Election
A high school teacher’s personal life becomes complicated as he works with students during the school elections.
- Director: Alexander Payne
- Genre:Comedy / Drama
Cast
Matthew Broderick : Jim McAllister
Reese Witherspoon : Tracy Flick
Chris Klein : Paul Metzler
Jessica Campbell : Tammy Metzler
Phil Reeves : Walt Hendricks
Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a high school teacher in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska whose enthusiastic involvement at school masks his frustration with other aspects of his life. Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is an overachieving senior with a secret vindictive and sexual side. Earlier in the year, Tracy had an affair with McAllister’s best friend, another teacher. As a result, her lover was fired from his job, divorced by his wife, and ended up a ruined man; Tracy, however, walked away with no one knowing of her involvement aside from the principal, McAlllister, and her mother.
Tracy announces that she is running for student body president, horrifying McAllister, who is in charge of organizing the school’s student government and is one of the few people who dislikes Tracy (he also seems afraid that, like his friend, he will be tempted into an affair with her). Other students assume she will win the election, and she is set to run unopposed, but McAllister decides to teach Tracy a lesson in humility by introducing some competition into the election, and convinces one of the most popular, yet dumbest students, a jock, Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run against Tracy. Paul agrees, after McAllister convinces him that politics could be his purpose in life, now that his football career has been ended by his broken leg.
Meanwhile, Paul’s younger sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) – who is sexually involved with another girl at the school – is dumped by her lover, Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia), who says that she is straight and was just “experimenting”. Lisa quickly becomes Paul’s new girlfriend and 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.
At the speeches, Flick’s speech gets only polite applause, while Paul’s overwhelming support is dwindled by his terrible rhetorical skills. Tammy, however, delivers a demagogic masterpiece in which she denounces the election as a farce that will change nothing at the school. In summation she admits she doesn’t care whether her fellow students vote for her and vows she will do nothing in their service if she wins. Her defiant conclusion “Don’t vote at all!” rallies the student body to a standing ovation, to the consternation of Paul, Tracy and the faculty. Tammy is suspended for three days, but she and her brother make up. Read more
Watch full Election online streaming for free
