Election: Review By soylent green Lantern

Often in our lives we are faced with decisions: what to wear to work, how to ask that cute girl out, what to wear on the date, or what movie to go see. But some decisions carry more weight than others. "Election" deals with the morals and ethics we struggle with in our everyday lives in a way that causes us to truly reflect on our own decisions; present and past. Alexander Payne has created a film that, through great character development and the unraveling of a universally adult message, becomes something that is both humorous and smart. Ultimately, it makes us understand what it takes to reach (or crush) a dream.

What's the difference between morals and ethics? We are first introduced to Mr. McAllister as the teacher of his U.S. History class as he is asking them this question. He struggles with the answer himself all the way through the final scene in the movie where he throws a slurpee at Tracy Flick's limousine in rage and bitter disgust. When we see Tracy Flick's hand shoot up in the air in the classroom and hold it high as if she knows that no one can answer this question better than she can, we know we are in for a clashing of titans that can only end in disaster. Tracy is running for president, and is the kind of girl that is so over zealous and over motivated that it tends to make those around her who aren't, either hate her, or feel bad about themselves. We see both. Mr. McAllister has a loving wife and a modest job, but through a series of flashbacks where we see him teaching the same thing every single year, we begin to think that he is lying when he tells us he loves his job. He drives a small hatchback that looks like it probably ran him about a thousand dollars and came off the line in the early 80s. Immediately, he enlists Paul Metzler, (Chris Klein) the injured star quarterback to run against Tracy. He can't bear to see her get what she believes is her "destiny" just because no one is opposing her. This underhanded partnership will bring to foresight Mr. McAllister's shadowed misogyny and deep unhappiness he has for his life. He, along with others in the film, will be forced to a moral and ethical crossroads of which the implications for the decision will undoubtedly be big.

Tracy's other nemesis to world domination is Tammy Metzler, Paul's sister, who is just running because her previous bi-curious girlfriend is dating Paul to get back at her. She takes a stance during their auditorium speech that fuels the fire of moral decisions to the brink of ruin. She tells the whole assembled school that she doesn't even care about the election, and that nobody should vote. This brings to light the true importance of school-run extra-curricular activates, and in foresight, even our modern day government. Who really has control and who are we supposed to think has control? What kind of social order are our schools teaching our students, and then how does this play out as we become adults? We see Tracy with a Nebraska senator near the end of the film, which really ties this line from a dysfunctional fake school organization to real life. Something that we, as CNN-watching Americans, become unaware of too quickly.

Because of this hotbed of events, each character is set out to confront a moral dilemma. This is set up at the beginning, because we hear about Dave Novotny, a teacher who flew too close to the sun on wings of an underage student by the name of Tracy Flick and ultimately lost his job and family. Tammy must decide between allowing Tracy to win and ultimately causing her brother to lose, or creating her own happiness by taking credit for Tracy's sabotage of Paul and getting herself expelled. Paul, the overly nice, innocent jock must decide between voting for himself, which will win him the election but he believes it is "wrong"; or voting for Tracy, which will lose him the election but he believes it is right. Tracy must choose between stepping on everyone around her to accomplish her dreams, or risk being number two. And Mr. McAllister must risk losing his job and family for something that "feels" right to him, or do what he knows is right and continue with his mundane existence. All very difficult decisions for our not-so-simpleton Nebraska high school. Payne puts a magnifying glass and a jury to the decisions we make everyday and the people they effect.