The Reel World: 'Election'

Since the election will finally be over after today, I feel it’s only appropriate to approach political films in this column. This is mostly a byproduct of my habit of actively ignoring all remotely political news and kind of just hoping it will go away. However, as Election Day drew nearer and nearer, the focus moved away from rhetoric and rallies to ground game, early voting and the down-and-dirty machinations of politics. This brought to my mind what is, in my opinion, the greatest political film of all time. I am not referring to “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) or “All the President’s Men” (1976); I am referring to Alexander Payne’s “Election” (1999).

Starring a 23-year-old Reese Witherspoon, “Election” is a strange and wonderful little movie. It follows Witherspoon as conniving overachiever Tracy Flick, who runs a campaign to be elected student council president at her suburban Omaha, Neb., high school.Mr. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), a popular teacher who hates Tracy, decides she does not deserve the title and begins conspiring against her campaign, persuading other candidates to run against her and eventually attempting to stuff the ballot box against her.

As Selina Meyer (Julia Louis - Dreyfus) from the HBO series “Veep” (2012-present)  frequently says, politics is about people. Indeed, “Election” proves to be a fascinating exploration of the intersection between politics, suburban life, educational culture and generational divides. Witherspoon provides a bravura performance as Tracy, the snobbishly annoying, know-it-all, ambitious high school student. However, Mr. McAllister’s dislike for her raises questions about the treatment of characters like Tracy in film, politics and society as a whole.

Central to this debate are three issues. Tracy, despite her self-importance, is only trying to follow her ambitions, and in fact, generally does quite well for herself. The other characters in the film are the ones who allow themselves to be offended by her ambition. Tellingly, industrious yet hateable characters like Tracy are almost exclusively young and exclusively female.

Though Tracy is portrayed as a selfish “try-hard” who does too much, there is an underlying caveat that her actions would be seen as much more acceptable for a male character. Mr. McAllister’s antipathy toward Tracy introduces a generational conflict. He looks down on the young Tracy as annoying and disrespectful, though over the course of the film, it is revealed that he was not unlike Tracy when he was her age.

“Election” works so well because it is all-encompassing, showcasing how personal jealousies and accepted attitudes drive social politics within a high school, with the implication that in the next generation, the situation will play out similarly. It also hilariously (and depressingly) predicted the future: When Mr. McAllister gets a burnt-out, apathetic student named Tammy (Jessica Campbell) to run against Tracy, Tammy makes her speech a diatribe against the school and promises to disband the student council, hoping to get thrown out of the race. Instead, she gets a standing ovation. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.