Vote for 'Election' (Election (DVD))

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	Election (DVD)
Date:	28/11/00 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A classic

Disadvantages: Which no-one went to see at cinemas

'Election' is a rarity - a sharp political satire that makes absolutely no compromises to audience tastes and emerges with real bite and intelligence. Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a swot, a do-gooding busybody, the kind of person is on every student committee, whose hand is always raised in class. Popular teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) decides, knowing that Tracy has some skeletons in her closet, and moreover, despising Tracy for being a knowall, decides to scupper her chances of becoming president of the student body with another candidate, nice-but-dim sports hero Paul Metzler (Chris Klein).
A third candidate then enters the race, Paul's sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), and as a whole tangle of resentments and plots take hold, Jim's conspiracies push him to the brink.

There are parallels here with the 1996 US election, with Tracy as Bob Dole, Paul as Bill Clinton and Tammy as Ross Perot - these ideas are there, but the specifics are less important. What really matters is the general commentary on the way in which politics, while on the surface being a battle of ideas and principles, is actually about personalities, and individual ambition and prejudice. In a way, a better comparison is between Tracy and Tony Blair, the squeaky clean campaigner who believes that organisation and a positive face entitle one to power.

The performances are exemplary, with Broderick superb as a flawed man floundering in a situation he has created but cannot control, and Witherspoon absolutely superb, bravely robbing Tracy of any hint of humanity, and ruthlessly abandoning the sunny good looks which have won her so many other parts.

Unlike a lot of satires, which almost inevitably end in farce or bloodshed, 'Election' keeps its head and pushes its story to a logical and appropriate conclusion without compromise or excess. It has very few wholly sympathetic or wholly unsympathetic characters - Tracy is obnoxious (
but never actually lies or cheats), Paul is stupid (but entirely without malice), and Jim is weak and compromised (but his instincts are completely understandable).

It's not a jolly comedy, but a serious - if hilarious - look at the nature of elections and the compromises made in politics: seek it out.

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