ELECTION [1999]
Directed by Alexander Payne
USA / Color / English

Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) appears to have the election for student council president sewn up until one of her teachers, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), rounds up a worthy opponent: a popular and naïve varsity football player (Chris Klein) whose knee injury has him sidelined for the season. Tracy is desperate to win the race at any cost. But Mr. McAllister is just as determined to see Tracy — a textbook overachiever — soundly defeated.

Rated R; 103 min

Apples are featured prominently in the movie, usually before trouble arrives for a character. They are used as an analogy to entice Paul Metzler to enter the election, an apple tree is shown before Mr. McAllister is stung by a bee, apples hang above the doorway to Mr. McAllister’s living room right before he discovers his wife knows he cheated on her, and Mr. McAllister wins the Apple Teacher of The Year Award at the beginning of the movie.

The apples on the tree in Mrs. Novotony’s back yard were tied onto the branches.

One of the porno videos in Jim McAllister’s collection is called “The Big Election”.

The casting director of the movie is the football player that appears in the adult movie that McAllister watches.

Both actor Chris Klein and director Alexander Payne are from Omaha, and the film was shot almost entirely in and around Omaha using actual high school students from the Omaha area.

G.W. Carver High School is actually Papillion-LaVista High School, located in Papillion, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. Director Alexander Payne wanted to use Omaha North High School (an older, more “traditional”-looking three-story school), but the Omaha Public School’s superintendent refused after reading the script and deeming it inappropriate.

Since the movie was shot in a real High School (Papillion La Vista High School, Omaha, Nebraska), adjacent classrooms had real class going on while some scenes for the movie were being done. In the soundtrack, some background noises come from real teachers and students. The director decided to leave that in as to give the movie a more realistic sound.

Loren Nelson, who played the custodian in the movie, was actually a custodian at Duchesne Academy in Omaha. He has since retired.

Thora Birch left the filming in Omaha on her third day because of creative differences with the director.

The source novel by Tom Perrotta is a reworking of Budd Schulberg’s 1941 novel “What Makes Sammy Run?” In Schulberg’s novel, an older writer (Al Manheim) watches young Sammy Glick rise through the ranks of New York journalism and the Old Hollywood studio system.

Matthew Broderick actually urinated against the tree in the scene outside Linda’s house.

Alexander Payne (born Constantine Alexander Payne; February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for films like Sideways (2004) and Election (1999). His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.

Payne’s films often revolve around adultery in marriage and relationships. He also tends to set his films in Omaha. He has scenes of historical landmarks and museums in his films, and tends to use non-actors for minor roles (real cops play cops, real teachers play teachers, etc). He frequently incorporates telephone monologues as a dramatic device. He also tends to cast actor Phil Reeves in his films. He is on the short list of directors who have final cut rights for their films. In 2005, he became a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). His writing partner is Jim Taylor.

Payne worked in various capacities on films and television before he wrote and directed his first full-length film Citizen Ruth in 1996. His film Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, which takes aim at politics and education in America, attracted attention when New Yorker film critic David Denby named it the best film of 1999. Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election.In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt, which was also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.He won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Screenplay for Sideways while the film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In total, Sideways received five Academy Award Nominations.Payne returned to directing in 2011 after a seven year hiatus with the film The Descendants, starring George Clooney. He also co-wrote the screenplay, winning the Oscar for adapted screenplay.