Basic Film Information

• Release Date: April 23, 1999
• Writer: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
• Director: Alexander Payne
• Actors: Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon

Synopsis

A young, ambitious girl decides to run for class president in order to build up her resume for college. A teacher decides that he does not want her to become the president, and so encourages a popular boy to run against her. The teacher and these students begin to engage in riskier behavior and in the end, no one truly wins.

Contemporary Reviews 

• Rotten Tomatoes Critic Consensus: Election successfully combines dark humor and intelligent writing in this very witty and enjoyable film.

Background and Interesting Facts

• The movie was partially based off of the Bush/Clinton Presidential election and the election of a pregnant homecoming queen where votes were thrown away by the faculty to keep her from winning
• Apples are featured prominently in the movie, usually before trouble arrives for a character. They are used as an analogy to entice Paul Metzler to enter the election, an apple tree is shown before Mr. McAllister is stung by a bee, apples hang above the doorway to Mr. McAllister’s living room right before he discovers his wife knows he cheated on her, and Mr. McAllister wins the Apple Teacher of The Year Award at the beginning of the movie.

Critical Analysis

A satirical commentary on the election of the American Presidency, Election follows a high school presidential election and the corruption, deception, competition, and drama of the election season. This movie seeks to try and engage those watching to think critically about the political process and how they will be acting come the next November, as this movie was released a year and a half before the 2000 election. Although it deals with many issues in the election and political process, one major problem that it tackles is the issues that arise when there are different numbers of candidates running in a presidential race.

At the beginning of the movie, there is only one person who is running for the title of senior class president, Tracy Flick. Tracy as she is running, feels like she is the only one who deserves to be president. She tries to deny access to the candidacy from the rest of the student body, and no one would dare to run against her. This is similar to the idea of a one party system, and it shows the audacity of that idea through Tracy’s slightly obsessive nature. If there is only one person or one party running in an election, there is no input from the body that that person would be in charge of governing. By having a single person in the running for a powerful position, it means that this person will have that power, and there is no voice to speak against them. A one party system is a failure of democracy, something that this movie repeatedly overcomes.

To encourage democracy, Mr. McAlister encourages a popular athlete who was down on his luck to enter the race for the senior class presidency. With the introduction of another person, the race becomes more fair. There becomes a competition and the competitive nature of the candidates come out. The movie shows the race getting meaner as it becomes more competitive as well. Tactics begin to get dirty by sabotaging the other side.

Another problem with having two candidates is that it becomes a choice of the lesser of two evils. The body of those voting are not necessarily voting for something that they are particularly excited for. Early on in the movie, a third party enters before student speeches are addressed to the student body. The two main candidates receive polite applause; however, when an underclassman running against them, or a third party, makes a speech against the system, the school is excited by it. Though in the end they are voting for one thing or the other, the majority of the students are not voting for what they truly believe.

The third party candidate, although she gains a lot of traction early on, is not able to continue. This is due partly to a scandal that got her expelled from school, but also because the system in power did not want a third party running in the election. The administration of the school did not like this candidate saying negative things about the position. The system in power did what they could to limit her candidacy, ending in her not being able to really participate in the election.

This is similar to what happens in elections in the united states. We operate as a two party system, and that system is what keeps the united states the way that it is. If the political that is the way it is because of election system, then the political system has interest in keeping it the way that it is. The American political system thrives off of consistency even when the public does not because they are left with severely limited options.

Election argues that the way things are now is dangerous, and being content with the way things are is dangerous as well. Election exposes in a microcosm of the political system as a whole that the way that things are done now is not the way that things ought to be done, and forces us to draw connections from what we see on the screen to what is happening in real life. To make a good choice, it is necessary for the people to have diverse options, and for our voices to be heard so that we can be represented in the law making process. Without diverse input into the political process, we are left with the same two choices again and again. More options are needed so that Americans can vote for something rather than against something.

Bibliography

IMDb. Election (1999). 2016. Web Article. 17 November 2016.

Rotten Tomatoes- Fandango. Election (1999). 2016. Web Article. 17 November 2016.