Picture the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You and what’s the first scene you think of?

It’s Heath Ledger as Patrick Verona, sliding along the bleachers, microphone in hand as he serenades Julia Stiles’ Kat with the Frankie Valli classic Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.

Yes, The Dark Knight’s The Joker may be the character that looms as a cinematic icon but Heath’s Patrick is a romantic comedy icon – and it is this one very simple scene that ensures Heath’s status lives on with generations of new teens.


Patrick is the brooding bad boy with long hair, a devil may care attitude and a cigarette hanging from his lips; the boy your parents warned you about, the one who will break your heart.



But he’s also the boy who will attend Club Skunk for you, ask if you’ve seen his copy of The Feminine Mystique and buys you a Fender Stratocaster guitar.

And embarrasses himself in front of the entire school to perform with the marching band just to make you feel better about yourself.

Patrick has cemented himself in our hearts forever (Picture: Buena Vista Pictures)

What 10 Things I Hate About You also has going for it is that it is the quintessential teen movie.

Based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew, the film tells a story of a headstrong and opinionated girl who loves ‘Thai food, feminist prose and angry girl music of the indie-rock persuasion’ and who refuses to fall in love but finds herself doing exactly just that.

And all without losing her feminist fire in the process.

Heath (left) with Julia Stiles (Picture: Buena Vista Pictures)

In these times of change, it’s more important than ever that a film like 10 Things I Hate About You – which even at release was a movie that finally bought not only fun but also a grounding to teen movies that had been lacking – continues to remain in our conscious, an empowering film that can help anyone during those tough teenage years.

And just as in 2017, as we continue to fall in love with 1940s Marlon Brando’s Stanley Kowalski, 1950s James Dean’s Jim Stark, 1990s Ryan Phillippe’s Sebastian Valmont, Heath’s Patrick has also been cemented for all eternity in our hearts as one of the big screen’s ultimate teen crushes.

He really was too good to be true.

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