Movie Meme, Day 8: A Movie That Should Be Required High School Viewing

I vaguely suspect where the MEME is trying to go with this one. Perhaps a film centring on teenage ideals that we all should see? I don’t know – probably…but I went a bit different.

      

The other day on twitter someone mentioned Shakespeare in Love as one of the five worse Best Picture winners (well The English Patient was there too, so I didn’t really take it to heart). Everyone, I assume, reads Shakespeare at some point in their school life and what better way to be introduced to Shakespeare than through Stoppard and Madden’s fanciful account of his early life.

Hmmm, Shakespeare in Love in schools? I approve.

How many of you have ever said that Shakespeare is too stifling? (I have, and I love the man.) Yes, Shakespeare in Love is purely fictional, but it makes a good argument – Shakespeare was a real man with real feelings and probably every bit as bohemian as portrayed in the film. Sometimes it does pay to consider what the writer of a play was about and I’d wager that reading “Romeo & Juliet” becomes more interesting when we imagine Joseph and Gwynn in the throes of love…or Judi Dench being purely awesome, or Imelda Staunton being brilliant as the Nurse. Suffice to say, the film is excellence.

             

I suppose everyone will not love Shakespeare, but Shakespeare in Love seems like a good place to start. If you can believe that Shakespeare was more than a stuff stick-in-the-mud you may actually enjoy reading him in high school. Who knows?
         
As per normal, the MEME continues...