Browse: Home / Film on the Internet: ELECTION (1999) on Amazon Prime

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Disney Byways: "Canine Patrol"
  • Tales from the Backlog: Vomas on 1970
  • The Friday Article Roundup: Blowing Smoke
  • Year of the Month: Reconstructing HUSBANDS
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of December 1970

Film on the Internet: ELECTION (1999) on Amazon Prime

Posted By Grant Nebel ("wallflower") on June 2, 2016 in News | 91 Responses

Election was released a few months before the debut of Aaron Sorkin’s TV series The West Wing and pretty much undercut everything he would say for the next four seasons.  Sorkin wrote what he called “a love letter to public service,” based on noble white men who do their best for the public good, which is a hard thing to believe in after you’ve seen Alexander Payne’s film, where everyone who wants any kind of civic position has almost no awareness of the public, let alone any interest in serving it.  Oh yeah, and this all takes place in a high school.

Reese Witherspoon creates an American icon with Tracy Flick, a student determined to climb to the top of whatever social structure she’s in (including a classroom) by any means necessary.  She plays Flick as smart, insufferable, never able to shut herself off, and under all of it, desperate; late in the movie, there’s a scene with her mother (Colleen Camp) that’s just terrifying in how we see her real motivation.  Matthew Broderick plays her teacher, and he goes all in on a pathetic character, someone who can believe in the right thing because he never actually tries to do it.  Jessica Campbell, Chris Klein, Mark Harelik, and Jeanine Jackson join in as various other students, teachers, and neighbors, and they all interact with each other (usually badly) in a spiralling plot that anticipates the Coen Bros. Burn After Reading, another vicious political comedy with no mercy and somewhere between zero and one sympathetic characters.  Novelist Tom Perrotta (The Leftovers) and Payne play this story all the way out to the end; our last moment with Tracy Flick makes Election the true origin story of Washington insiders, the kind of character that dominates our politics and that Sorkin literally cannot imagine.

Election streams free on Amazon Prime.

Posted in News | Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Alexander Payne, Election, Film on the Television, Matthew Broderick, political films, Politics, Reese Witherspoon, Satire, The West Wing

About the Author

luzzaschi27@aol.com'

Grant Nebel (“wallflower”)

A Silver Age (2007) commenter from the AV Club who crossed over to the Dissolve at its inception in 2013. You can follow his writings here and in the comment section at The Dissolve, and his music on his Soundcloud channel (see any Soundtracking here for that).

Related Posts

Politicians require two microphones to capture the speeches out of both sides of their mouths.The Friday Article Roundup: Staying on Message→

GO away.The Solute Welcomes Its New Ownership! (And Other Friday Articles)→

But we'll still support homophobes!Disney Byways: Disney Needs to Say Gay→

The most badass carpenter since 33 AD.The Friday Article Roundup: News for Nerds→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    35472 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    28159 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    26774 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    26633 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    20693 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • So what is Pluto doing here?

    Disney Byways: “Canine Patrol”

    September 29, 2023 / Gillianren
  • Tales from the Backlog: Vomas on 1970

    September 29, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • The Solute does not endorse the cool vice of sssssmokin'.

    The Friday Article Roundup: Blowing Smoke

    September 29, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • Year of the Month: Reconstructing HUSBANDS

    September 28, 2023 / John Bruni
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of December 1970

    September 28, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!