The following spoiler: The
whole drama is about an election, an election of the chairman of the high school student union and surrounding matters. Three electors with different personalities are connected in a continuous and natural way, focusing on personal behavior and personality. At the same time, the psychological description seems to be extremely smooth.
Jim McAllister: I started as a teacher teaching ethics and politics at Carver Middle School. There is a lot of space in the film about his contradictions, his ethics and the contradictions of his own desires and feelings. For example, when Dave described Tracy's personal affairs with him at the beginning, Dave showed that he had no desire to know about it, and then he wanted the audience to know about it. He has a strange feeling for Tracy, that is, a strange and contradictory feeling of attraction, as well as disgust and anxiety. On the one hand, I am an ethical teacher, on the other hand I have the urge to have extramarital affairs. His entire film performance is very real and lovely.
Paul: One of the candidates. As a quarterback of the original school team, he is a very hardworking man on the court, always doing the best. He who believes in God in his life is a grateful and happy person by nature. He thinks that everyone treats him very well, even he thinks tracy is "super nice". He is also extremely sincere and friendly to people, never hostile, dissatisfied or angry. He has no desire to be higher than others, and perhaps lacks some sensitivity but Still a person who especially wants to take care of other people's feelings. His easy-going and friendly personality and his performance on the court made him unsurprisingly the Mr. Popular in the school.
Tracy: One of the candidates. Tracy is a very competitive person. Unlike Paul's competitiveness, her competitiveness is real and hostile to those around her. She believes in the strong eating of the weak and believes that only by becoming strong can she succeed and be happy. When failures or negative events happen, turn all your frustrations and unhappiness into a new round of motivation for your struggle. So she is a very accomplished student.
Tracy's mother is a lawyer. Lawyers, especially defense lawyers, give people the impression that they have low morals and are more targeted. For example, when Tracy was crying for election failure, her mother's comfort to her was not a mother-daughter emotional exchange in the general sense, but to analyze where it failed and how it would succeed. In terms of accomplishing a thing, being indifferent is a good thing without being affected by emotions. But Tracy doesn't have this mentality. She needs care and people's care, even if she doesn't think she needs it, but thinks that all unhappiness will disappear because of her success. And her personality makes no one want to establish an intimate relationship with her, and because of the lack of inner communication between her and her mother, it is difficult for her to be in an environment to improve.
Tracy’s problem is that what she lacks in her life cannot be solved by her achievement. She may be able to transform her anger and dissatisfaction into her own motivation for success through a series of behaviors to get a sense of revenge. Her hostile and competitive attitude and her desire for control prevented her from being able to establish close relationships with others, so that success could not solve her fundamental problems.
Tammy: Although in the same family as Paul. But unlike Paul's long-term and continuous care, she is more like a neglected child, so she wants to find a stable source of emotional support throughout her life. As a result, she is very fragile, sensitive and vulnerable. And I met a girl with a lot of thoughts, which made her want to vent her hatred through this election.
Many of the dialogues in the play are very funny and ironic:
Tracy is talking about his relationship with Dave: Our relationship was based on mutual respect and admiration
...
Since I grew up without a dad, you might assume that, psychologically, I was looking for a father figure. But that had nothing to do with it at all. It was just that Dave was so strong, and he made me feel so safe and protected.
Tammy Metzler: It's not like I'm a lesbian or anything. I'm attracted to the person. It's just that all the people I've been attracted to happen to be girls.
Tracy Flick: It's like my mom says , "The weak are always trying to sabatoge the strong."
On the whole, it is a very exquisite film. The script was also nominated by OSCAR that year. As one of the few comedies that can be watched repeatedly, it is worthwhile Highly recommend.
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