she removed the posters, Tracy feigns innocence and threatens to sue the school. In a ploy to get permanently expelled, Tammy falsely claims she vandalized the posters and produces them as proof, having retrieved them from the dumpster. Tammy is expelled, her name is struck from the ballot, and her parents enroll her in a private Catholic school for girls—much to her delight.
The day before the election, Jim visits Linda Novotny, Dave's ex-wife, who initiates sex by kissing him. Linda asks Jim to rent a motel room for an after-school rendezvous, but she fails to show. When Jim drives to Linda's house to find her, he is stung by a bee, causing a severe allergic reaction on his right eyelid. He returns home to find Linda and his wife talking. Knowing his encounter with Linda has been exposed, he spends the night in his car.
During the next day's election, Jim oversees the tally of the ballots, despite being sleep-deprived and disfigured from the bee sting. After the ballots are counted, Tracy wins by a single vote—cast by Paul, who votes for her because he thinks it dishonorable to vote for himself. During the ballot-counting, Jim spots Tracy dancing gleefully in the hall after a student counting votes surreptitiously signals that she won. Jim secretly disposes of two of Tracy's ballots and declares Paul the winner. When a janitor discovers the two discarded ballots in the trash and shows them to the principal, Tracy becomes president and Jim is forced to resign. Jim's wife refuses to forgive him for his tryst with Linda and throws him out of their house.
Divorced and humiliated, Jim leaves Nebraska and fulfills a longtime dream of moving to New York City, where he becomes a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and begins dating a new woman. Tracy attends Georgetown University, while Paul enrolls at the University of Nebraska. Tammy finds a new girlfriend at her all-girls school.
Jim encounters Tracy one last time during a trip to Washington, D.C., when he sees her getting into a limousine with a Republican congressman. Disgusted that Tracy's success is the result of her cutthroat nature, Jim impulsively hurls a cup of soda at the limo as it drives away. Jim later speaks to a group of elementary school students at the museum, refusing to respond to the raised hand of an overeager girl who reminds him of Tracy.
Cast
Production
Director Alexander Payne had become a fan of the novel by Tom Perrotta on which the film is based; the novel's rights were sold to Payne in January 1997. The novel was inspired by two key events. The first was the 1992 United States presidential election, in which Ross Perot entered as a third party candidate. The second was 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 a number of 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.
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 was not known until a rough workprint of it was found in a box of VHS tapes at a yard sale in 2011. The alternate ending is faithful to the book: Jim 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 Jim 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.The film received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 92%, based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 7.82/10. 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 scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising Witherspoon and Payne, and saying, "...here is a movie that is not simply about an obnoxious student, but also about an imperfect teacher, a lockstep administration, and a student body that is mostly just marking time until it can go out into the world and occupy valuable space".
Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine 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."
Election is ranked #61 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and #9 on Entertainment Weekly's 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. According to Payne, it is also President Barack Obama's favorite political film.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
| 1999 | Academy Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay | Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor | ||
| 1999 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical | Reese Witherspoon | ||
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Feature | Election | ||
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Direction | Alexander Payne | ||
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Screenplay | Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor | ||
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Female Lead | Reese Witherspoon | ||
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Debut Performance | Jessica Campbell | ||
| 1999 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Best Actress | Reese Witherspoon | ||
| 1999 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Next Generation Award | Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor | ||
| 1999 | New York Film Critics Circle | Best Screenplay | Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor | ||
| 1999 | National Society of Film Critics | Best Film | Election | ||
| 1999 | National Society of Film Critics | Best Screenplay | Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor | ||
| 1999 | National Society of Film Critics | Best Actress | Reese Witherspoon | ||
| 1999 | National Board of Review | Excellence in filmmaking | Election | ||
| 1999 | Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay | Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor |