Election

Plot

Jim McAllister is a well-liked U.S. history and civics teacher at Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. One of his students is Tracy Flick, an academically driven and high-achieving junior whose single mother, Judith, encourages her to strive for success. Earlier in the year, Jim's colleague and best friend, geometry teacher Dave Novotny, was fired and divorced by his wife, Linda, after engaging in a sexual relationship with Tracy. Though Jim believes Dave deserved to face consequences for his actions, he resents the lack of repercussions for Tracy, along with what he sees as Judith's coddling of her.

Jim struggles to conceive a child with his wife, Diane, and subsequently begins to have sexual fantasies about both Linda and Tracy, despite being disturbed by his attraction to the latter. Appalled by Tracy's unopposed run for student government president and dreading further proximity to her, Jim persuades Paul Metzler, a popular, good-natured but dimwitted football player, to enter the race. Sidelined from football with a broken leg sustained in a skiing accident, Paul finds that his candidacy gives him purpose. It also infuriates Tracy, who had expected to run unchallenged.

Tammy Metzler, Paul's adopted younger sister, attempts to seduce Lisa Flanagan, her best friend. When a disgusted Lisa rejects her and immediately begins dating Paul and managing his campaign, Tammy retaliates by running as a spoiler candidate. 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 standing ovation. The principal, Walt Hendricks, retaliates by suspending her.

Late one Sunday night, while working on the school yearbook, Tracy sees that one of her campaign posters has fallen from the wall. While attempting to reattach it, she accidentally tears the poster, then furiously destroys the other candidates' campaign posters and discards them in a dumpster, unaware that Tammy is watching. The next day, Jim confronts Tracy about the posters. She feigns innocence and trades threats with Jim, but Tammy rescues her by appearing with the torn posters and falsely claiming responsibility. The school expels Tammy, and her name is removed from the ballot.

Jim has a tryst with Linda the day before the election. She asks him to rent a motel room for an afternoon rendezvous, but fails to attend. When Jim drives to Linda's house to find her, he is stung by a bee on his eyelid. He returns home find Linda talking with a tearful Diane. Assuming that Linda has told Diane about their tryst, he spends the night in his car.

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 late 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. In Paramount's 1997 fiscal report, the film was planned for release in 1998, but was delayed for a year.

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 City. Tracy encounters McAllister while looking to buy a car and the two settle their differences before she has him sign her yearbook.

Release

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

Reception

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: ...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 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 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.

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: I did Election. I did Holdovers. There are bits and pieces of it in Sideways, and a pilot I did, so I’m a little over it, so Jim and I are talking right now about how can we adapt that novel faithfully, but loosely, and put our own voice into it. We’ll get there. We’re not quite there, but we’ll get there.