Election (1999 film)
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- This article is about the 1999 U.S. film Election. For other films with the same name, see Election (film).
| Election | |
|---|---|
| Image:Election poster.jpg | |
| Directed by | Alexander Payne |
| Produced by | Van Toffler |
| Written by | Novel: Tom Perrotta Screenplay: Alexander Payne Jim Taylor |
| Starring | Matthew Broderick Reese Witherspoon Chris Klein |
| Release date(s) | April 23, 1999 (USA, limited release) May 7, 1999 (USA, wide release) |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Election is a 1999 film adapted from a critically acclaimed 1998 novel[1] of the same name by Tom Perrotta. Perrotta's novel is set in 1992, and its plot is about a three-way election race in high school that satirizes the US Presidential Election between Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ross Perot that took place that year.[citation needed] The film was directed by Alexander Payne and stars Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, and Chris Klein.
The movie is ranked number 61 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 9 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Election is set in suburban Omaha, Nebraska (the novel is set in New Jersey) and is the story of Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) and Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon). McAllister is a high school teacher whose enthusiastic involvement with various school-related functions masks his frustration with other aspects of his life. Tracy is an overachiever whose obsession with getting into a good college masks both a vindictive and sexual side. Earlier in the year (implied before winter break), Tracy had a sexual affair with McAllister's best friend, another teacher at the high school. As a result, her lover was fired from his job, his wife left him, and he was forced to leave town and move back into his parents' basement. Tracy, however, walked away with no one knowing of her sexual liaisons because her mother threatened to sue the school if the details of her daughter's relationship with a male teacher became public knowledge. McAllister finds himself repulsed by Tracy's evil side but yet also sexually attracted to her at the same time.
The story truly begins with Jim McAllister exercising on the school track. He then procedes to shower in the school locker room, get dressed, and clear the teacher's lounge refrigerator of food in order to store his own paper bag lunch. He spills a carton of Chinese food on the floor and though he doesn't notice his mess, the janitor does. Tracy arrives early to announce that she is running for student body president. If she wins, she and McAllister would subsequently spend a large amount of time together (as McAllister is in charge of organizing the school's student government). McAllister decides teach Tracy a lesson in humility by introducing some competition into the election and secretly convinces the rich but naive jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run against Tracy.
Meanwhile, Paul's younger (and secretly gay) sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) is dumped by her lover, Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia). Lisa tells Tammy that she is straight and was just "experimenting" with lesbianism. The breakup is also due in part to Tammy's overenthusiasm, often passing Lisa creepy notes professing her love and leaving pictures of the two kissing out for others to see (Lisa wants to be secretive, most likely because she's a cheerleader and is embarrassed to be with Tammy). Lisa then hits on Paul and quickly becomes his new girlfriend and his campaign manager, in part to anger Tammy. Tammy decides to run for president to spite her brother and Lisa with a platform that student government is a sham and would be treated as such by her if elected.
To Tracy, the election is all about class warfare and she believes that winning the presidency will make her as popular as Paul. Paul leaves the running of his campaign to his Lisa. Paul doesn't see campaign about hurting Tracy but rather he wants to find purpose with his life after a broken leg sustained from skiing winter break keeps him from playing football(possibly for the rest of his life).
On the eve before the election, Tracy angrily destroys all of the campaign posters Paul posted at the school. She claims innocence and threatens legal actions against the school when McAllister attempts to use her affair with his best friend to impeach Tracy's credibility. Tammy claims to have destroyed the posters, and her parents transfer her to a private parochial school for girls.
McAllister's best friend's ex-wife, Linda, has been hanging around the McAllister family non-stop since her divorce. This has created a lot of sexual tension with Jim, who has been attracted to her the entire time. Linda often asks McAllister to do chores around her home and after he fixes her drain the day before the school elections, they spontaneously have sex on her living rooom carpet. As Jim leaves, Linda asks him to rent a motel room which he does (an allusion to a line Jim said earlier). Jim spends the day preparing himself for their rendezvous but when he arrives at Linda's house, she isn't there. When he returns home, he finds Linda and his wife talking together in his living room. Knowing he's been caught, he leaves. He waits all night outside of Linda's house in his car.
