Why '10 Things I Hate About You' is My Favourite Film.

by Claudia Bishop

As I have established in my last blog post, TV and films have been a large part of my daily life during lockdown. As a result of this, my new favourite streaming service is Disney+. The nostalgia it gives me to scroll through all my classic childhood films has been so comforting in such uncertain and scary times. However, the real benefit of this has been discovering new films I have never seen before. This brings me on to 10 Things I Hate About You. This 1999 film adapted from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is a cult classic found on Disney+. The cast includes Oscar-winning Heath Ledger alongside Julia Stiles.

It documents the life of Kat Stratford, a headstrong feminist who doesn’t care what people think of her. Her character really forms the basis of what makes the film so addictive. Personally, it's so refreshing to see such a role model as the protagonist of an American rom-com. She is juxtaposed by her younger sister Bianca who yearns for boys' attention, in spite of her father's rule that neither her or her sister can date. Upon joining the school, new boy Cameron falls in love with Bianca “I burn, I pine, I perish” and makes it his mission to find a way to date her. To his delight, Cameron finds out that Bianca's father's rule has been amended so that Bianca can now date as long as her sister does. This leads to a quest to find a man crazy enough to want to date such a feminist woman. The best candidate for this is mysterious Patrick (Heath Ledger) whose absence the year before has many people speculating what he did, a few claiming he ate a live duck “everything except the beak and feet”. The rest of the film takes us through Kat and Patrick’s icy relationship in which Kat rejects him until he finally goes in front of the school to declare his love by singing “Can’t take my eyes off you” and she gives in. Later, Kat finds out Patrick was only dating her so that Cameron could get with her sister which leads to a large dramatic storm out of the prom. This is all resolved when he apologises by buying her a new fender guitar and admitting he has fallen for her.

The reason I enjoy this film is because of the light relief and humour found in the characters that comes from such witty scripting. As a feminist, watching this film gives me such an iconic role model who doesn’t care what anyone thinks. I think this is important for all girls to see that they can get what they want if they unapologetically are themselves and speak out about what they believe in. The performance of Heath Ledger as Patrick is part of what makes this film so iconic, much like Kat, Patrick doesn’t care what rumours people make about him but also is a giver of great advice to Cameron when he needs it. Their relationship is a classic rom-com relationship which has always given me comfort to watch as it is clear that they match so well with one another. A personal favourite moment is the “Can't take my eyes off you” flashmob in which Patrick shows his love for Kat by using the school band to surprise her during football practice. The confidence of the characters really gives the film such a feel good and positive aspect that you can get so lost in. Not to mention, the early 2000s fashion is such a big inspiration of today's. If Kat’s outfits could sing, they would scream the song “bad reputation” whilst her sisters resemble the cute and dainty items of clothing now found in shops like “Brandy Melville”.

Overall, although this film seems like a cheesy American rom-com, it is exactly this which makes it so addictive for teenagers like me. It is such a clever way of keeping Shakespeare plays alive and relevant as his messages are so profound even to this day. In the future, I would really like to read “taming of the shrew” as it holds such similarities to this plot line. If you have not yet, go and watch this film!