Election (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Audio Commentary-Alexander Payne (Director)
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	98:42
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (65:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Alexander Payne
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Matthew Broderick Reese Witherspoon Jessica Campbell Chris Klein Phil Reeves Molly Hagan Delaney Driscoll Mark Harelik Colleen Camp Frankie Ingrassia Joel Parks Matt Malloy Holmes Osborne
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Rolfe Kent Ennio Morricone

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish French Hebrew Croatian Italian Portuguese Greek English Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, Election is the story of a high school student representative council presidential race that becomes an analogy for the US electoral system in general. It is also the story of those who succeed and those who do not, and never will.

    Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a teacher of history and social sciences at Carver High School. When he learns that over-achieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is running unopposed for student president, he encourages star quarterback and all-round popular nice guy Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run as well. Although Mr. McAllister does this largely out of a belief in the system of democracy – a choice of apples and oranges – he and Tracy also have a past. His best friend, and former Carver High teacher, was fired for an indiscretion with Tracy. Things get more complicated when Paul’s little sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), decides to run as well after she learns that her ex-girlfriend is now going out with him. Moreover, Mr. McAllister’s former best friend’s wife, and now best friend with his wife, starts coming onto him. And so the scene is set for a political b**** fight of extreme proportions that will leave relationships ruined and careers in shreds.

    With brilliantly straight-faced comic performances from Broderick, Witherspoon and Klein, Election is by far one of the funniest films I have ever seen, deserving a reputation beside other more intellectually stimulating comedic pieces such as Bob Roberts and American Beauty. While still quite different to either of those two films (as those two films are also quite different from each other), there are similar threads and techniques within all three that make Election as appealing. Rather than the slapstick or sexual romp humour of the American Pie series, Election delivers a brand of humour that is far more like laughing at ourselves for being exactly what we are – human and fallible. If you have not done so already, you should definitely check this one out.

Video

    Presented in 2.40:1, 16x9 enhanced, this is a slight widening of the image from the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. You are unlikely to be able to tell the difference.

    The quality of the picture is decent, but not perfect, and really does not stand up next to its R1 counterpart. Certainly, the image is well rendered and detailed, colours are fairly well saturated, and shadow detail is very good.

    However, where this transfer really lets itself down is in film-to-video artefacts. While MPEG artefacts are not readily prevalent, the image suffers from aliasing, moire effects and cross-colouration in distracting proportions. The various tweed jackets favoured by the faculty members exhibit all three of these faults, and the tiles on the roof of the Metzler residence in particular also refuse to behave and stay clear and sharp. Background aliasing on straight edges is also readily apparent, although perhaps not as obvious and distracting as these two previous faults.

    There are a few instances of rather obvious film artefacts, notably some white hairs and dots in the middle of the picture. These faults are also apparent in the R1 release and are a fault of the original source material. Other than that, the dirt is fairly minimal, although probably a little more than you would generally expect from a film of such recent vintage.

    Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Croatian, Greek, Italian and Portuguese. They are white with a black border, clear and easy to read, and generally convey the dialogue adequately. Subtitles are also available for the director’s audio commentary in English, French, Italian and Spanish.

    The dual layer pause occurs at 65:43 during a fade to black. It is noticeable only because of a sudden drop in the music as it fades out.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four soundtracks available (not including the director’s audio commentary). These are English, French, Italian and Spanish, all in 5.1 Dolby Digital.

    The foreign language tracks are acceptable, but the overdub tends to reduce the surround information and drown out ambience, coming instead to dominate the track entirely.

    The original English track is quite good. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout and there are no audio sync problems.

    There are plenty of directional cues across the front of the sound field, but nothing much from the rear. This is a fairly dialogue-driven show, so that is hardly expected. The rears are mainly used to add depth and ambience to the score.

    Subwoofer use is very lean and I cannot recall any real instance where I saw it put into action by this track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. They are static and silent.

Audio Commentary – Alexander Payne (Director)

    Presented in 2.0 Dolby Surround, Payne’s commentary is one of the more illuminating ones that I have come across, and is definitely worth a listen. Payne does tire out a little towards the end when pauses become a little more apparent and you can tell he is struggling to find something to talk about.

    The R1 version of this disc is largely identical in terms of features, although it is decidedly lacking in language options. However, the picture quality is infinitely better, exhibiting none of the film-to-video transfer artefacts that ruin the R4 release. For quality in terms of transfer, I am giving this one to R1.

    Election is a very amusing film, mocking everything from politics to infidelity. It is far from a conventional comedy, and lacks anything in the way of ‘gag’ sequences. Think more Bob Roberts political satire kind of humour and you are there. If you like that kind of thing, this is fantastic.

    The video transfer is just barely acceptable, but highly prone to film-to-video transfer artefacts that can be quite distracting. This is annoying, particularly as the R1 version does not exhibit these problems.

    Sound is nicely rendered, but is nothing you would use to demonstrate your system's capabilities.

    The sole extra is pretty good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall