IMDb > Election (1999)
Election
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Election (1999) -- Virgin.net Movies - Trailer (WMP)

Overview

User Rating:
7.4/10   35,515 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 15% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Tom Perrotta (novel)
Alexander Payne (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Election on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 May 1999 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Reading, Writing, Revenge.
Plot:
A high school teacher's personal life becomes complicated as he works with students during the school elections. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 16 wins & 18 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(66 articles)
Anna Kendrick: The Hollywood Interview
 (From The Hollywood Interview. 21 December 2009, 8:34 AM, PST)

Decade in Review: 2004 Top Ten
 (From FilmExperience. 14 December 2009, 6:56 PM, PST)

User Comments:
Not totally convincing but an enjoyable dark comedy that swipes at politics and sexual relations more (413 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for strong sexuality, sex-related dialogue and language, and a scene of drug use.
Runtime:
103 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
In the gym scenes, since the extras were real High School Students, the director faced the problem of not having enough of them because of the SAT season, and many of them having already found out the sometimes tedious process of working as an extra. As a solution for the shots requiring a full gym to be seen, the director asked the extras to move two or three times from their seats to look as if there were more people with the help of editing. The wide shot showing both sides of the gym was done in less than 20 minutes when the teachers of Papillion La Vista Highschool asked more students to join the film shooting. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Tracy, in her voiceover after the election, refers to being in the "top seventh percentile"; percentiles do not work that way. more
Quotes:
Tracy Flick: I don't know what you're referring to, but maybe if certain older, wiser people hadn't acted like such little babies, and gotten so mushy, then everything would be ok... and I think certain older people, like you, and your colleague, shouldn't be leching after their students, especially when some of them can't even get their own wives pregnant... more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Tracey Fragments (2007) more
Soundtrack:
Rising Sign more

FAQ

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22 out of 41 people found the following comment useful.
Not totally convincing but an enjoyable dark comedy that swipes at politics and sexual relations, 10 July 2004
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

James McAllister is a contented high school teacher who is presiding over the elections for school president this year. However, the only student running for the position is the overly keen Tracey Flick – a driven student who he feels is callous and blames for his best friend being fired for falling in love with her. Desperate to prevent her becoming president, James convinces injured jock Paul to run, prompting Paul's love-scorned sister to also stand. Where once the presidency was a good clean-cut race, Tracey takes the competition badly, and it descends into something a lot more sinister.

I wasn't totally sure about this film but I had heard good things about it and, even though the fact that it was an MTV Production put me off a bit, I decided to give it a try. The film is quite clever for the most part and takes the worn genre and clichés of high school movies and makes them into a quite good little political satire of sorts – albeit one that is rather downbeat at times. The comedy is not laugh out loud funny and maybe that's a problem, but I enjoyed the parallels with modern politics (and sexual issues) and found it to make some good points in a funny way. Of course the end is rather downbeat but only because it is sadly believable.

I must say that I was rather put off by a couple of different things. The first was the amount of sexual material in the film – not a real problem but I was a little put off by how graphically the subject of underage sex was dealt with. This was a minor problem (if you can pardon the pun!) but what I found a little worrying was Payne's apparent misogynistic touch on the film – all the men were hapless saps and the women held the real power all the way; I'm not saying this is not true but Payne has little sympathy for his female characters and they may come off better overall but there is no love lost for them.

The cast opens with an amusing bit of role reversal that sees everyone's favourite high school student become a teacher in the shape of Matthew Broderick. Hardly having the best run of roles for a while, he is actually pretty good here even if some of what happens to his character doesn't seem to fit very well. Witherspoon is annoying but the difference here is that it is intentional! She easily fits into the character and her role has a great touch to it – I'm not saying it is easy to enjoy her performance but she is good. Klein does his usual dumb jock thing but is fortunate that he has the material to support (this time) but I felt Campbell was left with a sympathetic character that was placed on the sidelines too much.

Overall I enjoyed this film but it had its limitations. It isn't hilariously funny as many coming to this genre may expect but it is quite cleverly written. The story struggles a bit as it goes along, with threads left hanging that stop it being as tight as it maybe could have been but generally I enjoyed it but can see why some others have problems with it.

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Message Boards

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Ferris Bueller haggarddreadlocks
Omaha Accent bauhausblack
The Best Movies You've Never Heard Of... brianpritchard
Best part by a long shot... t-ArAnTiN-o
How did Tracy know about Mr. + Mrs. McAllister's baby problem? Pearl_Jade
tracy after the election (spoilers) waytoofast33
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