Product Details

• Actors: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Phil Reeves
• Directors: Alexander Payne
• Writers: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Tom Perrotta
• Producers: Albert Berger, David Gale, Jacobus Rose, Jim Burke
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (253 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305574928
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,899 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), of George Washington Carver High, in Omaha, Nebraska, busts her chops to become the president of the student body. Tracy gathers signatures, bakes cupcakes, uses everyone; she's a cross between Pat and Richard Nixon. Her fair-minded teacher, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), develops a surprising obsession with Tracy-something about her bland dynamism aggravates his boredom with his own life, and he tries to stop Tracy cold. This remarkable satirical comedy, written by Jim Taylor and directed with deadpan cool by Alexander Payne (the team responsible for the overlooked "Citizen Ruth"), uses the school election as a prism for an analysis of success and failure in American life. There are many surprises and comic turns, some of them rather bitter, and the ending, in its casual way, is stunning. From a novel by Tom Perrotta. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Comedy of the Year, March 9, 2000

By	Bob Thompson (Oakville, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Election (DVD)

This is by far the funniest movie Hollywood has produced in years, probably the best in my opinion since "Get Shorty."

Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, an over-ambitous student with desires to be elcted to her student council. Tracy Flick is the kind of person I think we've all met before. Driven, ambitious, very bright, but at the same time she really has no discernable personality. The fact that she is driven and involved in everything is what's getting her by. She has very few friends and is, if anything, made fun of routinely.

Matthew Broderick plays her teacher. He's a very regular man, teaching a dull course, leading a fairly boring and repetetive life. When he finds tracy's ambitions threatning he sets out on destroying her.

Election is far more hilarious than most movies because of its extremely bitter nature. Many people will find the story cold and sterile but if you get past that it is a hugely entertaining film.

All the performances are first rate and if you compare it to the other "teen" comedy of the year, "American Pie" it is evident that this is light years ahead. While "American Pie" settles on cheap belly laughs and a feel good ending, "Election" opts for exactly the opposite. In fact this is really a very adult film performed by teenagers.

"Election" is a cynical, bitter, vicious movie that is also the best comedy in years.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A subtle classic of American cinema, December 11, 1999

By	David Baldwin (Solihull, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Election (DVD)

Election was not popular in America, and it's mainly because it viciously attacks everything the USA holds dear. This is exectly why this is such a brilliant black comedy, but if you're the type of person who prefers 'comedies' like American Pie then this is definitely not for you. It ridicules everything - the sexual pysche of the wounded male ego, high school hierarchy systems, the teacher-pupil relationship - whilst at the same time satirising American politics. Payne's commentary on the DVD is informative, but it would have been nice to have a feature on the making of it of or an analysis of the intentions of the script from people involved. Hell, a trailer would have been good, but buy the DVD for the film, a classic of American cinema which doesn't need to be in your face to make its point. Well worth your money.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When John Hughes grows up, he'll make a film like this, March 17, 2000

By	Allan Ostermann "allan" (Portland (the one on the left)) - See all my reviews

Election is a film, but it feels like a parody of a sitcom. It takes a typical SITuation and follows it to its absurd conclusion.

Let me explain. Reese Witherspoon is well, let's just say, Marcia Brady on Ritalin. It's an episode about an election. If Tracy (aka Marcia) doesn't win, gosh, we just don't know what she'll do.

The election is between Tracy, the opportunistic brain, and a dumb, naive, popular, but really sweet jock (not your stereotypical bully type, like, say Jay Mohr in high school or anything). Then there's the third candidate, but I won't give that away.

Will the brain beat the brawn? Hmm.

So that's the surface layer. Definitely Brady Bunch material, right? But add Matthew Broderick as the "protagonist", a teacher who's sleazy, jealous and spiteful. Throw in a killer bee, a jezebel neighbor, and a jilted teenage lesbian. Also add real human emotions, not caricatures, where the viewer at times can't say "he's bad" or "she's good". They're all human. Some are just more inhumane.

The movie explores motivation, winning, the political process, and human tragedy. But boy is it funny! See it, I mean it. It was perhaps my favorite of 1999.