Week 4 was a mix of physical education and intro to film. I am serious, we spent an hour waiting, running around, getting settled just to watch a movie less than 2 hours. Honestly, it was pretty fun!:D

Election.

And I am not talking about the victory of the democrats in the recent senate election, in which my dad isn’t too happy about. He’s a republican you know?

Election ,the movie. The not so indie film, staring the adorable, petite, Oscar winning Rees witherspoon and Matthew boderick and directed by the talented Alexander Payne. Having watched “sideways” and “about Schmidt” before, I knew that election was not going to be your usual chick flick, romance comedy. True enough, it is a modern day Greek tragedy.

Now then, what is a Greek tragedy? Greek tragedy refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero’s actions. Pretty sad huh? Hence the word tragedy. Drama with a catastrophic ending.
Well in this movie the hero happens to be Jim McAllister played by Matthew Broderick, is a high school teacher who seems to be living the typical American dream. However he seems to have many doubts about himself and is slightly intimidated by Tracy flick (Reese witherspoon’s character). Tracy flick is a driven student (I sure do remember those people back in secondary school) who he feels is callous and blames for his best friend being fired for falling in love with her. In search of revenge, Jim convinces the popular high school jock Chris Klein, to campaign for the election as well. In hopes that the vapid jock will win the election eventually and not Tracy.
Further away from the revenge whirlpool but still important to unfolding events is Paul’s adapted sister Tammy, a young, under-achieving woman confused about her sexual orientation. A close girlfriend who she loves but does not respond in kind, and in fact is very unkind severely emotionally hurts Tammy. Downright mean, actually. The girlfriend is not lesbian and in an effort to reaffirm her own sexuality and hurt Tammy, she begins to date Paul. Tammy, in an effort to hurt her and Paul, decides to run for student body president. All of this comes as a surprise to Tracy Flick, who expected to run unopposed.

The obsession of ruining Tracy flick’s life was the core of his downfall. Through the movie, viewers could tell that Jim had issues. The affair with his wife’s best friend got him into the mess he started. He then spun himself into a larger mess when he tampered with the votes of Tracy flick, forcing him to resign. And is left in a pathetic state.
Jim is the hero in this tragedy; he suffers the misfortune of his own downfall. Therefore this movie depicts a Greek tragedy somehow. Jim was the cause of his tragedy; he was obsessed with ruining Tracy’s life as a student body president, and had a twisted affair with his wife’s best friend, knowing that it would destroy his marriage.Jim was simply a messed up man, trying to find his true identity.

the movie was enjoyable,dark and reall hilarious. reese witherspoon did a good job! she is still very much like elle woods in legaly blonde to me.