History Film / Election

** Downplayed with Dave. He escapes going to jail for statutory rape nor made to register as a sex offender. But he loses his wife and son, is fired from his job and all but forbidden from ever getting another teaching job due to his behavior, has to move back to Milwaukee to live with his parents and ends up in a dead-end job tagging items in a hardware store, clearly miserable and unlikely ever to find anything better.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Tracy, in her portion of the film's narration, rants and raves against the rich kids of the school and how working hard and playing by the rules gives her moral superiority, all before engaging in [[spoiler:blatant vandalism by destroying Paul's posters]], an act she only gets away with because someone else [[spoiler:(Tammy) would rather take credit for the crime]].

* BrickJoke: In the final scene, [[spoiler: [=McCallister=] encounters another eager young student willing to answer a question. As with Tracy, he's loath to call upon her]].

* TallPoppySyndrome: Tracy believes Jim's vendetta against her is driven by this, viewing herself as the "tall poppy" that gets cut down. Exactly how correct she is about this is left open to interpretation, but the film's events suggest she's not ''entirely'' wrong.

* UnreliableNarrator: Most of the voiceovers, particularly those of Jim, Tracy and Paul, are heavily skewed toward the characters' own perceptions and worldview, sometimes to the point of [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial]] as above.

* NotSoDifferent: Jim criticizes Dave for sleeping with a student, but he toes that line himself. He comes up with the idea to recruit Paul while watching porn role-playing a football player and a student, and he has explicit, extended fantasies about Tracy while having sex with his wife.

* SelfMadeMan: Tracy views herself as one; one of her main [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]] is seeing people get ahead based on popularity or money or simply not working for it as much as she personally believes they should. It's implied her perspective is limited and alienating.

* StudentCouncilPresident: The film revolve around an election for this.

* DumbJock: Paul is a former football star of average intelligence at best. In one of his introductory scenes Mr. [=McAllister=] tries to convince him to run against Tracy with an analogy that even if you like apples, having oranges on offer too gives you the chance to make a choice. His response:

* SelfMadeMan: Tracy certainly views herself as one; one of her main [[BerserkButton BerserkButtons]] is seeing people get ahead based on popularity or money or simply not working for it as much as she personally believes they should. It's implied her perspective is limited and alienating.

* SocialClimber: Tracy is primarily the Snob subtype, showing disdain both for the people with money and connections who are more successful than her and the "burnouts" who are less; especially toward the end she shows shades of the Backstabber variety as well. Notably, she openly views herself as this and believes that it is a good thing, that she is simply overcoming challenges.

* SelfMadeMan: Tracy certainly views herself as one; one of her main [[BerserkButton]]s is seeing people get ahead based on popularity or money or simply not working for it as much as she personally believes they should. It's implied her perspective is limited and alienating.

--> '''Tracy:''' I feel sorry for Mr. McAllister. I mean, anyone who’s stuck in the same little room, wearing the same stupid clothes, saying the exact same things year after year for all of his life, while his students go on to good colleges and move to big cities and do great things and make loads of money — he’s gotta be at least a little jealous. It’s like my mom says, the weak are always trying to sabotage the strong.

* UnreliableNarrator: Most of the voiceovers, particularly those of Jim, Tracy and Paul, are heavily skewed toward the characters' own perceptions and worldview, sometimes to the point of SuspiciouslySpecificDenials as above.

* AcademicAlphaBitch: Tracy is perhaps the ultimate example as she's smart and ambitious, but also selfish and callous. Willing to win the election at all costs.

* AmbitionIsEvil: The film definitely takes this stance vis-à-vis Tracy Flick.

* BrainlessBeauty: Paul.

* CoolLoser: Tammy. [[spoiler: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as it eventually became the part of her plan.]]
* CuteAndPsycho: Tracy.

* DorkHorseCandidate: Tammy.
* EducationMama: Tracy's mother.

* FilleFatale: Tracy is probably a FemmeFatale in the making.

* LonelyAtTheTop: Tracy. Dave even tells her as much when they're dating.

* MaleGaze: Used intentionally when Jim is checking out Linda.
* MamaBear: Tracy's mother.

* ManipulativeBastard: [=McAllister=] to Paul primarily, but he's doing it to work Tracy over as well.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Tracy, in her portion of the film's narration, rants and raves against the rich kids of the school and how working hard and playing by the rules gives her moral superiority, all before [[SanitySlippage going batshit crazy]] and engaging in [[spoiler:blatant vandalism by destroying Paul's posters]], an act she only gets away with because someone else [[spoiler:(Tammy) would rather take credit for the crime]].

* PopularIsDumb: Paul.

* StudentCouncilPresident: What everybody is running for.

* SweaterGirl: Reese Witherspoon's character looks ''really'' good in tight sweaters and it's used for innocent fanservice.
* TeacherStudentRomance: For a brief time, Tracy dated and slept with her geometry teacher, Dave Novotny. They got busted, and Dave lost his job and his wife. Fortunately for Tracy's reputation, the whole thing was kept under wraps.

