Election Review
by McGhee (dvdrules AT aol DOT com)February 4th, 2000
Election (1999) * * * 1/2 (out of ****)
Brief Comments By Zachary McGhee
Paramount, MTV Films, Rated R (some sexuality and related dialogue, some graphic language), 105 Minutes. Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein. Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Directed by Alexander Payne.
(Note: There are spoilers regarding the film's climax; the election, of course)
We see Matthew Broderick, a man torn to a primal state; he's been unfaithful to his wife, lied to and manipulated his students, and by the same token they've demeaned his masculinity, his self-respect, his desperate attempt at changing the world. And yet, he equates the cause of his pain, his torment, with Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon). No matter how many students have come and gone, and disappointed him as an educator, she's the real threat. About to give in, and divulge that she's won by only a lone vote, Broderick's McCalister turns in defeat, sees Tracy's euphoric celebration in the outside corridor and says, 'No'. The fact that he simultaneously lusts after her ideologically further illustrates that Freudian foundation of entitlement which all men, no matter how obscure, have in their relationships; a traditional expectation of success, to usurp and surpass women as a proverbial industry. She can't go higher than him. He won't allow it.
And what's amazing about "Election" is that every word of that criticism is drawn from a rather opaque metaphor. Early in the film we learn that Tracy was romantically, and then sexually, involved with a now departed teacher. It's like Payne and Taylor, his co-screenwriter, have taken Tracy, a girl desperate for friendship, loyalty, and almost perversely drawn the mythological pattern of kids who were so utterly rejected by their peers, that they found sitting at the teachers' lunch table more fitting, to an unlikely extreme with her as the protagonist. And it's amazing the compassion that we have; it seems so real to us, and not merely because it's happened before, splashed all over the front pages, but, because of the all around "nice" persona of these people, we easily dismiss the truly wayward deeds of the characters. It's with Mandy Barnett's "If You'll be The Teacher" playing winsomely over the closing credits that Payne skewers the tenets of his detractors most; a final, viscous injection of bittersweet irony.
Sexuality, though, is not the only basis for Payne's satire, or its success. It also makes a telling point about politics, friendship, and class boundaries.
Satire is required (or ought to be, anyway) to take itself seriously, or act so, while the audience does not. It's a fine line to straddle, but some films ignore it altogether ("Drop Dead Gorgeous" leaps infuriatingly to mind). Payne and Taylor hit the right chord; their characters are real people: neither is perfect, but rather both of the leads are flawed, misguided individuals who retain, somewhat, noble intentions at heart. We sympathize with them, but still, as a satire, their idiosyncratic behavior, and their wrongdoing, is taken to an extreme for the audience to knowingly chuckle, but also reflect and meditate, about.
Minus half a point, though, for Payne admitting not to having seen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Whatever.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
