Alexander Payne

Election

Election

Perky, overachieving high schooler Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) gets on the nerves of social-studies teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) to begin with, but after she launches her campaign for student-body president and his personal life starts to fall apart, things spiral out of control. In Alexander Payne’s satire Election, the teacher becomes unhealthily obsessed with cutting his student down to size, covertly backing a spoiler candidate to stop her from steamrolling to victory, and putting in motion a series of dirty tricks and reckless promises with uncanny real-world political parallels. Adapting a then-unpublished novel by Tom Perrotta, Payne grounds the absurdity of his central dynamic in the recognizable—the setting is his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, and the accomplished cast is rounded out with nonprofessionals—and distills his closely observed take on deeply flawed humanity to its bitter but stealthily sympathetic essence.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1999
  • 103 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.40:1
  • English
  • Spine #904

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by cowriter-director Alexander Payne, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 1999 featuring Payne
  • New interview with actor Reese Witherspoon
  • The Passion of Martin, Payne’s 1990 UCLA thesis film, with a new introduction by the director
  • TruInside: “Election,” a 2016 documentary featuring on-set footage and interviews with cast and crew
  • Omaha local-news reports on the film’s production
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Dana Stevens

    New cover by Sarah Anne Ward and Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by cowriter-director Alexander Payne, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 1999 featuring Payne
  • New interview with actor Reese Witherspoon
  • The Passion of Martin, Payne’s 1990 UCLA thesis film, with a new introduction by the director
  • TruInside: “Election,” a 2016 documentary featuring on-set footage and interviews with cast and crew
  • Omaha local-news reports on the film’s production
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Dana Stevens

    New cover by Sarah Anne Ward and Eric Skillman
Election
Cast
Matthew Broderick
Jim McAllister
Reese Witherspoon
Tracy Flick
Chris Klein
Paul Metzler
Jessica Campbell
Tammy Metzler
Mark Harelik
Dave Novotny
Phil Reeves
Walt Hendricks
Molly Hagan
Diane McAllister
Delaney Driscoll
Linda Novotny
Colleen Camp
Judith R. Flick
Frankie Ingrassia
Lisa Flanagan
Matt Malloy
Vice Principal Ron Bell
Jeanine Jackson
Jo Metzler
Holmes Osborne
Dick Metzler
Credits
Director
Alexander Payne
Produced by
Albert Berger
Produced by
Ron Yerxa
Produced by
David Gale
Produced by
Keith Samples
Executive producer
Van Toffler
Coproducer
Jacobus Rose
Coproducer
Jim Burke
Screenplay by
Alexander Payne
Screenplay by
Jim Taylor
Based on the novel by
Tom Perrotta
Director of photography
James Glennon, ASC
Editor
Kevin Tent
Costume designer
Wendy Chuck
Production designer
Jane Ann Stewart
Music by
Rolfe Kent

Current

Bringing Tracy Flick to Life
Bringing Tracy Flick to Life

Reese Witherspoon looks back on how she perfected the details of her performance as a high-school overachiever in Alexander Payne’s Election.

Election: That’s Why It’s Destiny
Election: That’s Why It’s Destiny

Alexander Payne skewers the absurdities of American politics in this tale of a high-school presidential campaign gone ugly.


By Dana Stevens

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