Jonathan Miller did a Taming for the BBC with John Cleese as Petruchio. I really liked that version. I can't remember who Kate was off the top of my head though. Cleese was quite good, as he generally is in serious roles.

I liked the atypical-for-Meg Ryan Addicted to Love. Bitterness helps.

That movie was awesome.

Creepy stalker rom-com for the win!

I think more romantic comedies need guns and stuff blowing up. Or the unlikely pairing of creepy stalkers. You know. Mix it up a little, people! Otherwise it's all blah-blah-blah, whatevercakes.

it's getting away from the message that good women are doormats.

Yeah. The speech Petruchio makes Katherina perform near the end is pretty vile. I can't recall how the BBC remake version dealt with that, actually.

it's getting away from the message that good women are doormats.

Yeah, Kate was no doormat in the all-women production we saw.

it's getting away from the message that good women are doormats.

To me this is the difference between the text and the subtext. Kate is not a doormat. That is not how you think of her or remember her.

I often feel like conventional endings which tie things up in neat audience pleasing packages are seen as "the message" but the rest of the text and subtext subvert that message. Kate is memorable and likeable because she's a shrew. And Shakespeare obviously doesn't think she is a shrew. And to me her compliance at the end doesn't mean she's a doormat but rather that she's discovered sex and somebody worthy of her. She's happy; she didn't get a lobotomy.

I think more romantic comedies need guns and stuff blowing up.

See also, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

See also, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Ah ha. You reminded me of the movie I've hated the most in the last decade. Thank you!

Hmm, I was typing (and still am) on my iPhone, so I shortened a bunch of gender issues into "making Kate and Petruccio sympathetic and likable."

but I intended all that to be included in my shorthand. The productions I saw include not making Kate a doormat.

I think it's certainly possible to deal with the gender issues in TotS, but it's rare that it's done successfully. In too many cases, productions "fix" the last scene but play the rest of the script straight, as if making Kate's final speech sarcastic makes up for the fact that Petruchio's just spent the last 2 hours being more or less psychotically abusive.

I'd have liked Mr. and Mrs. Smith better with a different Mrs. Smith. She's not someone I see in a fistfight with Brad Pitt. But Brad? I don't think I've liked him more. He cracked me right up. And, weirdly, one of my krav teachers was in it, and I recognised him under all his SWAT gear. Which isn't creepy, honest. He just moves like him.