History Film / Election

* BrickJoke: Anybody?

** Also Tracy's viewpoints on Coca-Cola staying #1 because of advertising, which Mr. McAllister drinking a pepsi, inspires him to pick Paul to run against her. Doubles as a BrickJoke when at the end of the film, [[spoiler: Mr. McAllister throws a Pepsi cup at the limo Tracy is riding in]].

** Also Tracy's viewpoints on Coca-Cola staying #1 because of advertising, which McAllister drinking a pepsi, inspires him to pick Paul to run against her. Doubles as a BrickJoke when at the end of the film, McAllister [[spoiler: throws a Pepsi cup at the limo Tracy is riding in]].

* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When Tracy get's really pissed, you'll know it.

* AlmightyJanitor: Mr. [=McAllister=] makes the ''very'' big mistake of [[ChekhovsGun unknowingly pissing off the school janitor]] by dumping a box of chow mein in a waste basket he just emptied. It bites him in the ass when [[spoiler:the janitor finds the thrown-out ballots in the trash bin and reveals to the principal that he had rigged the election]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[DonnieDarko Donnie Darko's dad]] is Paul's dad, Colleen Camp (Yvette the maid in Clue) briefly appears as Tracy's pushy mother, and Matt Malloy (''InTheCompanyOfMen'') is the Vice Principal, getting just one line.

* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil: Deconstructed. The student council is ultimately revealed at the end of the film as being highly dysfunctional, [[spoiler:to the point that Tracy can't get ''anything'' accomplished during her tenure as President]]. Furthermore, the film pretty much establishes that the whole thing is one glorified popularity contest: hence why Mr. [=McAllister=] selects Paul to run against Tracy since, as one of the most popular kids at school, more kids in theory will vote for him over Tracy. Furthermore, Tammy's entire campaign platform is based upon the idea of dissolving the student council as she openly acknowledges that it is a huge fraud and a waste of time for everyone at school.
** The film ''does'' play this straight with Tracy and Mr. [=McAllister=], under the logic that being StudentCouncilPresident will be a major jewel in the proverbial crown that is Tracy's college application. Being student council president adds a good number of points to one's college application, especially when applying to colleges where heavy extracurricular activity involvement is a prerequisite to get the application board to even give your application a second glance. Indeed, Mr. [=McAllister=] outright states that being student council president, along with her straight A+ grades and spotless permanent record, will give Tracy her pick of pretty much any college she applies to.

To foil her dreams of using the election as a springboard for her future, [=McAllister=] recruits injured star football player Paul Meltzer to run against Tracy. This inspires Paul's lesbian sister Tammy to run as well, in order to get revenge upon Paul for dating Tammy's ex-girlfriend (who dumped Tammy after deciding that [[IncompatibleOrientation she wasn't a lesbian after all]]). Meanwhile, [=McAllister=], feeling a lack of passion in his love life (and fearing his own FoeYay with Tracy) starts dating the aforementioned friend's ex-wife. All of this culminates into the mother of all bad days as all of these trains crash into each other.

To foil her dreams of using the election as a springboard for her future, [=McAllister=] recruits injured star football player Paul Meltzer to run against Tracy. Added to the mix is Paul's lesbian sister Tammy, who offers herself up as a candidate as well in order to get revenge upon Paul after he starts dating Tammy's ex-girlfriend (who dumped Tammy after deciding that [[IncompatibleOrientation she wasn't a lesbian after all]]). Meanwhile [=McAllister=], feeling a lack of passion in his love life (and fearing his own FoeYay with Tracy) starts dating the aforementioned friend's ex-wife. All of this culminates into the mother of all bad days as all of these trains crash into each other.

The film was a critical darling, but had a mediocre take at the box office, due to the studio [[NeverTrustATrailer screwing up its marketing]] and portraying it as a straight-up teen comedy as opposed to a drama with BlackComedy overtones -- presumably an effort to cash in on the success of ''AmericanPie'' (the fact that Chris Klein is in both films adds a bit of credence to that theory), which came out earlier that year. Based on its critical success, though, it managed an AcademyAward nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay (which Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor would later win in 2004 for ''{{Sideways}}'' and again in 2011 for ''Film/TheDescendants''. Likewise, Reese Witherspoon received glowing reviews for her performance, and it is often cited as one of the future AcademyAward winner's best roles. The film also resurrected MatthewBroderick's career after several years of obscurity.

''Election'' is a 1999 {{teen|Drama}} {{dramedy}} [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the 1998 novel of the same name]] by Tom Perrotta, starring MatthewBroderick, ReeseWitherspoon and Chris Klein and directed by AlexanderPayne.

* DecidedByOneVote: [[spoiler: Ironically, the deciding vote comes from Paul, he votes for Tracy because he doesn't know if voting for himself would be the done thing.]]

The film was a critical darling, but had a mediocre take at the box office, due to the studio [[NeverTrustATrailer screwing up its marketing]] and portraying it as a straight-up teen comedy as opposed to a drama with BlackComedy overtones -- presumably an effort to cash in on the success of ''AmericanPie'' (the fact that Chris Klein is in both films adds a bit of credence to that theory), which came out earlier that year. Based on its critical success, though, it managed an AcademyAward nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay (which Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor would later win in 2004 for ''{{Sideways}}'' and again in 2011 for [[Film/TheDescendants The Descendants]]). Likewise, Reese Witherspoon received glowing reviews for her performance, and it is often cited as one of the future AcademyAward winner's best roles. The film also resurrected MatthewBroderick's career after several years of obscurity.

* JerkJock: Averted. Paul is a genuinely kind-hearted person. In fact he's almost too nice to be for real, he doesn't say or do a single unkind thing during the film. There is the pain he causes his sister by dating and humping her former soulmate Lisa, but due to his sheer naivety he is "completely" unaware of this or that Lisa is doing it to get back at Tammy.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[DonnieDarko Donnie Darko's dad]] is Paul's dad, Colleen Camp (Miss Scarlett in Clue) briefly appears as Tracy's pushy mother, and Matt Malloy (''InTheCompanyOfMen'') is the Vice Principal, getting just one line.

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: A wheelchair-bound teenager (with cerebal palsy, I'm guessing) plays the candidate who runs unopposed for student council Vice President, either because no one else cares about that position or no one has the heart to run against a disabled kid. On IMDB this is his only film credit, presumably he was a real high school student like all the extras in this film were.

* SpoiledSweet: Rich kid Paul gets a brand new pickup truck for his 16th birthday, goes on skiing breaks and can afford to often throw parties for his friends. But he is an extremely nice guy and is grateful for what he has. But the less well-off Tracy still hates him and has a big rant about priviledged people like him waltzing in and taking what people like her have to spend their entire lives working for VERY, VERY HARD.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[DonnieDarko Donnie Darko's dad]] is Paul's dad, Colleen Camp (Miss Scarlett in Clue) briefly appears as Tracy's pushy mother, and Matt Malloy (In the Company of Men) is the Vice Principal, getting just one line.

* AlternateEnding: The original ending has [[spoiler: Jim working at a car dealership in town having generally recovered from his pariahdom. Tracy shows up to pick up a new car the day before she goes off to college, confronts [=McAllister=] and asks him why he did it. After Mr. [=McAllister=] apologizes Tracy confesses to being scared about going off to college but [=McAllister=] reassures her that she'll be okay signs and her yearbook]].

''Election'' is a 1999 {{teen|Drama}} {{dramedy}} [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the 1998 novel of the same name]] by Tom Perrotta, starring MatthewBroderick, ReeseWitherspoon and Chris Klein and directed by Alexander Payne.