The next morning he arrives at the school to oversee the counting of the ballots of the election. Throughout the ballot couting, he makes several phone calls to Linda, leaving messages professing his love for her. When she finally answers the phone, she blames the whole affair on him. His wife kicks him out of their house when he tries to apologize, so he decides to stay in the motel room he had rented the day before.
After all the ballots are counted,Tracy has won by one vote. It is revealed that Paul, who has no ill will towards Tracy, voted for her. One of Tracy's supporters is counting ballots and signals to her the victory, and Tracy begins celebrating. When McAllister sees her jumping around joyflly outside the classroom, it angers him so he secretly disposes of two of the ballots that were for Tracy and names Paul as the winner. A pro-Tracy student volunteer refuses to accept McAllister's count of the ballots, even after the principal says the Jim is right. The discarded ballots are found by the janitor; it is revealed he was angry with McAllister for spilling Chinese food during the first five minutes of the film. McAllister resigns from his job and becomes a pariah as the story actually gains national attention through newspapers and the radio.
Divorced and humiliated in Nebraska (and spit on by the upset boy who counted the votes), he packs his bags and leaves town while Tracy takes her new position. She has even more good news when she finds out that she is accepted into her choice college Georgetown University. Paul gets into his first choice of a state college, is just as popular as before, and mostly remains unchanged, except for his breakup with Lisa, which he acknowledges with, as he does most events in his life, an optimistic que sera sera attitude. Paul's sister Tammy is doing well at Catholic school because she can get away with murder and has met her next new girlfriend. It is implied she will drive this girl away like she did Lisa. The conclusion of the next school year, Tracy realizes she is living the same way of life as she was before she was elected student body president, with few friends. She continues her life, pausing to mention her former lover Dave (whom we now see is a stock boy at a gorcery store, looking ridiculous due to his middle age) and McAllister whom she says practically droppped off the face of the earth.
McAllister becomes a tour guide at a major museum in New York City, a place he wanted to visit since childhood, and finds himself more at peace and in a stable relationship with another woman. He claims that even if Tracy becomes a rich and successful person that she'll be utterly miserable due to the way she spent her life ruthlessly climbing the ladder of success without any time off to have fun.
Jim visits Washington, DC on a business trip and sees Tracy as she is entering a limo with a congressman, obviously successful in life. He throws his beverage at the car in anger and runs away when the driver reacts. The film ends with Jim back at work in New York, enjoying teaching at the museum but resenting Type-A personality tourists who remind him of Tracy.
[edit] Differences between novel and film
- The novel is set in New Jersey in 1992.
- In the novel's end, Jim McAllister becomes a car salesman rather than a museum tour guide.
- In the novel, McAllister's wife forgives him after he cheats on her and the two remain married.
- In the novel's end, McAllister asks for Tracy's forgiveness for what he did, and she accepts.
[edit] Trivia
- The fictional high school in the movie is named after George Washington Carver, a famous black botanist and inventor.
- The peanut is the mascot of the high school, which of course is what George Washington Carver was famous for using in his inventions.
- The director of the film, Alexander Payne, wanted to use Millard North High School in Omaha, but the School Board of Millard found the script too obscene. The setting was then moved to a school in the suburb of Omaha, Papillion-La Vista High School.
- The high school where the film was shot, Papillion-La Vista High School, had actual classes going on during much of the filming. The background noise during much of the film were actual teachers in nearby rooms.
- The film helped revive the career of Matthew Broderick, who had been out of the public spotlight for some time prior to the film's release.