* UnreliableNarrator: Tracy. Her flashbacks (especially to [[TeacherStudentRomance her affair]]) all downplay her culpability in the events of the film. Jim, Tammy and Paul also count.

* IncompatibleOrientation: Why Lisa stops being friends with Tammy. She was straight (and only "experimenting") while Tammy was lesbian and thought the two of them were [[SchoolgirlLesbians in love]].

* SchoolgirlLesbians: Tammy and Lisa, until IncompatibleOrientation rears its ugly head. At the end, it's Tammy and Jennifer.

* GoGetterGirl: Hoo boy, is Tracy ever. The page image is a scene from the film of her presiding over a table filled with about a hundred cupcakes, each one having the message "Pick Flick" written on it in icing.

* {{Manchild}}: The most generous interpretation of Dave. [=McAllister=] even describes him as someone who went into teaching because he never wanted to leave high school.

* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: A student council election at a high school dragging up sordid love affairs and past dirt, all for the sake of vengeance. Notably, only Tracy and [=McAllister=] treat it as such (because they are the aforementioned vengeance-seekers) while the other two candidates really don't care (one is in the race becuase he was asked to, the other is actually protesting the whole thing).

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:After Tracy gets accepted to Georgetown, she expects that she'll easily make friends there under the assumption that all of the students will be just as ambitious and likeminded as her. Instead, she finds that most of them are just privileged rich kids who got there because of their family connections and she's just as alone there as she was at Carver.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisiticOutcome: [[spoiler:After Tracy gets accepted to Georgetown, she expects that she'll easily make friends there under the assumption that all of the students will be just as ambitious and likeminded as her. Instead, she finds that most of them are just privileged rich kids who got there because of their family connections and she's just as alone there as she was at Carver.]]

The film was a critical darling, but had a mediocre take at the box office, due to the studio [[NeverTrustATrailer screwing up its marketing]] and portraying it as a straight-up teen comedy as opposed to a drama with BlackComedy overtones -- presumably an effort to cash in on the success of ''Film/AmericanPie'' (the fact that Chris Klein is in both films adds a bit of credence to that theory), which came out earlier that year. Based on its critical success, though, it managed an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.[[note]]Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor would later win in 2004 for ''Film/{{Sideways}}'', and again in 2011 for ''Film/TheDescendants''.[[/note]] Likewise, Reese Witherspoon received glowing reviews for her performance, and it is often cited as one of the future UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winner's best roles. The film also resurrected Creator/MatthewBroderick's career after several years of obscurity.

It has since been VindicatedByHistory, and was named by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as the ninth greatest HighSchool movie ever made.

To foil her dreams of using the election as a springboard for her future, [=McAllister=] recruits injured star football player Paul Metzler to run against Tracy. This inspires Paul's lesbian sister Tammy to run as well, in order to get revenge upon Paul for dating Tammy's ex-girlfriend (who dumped Tammy after deciding that [[IncompatibleOrientation she wasn't a lesbian after all]]). Meanwhile, [=McAllister=], feeling a lack of passion in his love life (and fearing his own FoeYay with Tracy), starts dating the aforementioned friend's ex-wife. All of this culminates into the mother of all bad days as all of these trains crash into each other.

** [[spoiler: [=McAllister=] rebuilds his life and finds a new love, but must deal with the fact that Tracy has not only gone on to great things as a congressman's aide, but is still up to her old tricks of seducing older men.]] Though [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation depending on how you interpret the characters]] it may actually range from Happy to Downer.

** Paul takes his defeat in stride, caring even less than Tammy and still being the most popular kid in school.

* GrassIsGreener: How Mr. [=McAllister=], possibly the point of delusion, thinks of his "exciting" new life in New York compared to his old life in Omaha, although he is now living in a ridiculous small apartment instead of a house and has a more humble job as a museum tour guide, probably earning less with a much higher cost of living.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: [=McAllister=] rebuilds his life and finds a new love, but must deal with the fact that Tracy has not only gone on to great things as a congressman's aide, but is still up to her old tricks of seducing older men.]] Though [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation depending on how you interpret the characters]] it may actually range from Happy to Downer.

* FlyoverCountry: Although Alexander Payne seems to be proud of his native city Omaha, Nebraska, making it the setting for 3 of his films including this one, he certainly doesn't try to make it look glamourous.

* GoGetterGirl: Hoo boy, is Tracy ever.

* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: A student council election at a high school dragging up sordid love affairs and past dirt, all for the sake of vengeance.

* CollegeIsHighSchoolPartTwo: The college Tracy enters is this, much to her anger. She [[LonelyAtTheTop never finds anybody she could consider an academic peer]] because everybody else is too busy pretending they're in ''Film/AnimalHouse''.

* IncompatibleOrientation: Why Lisa stops being friends with Tammy. She was straight (and only "[[BiTheWay experimenting]]") while Tammy was lesbian and thought the two of them were [[SchoolgirlLesbians in love]].