10 Things I Hate About You (Blu-ray)

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It was Julia Stiles' second starring role (after "Wicked"), but for everyone else, "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999) was a pretty new experience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun") may have had quite a few minor TV appearances and a couple bit parts in films under his belt, but this was his first big role. Same with Larisa Oleynik, whose only previous film was "The Baby-Sitters Club." And most famously, "10 Things I Hate About You" was the first American film in which Heath Ledger starred. Eighteen at the time, his only credits prior to this teen comedy were a handful of appearances on Australian TV and a bit part in one Australian movie.

"10 Things" was also the first feature-film screenplay from Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, who would go on to do "Legally Blonde" and "Ella Enchanted." And it was the first film ever for TV director Gil Junger ("Blossom," "Ellen"). But as Junger and the writers reminisce on one of the bonus features, everything just sort of came together for this film, and the cast and crew had a feeling that they were producing something of value.

In the lone extra in which principals stroll down memory lane, there's no mention of influences. But one would have to imagine that, aside from Shakespeare--"10 Things" is loosely based on "The Taming of the Shrew"--the writers and/or director were in part inspired by "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). John Hughes had a knack for not talking down to teens, instead creating intelligently written films that just happened to be about the zit-set. Well, the same thing happens here. Plus, when you watch Ledger grab a microphone and ham it up while he sings in grand production fashion, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" to Stiles in the football stadium, it's hard not to think of Matthew Broderick and his "Danke Schoen" parade number.

More so than in "Ferris," music drives this film and helps create a "with it" tone, thanks to a beginning-to-end soundtrack featuring tunes by Barenaked Ladies, Joan Jett, K-Ci & JoJo, Spiderbait, Air, Sprung Monkey, Letters to Cleo, ATM, Brick, Cameo, George Clinton, Salt-N-Pepa, The S.O.S. Band, The Notorious B.I.G., The Thompson Twins, The Cardigans, Ta-Gana, The Colourfield, Madness, Joan Armatrading, Leroy, Semisonic, Sister Hazel, Jessica Riddle, Richard Gibbs, and (coincidence?) Save Ferris. Location filming adds a lot too, with the castle-like Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington serving as Padua High.

Shakespeare-lovers will recall that Padua was the setting for "The Taming of the Shrew," and the writers have a lot of fun with names. Instead of Petruchio from Verona, the mysterious bad boy in "10 Things I Hate About You" is Patrick Verona (Ledger). And the "shrew" that he has to tame isn't named Kate, as in Shakespeare's version, but Kat Stratford (Stiles)--as in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. True to the play, her sister is named Bianca (Oleynik), but nothing else is similar, except that rather than the father forbidding his popular Bianca from marrying until her shrewish sister does, Dad (Larry Miller) forbids Bianca to date unless her stand-offish sister does. That's where the "loosely" comes into play.

On one of the bonus features, Gordon-Levitt pleaded with the director not to have him say any dumb teen lines--no clichés, in other words--and Junger appears to have kept his word. It's the writing and the endearing and energetic performances, more than the twist on Shakespeare, that make this film click. But make no mistake about it: though the writing is a cut above the typical teen fare, the plot of the film is still 100 percent pure teen angst, and the film is still clearly aimed at a young audience.

But what a difference a decade makes. In Ferris Bueller's time, you had boring teachers ("Anyone? . . . Anyone?") who made a glass of milk look interesting by comparison. At Padua High, there's an English teacher (Daryl Mitchell) who swears at the kids and puts them down as if they were competitors on a basketball court talking smack. And the guidance counselor, Ms. Perky (Allison Janney, "The West Wing")? She's too busy working on her steaming novel on her laptop to really offer much guidance to the "bad" kids sent to her each day.

Junger says that he panicked right before he was supposed to begin shooting, and went straight to Border's Books, where he bought six books on how to direct a film. He read them, and went in and did his job. But I'd like to know what books he read, because his sense of pacing, editing, framing shots, and finding the center of a scene and capturing the energy are all things that he does surprisingly well for a director making the leap from the small screen. And that soundtrack helps move the plot briskly along.