Revisiting Films: 10 Things I Hate About You

I have loved this film for the longest time and, in fact, I've just remembered that I actually saw it when it first came out in the cinema; when I was a mere ten years old, scandalously sneaked in by my parents. And now I'm actually thinking that my parents are kind of cool... (this has never happened before!) Anyway, I've gone through loving, at various times, Joseph Gordon Levitt who, may I say, whilst always adorable, has blossomed even more of late; and then Heath Ledger who, obviously, I can't discuss at all because doing so will make me way too sad.* One love that has been constant though is my deep and unbreakable love for Kat, who taught me how to be awesome, and probably also made me want to read The Bell Jar quite a lot. 10 Things, you rock my world.

Even though I didn't think I could love it any more, actually reading The Taming of the Shrew made me appreciate what a great film we actually have in the shape of 10 Things. It's the way Shakespeare's play really should have gone, if you ask me- slightly too angry girl meets a boy who's just like her, and in getting to know each other and falling in love, they are both tamed, although they remain themselves entirely and NO ONE GETS TORTURED. And also, you have things like this:

Oh, Heath!

I think we all know just how awesome Kat and Patrick are, just in general, but can we also talk about the soundtrack, because I think it's awesome. Like, I literally can't think of a bad song on it and it constantly bugs me that I don't have it because it's not on itunes and it's really expensive (for a cd) on amazon. But the point is, anyway, that it's great, and it's much better than my imaginary soundtrack to the Shakespeare play, which basically consists of, I don't know, the funeral march, and also all the bad songs.

I also love the whole Bianca and Cameron story. Even though it's awful when Bianca thinks that she fancies Joey even though he's an absolute shit, it all works out ok, and the lovely Cameron gets what he wants, even if he deserves better than Bianca, which he clearly does. Or at least the Bianca at the beginning of the film. Because, and this is yet another reason the film is better than the play, because whilst in the play, Bianca fully conforms and is seen as the much more desirable wife; in 10 Things, her conformity is seen as a bad thing (I assume by everyone who sees it too...) because it makes her silly and shallow, and it is only towards the end, when she becomes more like Kat that we have respect for her and feel like she's the kind of woman Cameron deserves.

There are just so many things that make 10 Things I Hate About You so amazing- a criminally underused Allison Janney (have I ever gone into how much I love her? Because I love her SO MUCH!), Cameron's instant best friend Michael, who is generally just sweet and funny and his girlfriend scoring without any drama makes me so happy, and Kat and Bianca's dad whose overprotectiveness has been brought bang up to date by making him an obstetrician who basically doesn't want either of his  daughters to get pregnant, which sounds sane enough, but the way he does it, it's not so much, and it's therefore HILARIOUS. I honestly can't think of a good reason why anyone wouldn't love this film, because there's just so much to love! Especially, may I just add, the torture of two people who really don't understand, or much like each other, living in the same house:

"Bianca: Where do you come from, Planet Loser?
Kat: As opposed to Planet Look at Me, Look at Me?"

And just, you know, the entire film is so damn quotable! I've gotten to the stage where I can almost recite it word for word (I basically can with Grease because I've seen it way, way too many times) which is probably not a good thing, only it is because, and I'll say it again, THIS FILM IS SO GOOD! It really is.

So, I'm sure that big gushfest was really helpful and instructional, and told you many things you didn't already know about 10 Things I Hate About You.** This post, on HelloGiggles, whilst maybe a teeny bit overlong, is also very good at helping one remember all of its highlights (i.e. the entire film) and brings a certain amount of nostalgia that may or may not have contributed to my watching of this film (that, plus Shakespeare month!) And, finally, I know I say this all the time, but really really really- if you haven't seen this film, you're really missing something special, and, let's face it, amazing. Go! Watch! You can see things like this:

Poetry! And crying! And Kat softening up but still retaining her own self and NOT being tortured! What more could you want?!

*Did you know that on Sunday it'll be 4 years since he died?! Crazy!
**An actual fact I do know is that Joseph Gordon Levitt and Larisa Oleynik used to go out in real life, and they were in Third Rock From The Sun together- it actually makes me sad that Larisa isn't really in things anymore, because I used to love all the things she was in- this, as well as The Secret World of Alex Mack and The Babysitters Club Movie!