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10 Things I Hate About You

"Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want."

I hate that English teachers don't use this movie as a catalyst to fire people up about Shakespeare.

In this day and age, to enjoy a movie set in an American high school there a certain elements that you begrudgingly come to expect. You must make peace with the unoriginality, and only then can you see what else it has to offer. That is the case with 10 Things I Hate About You, and what it has to offer is spectacular acting and an ability to poke fun at itself. Besides can you really ever go wrong with Shakespeare??

Yep, that's right. 10 Things is (very loosely) based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Kat is even tapped to write a Shakespearean sonnet as a school assignment... go figure.

I hate the way you talk to me,
and the way you cut your hair.

I hate the way you drive my car.
I hate it when you stare.

I hate your big dumb combat boots,
and the way you read my mind.

I hate you so much it makes me sick.
It even makes me rhyme.

I hate the way you're always right.
I hate it when you lie.

I hate it when you make me laugh,
even worse when you make me cry.

I hate it when you're not around,
and the fact that you didn't call.

But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you.
Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

The girl clearly has a future as a poet, no? Julia Stiles does a remarkable job going from the girl who will kick your ass for a stray look to a girl who will admit she still has feelings for a guy that did her wrong. Her lines are delivered flawlessly and she gives attitude to match whatever the scene calls for. This role could have easily been the downfall of the movie as she has to be believable as a hardened bad ass, convincingly play hurt and betrayed and finally let her guard down to warn her sister about the sinister blowhard Joey Donner. It was all there and all pulled off with incredible fineness. Her backing into Joey's car is my favorite scene, and afterwards he actually refers to her as a shrew.

Her love interest, played by the late Heath Ledger, was fairly well done. Patrick hit all the right leading-man-in-a-teenaged-romantic-comedy notes. Bad boy with a heart of gold? Check. Embarrassing and grandiose display of public affection? Check. Carefree scene of romantic flirting where one or both characters get dirty? Check, and paintball makes for some very colorful dirt! He was likable and beautiful and stood up quite nicely next to Kat's wit as well as being an almost mentor to Cameron.

Bianca is Kat's sister and Larisa Olenik plays her amazingly well. She is materialistic, air-headed and hilarious. She pulls out some brain power when it really counts, but all of her best moments for me came from her utter cluelessness. She made me laugh out loud throughout the whole movie.

Cameron wore many hats. He is head-over-heels in puppy love for Bianca, the nice guy, the new kid in school and the audiences eyes and ears. We learn with him the whose who of Padua High and the happenings of our characters and his new BFF Michael is our tour director. Like Bianca, Cameron is a little too naive for his own good and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sparkles on screen in every scene he is in. When he is vulnerable I want to give him a hug, when he stands up for or to Bianca I cheer him on, and if this nice guy had finished last I might have thrown something at the television.

HA!

Quotes/Shrewy bits and pieces

10 Things I Hate About You sounds a lot like Taming of the Shrew.

Bianca: "There's a difference between like and love. See, I like my sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack."
Chastity: "But I love my sketchers."
Bianca: "That's because you don't have a Prada backpack."
This right here is a solid life lesson, folks!

Chastity: "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
Bianca: "I think you can in Europe."

Ms. Perky: "People perceive you as somewhat..."
Kat: "Tempestuous?"
Ms. Perky: "'Heinous bitch' is the term used most often."

Cameron: "I burn. I pine. I perish."
This is a direct quote from Taming of the Shrew.

Walter Stratford: "Hello, Katarina. Make anyone cry today?"
Kat: "Sadly, no, but it's only 4:30."

Cameron: "She kissed me."
Patrick: "Where?"
Cameron: "In the car."

Michael: "The shit hath hitith the fan... ith."

Walter Stratford: "Alright, wait a minute. No drinking, no drugs, no kissing, no tattoos, no piercings, no ritual animal slaughters of any kind. Oh, God, I'm giving them ideas."

Cameron: "You know just because you're beautiful, doesn't mean you can treat people like they don't matter."

Kat: "You don't always have to be who they want you to be, you know."

There are so many quotable quotes. This post would be much too long, so I will cut it off here. Let me know below if I didn't include your favorite!

RIP Mr. Ledger

9 comments:

  1. See my highschool did actually show this as an example of Shakespeare (and Clueless as an adaptation of Jane Austen, so maybe I just had an awesome English teacher that year.)

    To this day I still absolutely love this movie.
    The most quotable quote I remember is
    Bianca: Where did you come from? Planet Loser?
    Kat: As opposed to Planet Look-at-Me, Look-at-Me?

    And it has such a good soundtrack. I probably still have that somewhere on CD. Its a nostalgic movie that still holds up today.

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  2. oh and that moment when the guidance teacher realises she has a cat mug and purrs at kat.

    Actually any scene involving the 'romance novel' writing is just brilliant.

    I was 14 when this movie was released and it was very influential.

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  3. Beks, your English teacher sounds amazing. I wish there were more outside of the box thinkers like her.

    Love your quotes choices, too!

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  4. When we started talking about Shakespeare a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I had never seen this movie. So I watched it tonight, and liked it.

    Was there anyone in the young cast who didn't become a huge deal later on?

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  5. I must mention that watching this movie right after an episode of the West Wing gave me C.J. whiplash, though.

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  6. Your review gave me the perfect excuse to re-watch one of my favorite teen movies of all time. There is nothing I don't like about this one.

    Thank you for reproducing Kat's sonnet. It's a wonderful moment in the movie and Patrick's face is brilliant to watch. RIP Heath.

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  7. Thank you for reminding me how good this film was when it first came out I watched it so many times & bought the soundtrack on cd too :) this is the film where I fell in love with Heath :( I'm definitely getting the DVD out today so I can watch again as I've not seen it for ages now!

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  8. I was in high school when this movie came out, and this one and Clueless are my favorite ever teen movies. Whenever I catch 10 Things on TV I have to watch it, and I own both the DVD (10th anniversary edition) and the original soundtrack from way back. Everything came together in such a wonderful way in this movie, from the talented cast to the catchy soundtrack, all held together by the fabulous, witty writing.

    And yeah, this was the first movie I ever saw Heath Ledger in. My infatuation never wavered since, and I never had any doubt he would play a memorable Joker. His death so young (28!) was such a tragedy.

    Finally, I have to agree with your assessment of the other characters/actors. Julia Stiles hit every shade so well, and Kat was so awesome. Bianca was hilarious as you said, and JGL perfect as nice guy Cameron.

    Their dad gets such hilarious lines:

    Walter Stratford: Hi... where're we going?
    Bianca: Well, if you must know... a small study group of friends.
    Walter Stratford: Otherwise known as an orgy?
    Chastity: Mr. Stratford, it's just a party!
    Walter Stratford: And hell is just a sauna.

    And of course, Kat getting her feminist shrew on:

    Kat Stratford: I guess in this society, being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time.

    And I still sometimes quote the "I'm confiscating this" line. Great random scene. Great movie.

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  9. I fell in love with Heath in this great movie.

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