10 Things About “10 Things I Hate About You” That I Absolutely Love

Director: Gil Junger
Screenplay: Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
Starring: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik, Larry Miller, Andrew Keegan, Gabrielle Union, David Krumholtz, and Susan May Pratt

What do you get when you cross 16th-century literature with all the fuzz, cliques, and whirling complexity that is high school? Well, we got a film that gave an upbeat treatment to a literary gem, “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999). We have to admit that fifteen years later, we still doth loveth thy flick (I had a hard time composing that), and let us count the ways:

1.  It’s a modern retelling of a Shakespeare classic.

The film is actually based on one of William Shakespeare’s great comedies, The Taming of the Shrew — the shrew being Katarina “Kat” Stratford (played by Julia Stiles; based on Katerina Minola, the titular shrew from the play), a headstrong, opinionated, and unpopular student at Padua (yes, it’s the setting of the original play) High School. On the other hand, her younger sister, Bianca (played by Larisa Oleynik; based on, surprise, Bianca Minola) is hot, popular, and eagerly wants to date. Following their father’s rule that Bianca would be allowed to date only if Kat is in a relationship, Cameron (Jospeh Gordon-Levitt), who wants to date Bianca, invites Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) into a plan — date and “tame” Kat in order for Cameron to date Bianca (Cameron and Patrick are based on the characters of Lucentio and Petruchio, respectively).