Normally in viewing the horrific movies from the "teen" genre I cringe, but Election actually struck a chord with me. I"ll admit to the fact that the directions this movie takes are quite extreme as compared to real life but it only makes me wonder further if it's more correct than I would like to believe. Even though the characters of the movie Election are portrayed at their most extreme level it's true to life. How many of us really know each other? How do we really know our best friend's sister isn't a lesbian? How do we know what's really going on in the typical over-achiever's head? Do we really want to know? And why do we always think of ourselves as normal? So is it true that teen movies really represent us correctly?.
We"re really not normal, we"re teens, that in itself is bad enough. What's worse is high school brings out what can be considered the best in us, or the worst. Which reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw "Teens: Not a force to be reckoned with." In the movie there are many average teen themes, dating, relationships, and winning; but there is also one not so normal theme, "The weak are always trying to overcome the strong." Reese Witherspoon's character Tracy says it, her mother says it, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) says it, and the janitor executes it very well in the scene where he turns Mr. McAllister in for rigging the election. .
In directing this movie, Alexander Payne, was going for a satirical view of our democratic election system, but in doing so he set it in a high school setting. This can only mean that he has to take into account teen lives, and hopefully an accurate protrayal of them. He does this through the faults of the characters; further professing that no one is perfect. Mr. McAllister is trying to have an affair with his divorced colleague's wife, Tracy had an affair with Mr. McAllister's colleague causing that divorce, Paul is as dumb as a goal post, and Tammy is a delinquent and damn proud of it.
