To Heath, or not to Heath: that is the question

By Caitlin Booth

Did we all miss the fact that ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ sounds like ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ or was that just me?

I like to think that I’m pretty on the ball when it comes to anything pun or word play related. I’ll pun someone under the table if they’re brave/stupid enough to challenge me. Food puns are a piece of cake and I can reel off film jokes without hesitation. But since recent events, my confidence has been shook in a real way.

In honor of the eleventh anniversary of the death of legendary Australian actor, Heath Ledger, I recently indulged in yet another viewing of Gil Junjer’s late nineties teen cult-classic, Ten Things I Hate About You. Halfway through a discussion with my housemate about how adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt was, even as a baby faced eighteen year old, I was struck with the mind-blowing realization – someone actually put thought into the title of this film.

Pulling my focus away from Andrew Keegan’s perfectly combed hair and Julia Stiles’ quintessential bad-girl cargos and fringe tendrils, my mind became obsessed with sounding out the titles of both the film and Shakespeare’s comedy that inspired it.

Ten Things I Hate About You.

The Taming of the Shrew.

How did I miss that?

Was Heath really so distracting that it’s taken until my late twenties to look away from his luscious locks long enough to place some thought into the creative choices made by Junjer?

Or is it just a telltale sign that this film is of a superior league in the world of Shakespeare adaptations? ‘She’s the Man’ falls far short from sounding like ‘Twelfth Night’, and ‘The Lion King’ far exceeds the measly syllables in ‘Hamlet’, though retains just as much emotion grit. RIP Mufasa.

I realize that these titles share other relevant parallels to the original tales, but the subtlety of Ten Things’ only further cements my steadfast belief that it is a masterpiece of cinema. Plus, where else are you going to find Ledger serenading Stiles, Larisa Oleynik knocking out Keegan and Allison Janney writing the erotica we all want to read? There’s just no competition.

My opinion may be inflated, but I will not be tamed.