- Pepsi-Cola is used as a symbol of opposition. Jim McCallister gets the idea to have Paul Metzler run against Tracy Flick after looking at a Pepsi can and recalling an earlier quote from Tracy about Coca-Cola being #1. Pepsi banners appear in different parts of the movie. The cup that Jim throws at the limo at the end of the movie also has the Pepsi logo on it.
- Thora Birch was originally cast for the role of Tammy Metzler. She left the filming in Omaha on her third day because of creative differences with the director.
- When the last name of the obnoxious character Tracy Flick is written in upper-case letters (as on the campaign button the character often wears), it easily can be mistaken for the word "fuck".
- In the text of a newspaper article in the film: "If you've paused the film in order to read this entire article, your time would be better spent renting Citizen Ruth from your local video store. Do you know how hard it is to write these fake few stories for newspaper movie props? I've got better things to do."
- One of the porno videos in Jim McAllister's collection is called "The Big Election".
- The hotel which Mr. McAllister goes to cheat on his wife is called "The American Family Inn" in Bellevue, Nebraska. The marquee reads "Welcome Seed Dealers".
- The janitor that appears at the beginning of the movie is an actual janitor that works for the director's offices in Omaha, Nebraska. He formerly was a janitor at Duchesne Academy in Omaha, NE. He has now since retired.
- The theme from Navajo Joe (which was also used at the end of Kill Bill: Vol. 2) plays in the background when Tracy finds out that Paul is running for office and also when she rips up his posters.
- The casting director of the movie is the football player that appears in the adult movie that McAllister watches.
- When Paul is describing how he went through a soul-searching period after he broke his leg, he is shown with a copy of "The Celestine Prophecy".
- Many local Omaha students and teachers were used in the film for the roles of students and teachers. One in particular was Chris Klein, who would end up becoming a mainstay in Hollywood and star in other movies. Payne found him when he was scouting schools for locations to shoot and a teacher at one of the schools introduced him to Klein.
- Production had to shut down for about a month when a freak snow storm hit the Omaha area during the fall, knocking down trees and power lines.
- Apples were a sign of impending bad luck in the movie, and wherever one or more was in view, something bad would happen to one of the characters. (example: Jim's bee sting.)
- According to commentary by Alexander Payne, the scene where Jim watches pornography in the basement, the basement was left unaltered. They used the actual basement of a house in Omaha, and the only addition made was adding the videos.
- The apples in Linda's backyard were tied to the trees by string.
- Nick D'Agosto, who appeared towards the end of the film as the committee chairman, was just a student at Creighton Prep high school in Omaha, the same high school Payne attended, when he did this movie. He would go on to college at Marquette University in Milwaukee before moving out to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He now plays the role of an intern on NBC's ER.
- The neighborhood scenes with Jim, Linda, and his wife were shot at the Fairacres neighborhood in Omaha, the same one Alexander Payne grew up in as a child. The scenes involving the Metzler's household were shot in West Omaha, about 10 miles away from Fairacres in a new housing development.
- For the school assembly scenes, Payne had to use special effects to make the gym look full. As Payne said on the commentary, some students learned that being an extra wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and that left the assembly scene lacking in students. Payne filmed the select group of students they had sitting in different spots during multiple takes, and then, using digital editing, filled in the blanks to make it look like a packed gym.
- Phil Reeves, the actor who plays the school principal, would appear in Payne's next two movies. He played a minister in About Schmidt and he revived his role of the principal from Election on vacation in California's wine country with his son in Sideways.
- Reese Witherspoon's performance as Tracy Flick in the film is ranked #45 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
- The home originally chosen for some of the filming became unavailable as the family that recently moved into the house didn't want to be "thrown out" nor did the owners want the lesbian scene planned to be filmed in the house to be seen by their three children.
- While returning to his classroom after getting the hotel room ready for Linda, on the chalkboard above Jim McAllister's head, is the name Gavrilo Princep, which should have been spelled Gavrilo Princip.
[edit] External links
- Election at the Internet Movie Database
