This message has been deleted.
-
jefgg — 12 years ago(September 07, 2013 05:56 PM)
Nice guys don't finish last. Sometimes they don't finish. Sometimes they don't even get a chance to start.
When I was in high school everything seemed big time and important. When I think of it now I realize it was small time and trivial. -
bsharporflat — 12 years ago(January 13, 2014 12:06 PM)
It is somehow disturbing that the dislikable and conceited Tracy Flick is the "winner" at the end of the film.
Is this the "message" of the film? Why is it so?
It is meant to be a disturbing movie.
Yes, Tracy is unlikable. But she wants to be president more than anyone else and she is trying much harder than anyone else.
Should a teacher have sabotaged her efforts simply because she was unlikable? That is also the question/message of this movie.
Why would a doofy, likable football player be a better president than Tracy? Bottom line, he wouldn't. And the majority of the school felt the same.
I've seen the same thing happen in the real world. Many students will vote purely on the basis of likability. But many more respect the election process and want to give their vote to the most serious candidate. And that is usually who wins. -
Pierre_D — 11 years ago(July 11, 2014 09:35 PM)
She isn't the winner.
Paul is the winner.
Remember at the very end her own mom drugs her (!) to get her to relax, instead of just comforting her. Her mom drives her forward and blames her for not being a perfect paradigm of herself. Her mom is awful and Tracy is awful as well.
I sympathized a lot more with Tammy, even though she was a little bit of an airhead, because at least she was genuine and got what she wanted, a permanent trip to a girl's college.
Pail won because he's just himself.
Remember the prayers:
Tracy: "Jesus give me what I deserve and crush the others."
Tammy: "I don't really believe in you, God, but I'm going to a catholic school so just make it be whatever, I hope Paul wins."
Paul: "It's all up to you."
It may
seem
Tracy won because he's with a member of congress, but I'd wager she gets exposed rather rapidly and becomes poison to those around her. -
andersonsg-1 — 10 years ago(April 22, 2015 10:41 PM)
It's really odd to me that people are assigning the "real winner" tag to any of the characters. I understand the election partTracy Flick wonbut beyond that most of the characters (minus kindly Paul) need to look inward for happiness and deal with their contradictions. Not a W-L scenario.
Also, this is a film that deals with a lot of subtlety. So forgive me if I'm looking too much into the final scene, BUT it seems to me that
Tracy is beep the senator as an intern.
It would mirror her fling with Teacher Dave. And honestly, if there ever was a prime candidate for beep intern, it would be her. She'd go along with it happily; to learn, to please, to accompany.
Just my 2 cents. -
regahsof — 10 years ago(May 21, 2015 10:52 AM)
Not sure there is necessarily a huge overall message, but Tracy is certainly much more of a leader and "presidential" than any of those other candidates, regardless of aspects of her personality you might not like. I think that's pretty clear. Sometimes it seems like people try and get too close to their leaders, see things they might not like, and then cast that person negatively. In the end, Tracy's rise to the position of president was, as Roger Ebert says in his review of the film, inevitable.
-
nightwishouge — 9 years ago(April 26, 2016 01:31 PM)
She winds up the "winner" in terms of career power, for sure, but her voice over is definitely the saddest. She ends the movie feeling lonely and misunderstood. Everybody else at least finds comfort in human relationships (Tammy finds her soul mate, Mr. McCallister meets a woman in New York, Paul gets dumped by Lisa but he's Prom King and a sweet, good-looking guy, he'll never be lonely).
Not every film needs a "message" like the moral of a children's book. Election is simply an examination of successhow you achieve it, how you measure it, what it means once you've attained it, what sort of people attain what types of success and whether or not any of it is fair or even, at the end of the day, important. -
Hythlodaeus — 9 years ago(July 26, 2016 07:33 AM)
See the original ending:
http://jezebel.com/5802300/see-the-original-unused-ending-to-election
It's much happier and just.
What hump?