Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Election (Paramount Pictures, 1999)

Genre: Humor

Honors: Independent Spirit Award for Best Film in 1999.

Review: Tracy Flick is a determined overachiever who will stop at nothing to become the class president.  Mr. McAllister will stop at nothing to avoid Tracy Flick.  His colleague and friend, who was also a teacher, was caught having an inappropriate relationship with Tracy and was fired.  Mr. McAllister blames Tracy and is determined to make sure she does not win the election. Tracy, on the other hand, is smart and clever and is a greater challenge than Mr. McAllister ever thought possible.

Opinion: While it was a bit disturbing, and hopefully things like this don't really happen in high schools, I thought the movie was clever and funny. Witherspoon and Broderick give a great performance and their two characters work well together.  The film is a twisted look at high school and shows that both teachers and students have problems in their life; they are only human after all.

Ideas: This movie does have several adult situations and I do not think it will be appropriate for classroom use, but it should be okay in the high school library.  It might be fun to display this and similar titles during class elections and/or during political elections.

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