JustWatch

The Taming of the Shrew

1980 Directed by Jonathan Miller

The swaggering Petruchio, eager to wive it wealthily in Padua, agrees to marry the spitting hellcat, Katherine.

Baptista has two daughters: Kate and Bianca. Everyone wants to wed the fair Bianca, but nobody's much interested in problem child, Kate. Baptista declares that he won't give Bianca away in a marriage until he's found a husband for Kate, so all the suitors begin busily hunting out a madman who's willing to do it, and they find Petruchio: a man who's come to wive it wealthily in Padua. And Petruchio marries Kate with a plan to tame her, while everybody else begins scheming to win Bianca's hand.

Simon Chandler Anthony Pedley John Franklyn-Robbins Frank Thornton Sarah Badel Jonathan Cecil John Cleese Joan Hickson Susan Penhaligon Harry Waters David Kincaid Bev Willis Angus Lennie Harry Webster Gil Morris Leslie Sarony Derek Deadman Denis Gilmore John Bird Alan Hay David Kinsey John Barron Tony Martelli

Country

Language

English

Genres

Romance Comedy TV Movie Drama

TV

23 Oct 1980

UK

23 Oct 1980

126 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by k🗡 ★★★½

katherine was such an icon before petruchio “tamed” her
men still suck but john cleese’s great performance makes this easier to watch
Review by Daydream Of Hell

Shakespeare in Chronological Order (2/37)
Watching through all the BBC Television Shakespeare plays, in the commonly accepted chronological order for their source material
2. The Taming of the Shrew
The play: Yeah, this is clearly misogynistic. Any reading of it as a "satire" is clearly wishful thinking seeing as it doesn't play like actual contemporary satire plays (see The Jew of Malta and The Knight of the Burning Pestle for actual contemporary examples of plays in the satire genre - they play nothing like this), and also there's evidence its gender politics were criticised even at the time (see Fletcher's The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed). In terms of structure it's clearly very influential on modern sitcoms and farce,…
Review by Slappy McGee ★★★½

Film #06 of my 2019 - Watching All 37 BBC Shakespearean Films Initiative.
*****
There are many positives to this BBC version of Shakespeare's play:
* It's short at only a few minutes over 2 hours.
* It doesn't shy away from the troubling theme.
* John Cleese is a master of comedy.
I think there are a couple of factors that make it shorter than most "complete" or "unabridged" Shakespeare translations onto film. It eliminates the tacked on prologue and epilogue that are usually clumsily used as a framing device for the play. They are unneeded and it's good that they cut them from this production. Also, in this production the SPEED of the lines is way out of…
Review by Vinod Shankar 🦥 ★★★½

This is my second of this BBC series (after Two Gentlemen) and while I do find this series to be relatively plain and maybe overly straight-forward, this one definitely had more spark. John Cleese plays Petruchio, which is a blast to hear him deliver those Shakespeare insults.
I found the Katherine to be a bit unenjoyable though; I believe the 'shrew' isn't just a shrew, but more sly in her shrewness, and here I don't get those depth levels. It's a complicated part though, and I look forward to seeing how other actresses do it in my Shakespeare cinema dives.
Review by Clayton Hagberg ★½

From a movie standpoint this is absolute trash. I watched this in-between 2 Hitchcock movies (Rebecca and another that will be reviewed soon) one of those has similar cinematography to this one but it's way way way way way way 10 x 10 better. Let me talk about the cinematography. there's a lot of long takes like really long. But instead of looking amazing it looks cheap. Really really cheap. This entire movie is a play that was filmed and they only had one camera.
the performances are also kinda mediocre. They are just staying Shakespeare dialogue fast. And that's pretty much the entire movie. Also it is not very funny.
Movies you watch in a homeschool class are bad
Review by lady_madelene ★★★★ 2

just look. at. him. 🥵🥵🥵💔
i can't normally sleep, work, walk, enjoy my hobbies without thinking about this man 24/7. name's john, the bearded one. the hotty. the hottest. he's my biggest crush and i wanna revisit every movie with him till the end of the year.
Review by Silversaxophone ★★½

Basil Fawlty as Petruchio almost works — it is a shame Andrew Sach’s Manuel was not cast as Grummio, or Prunella Scales as Katherine. If truth be told, John Cleese’s Petruchio is somewhat overbearing, and Sarah Badel’s Kate does not stand a chance against him. So, as a couple, there is a power imbalance which does not exist in the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton pairing, for example, in Zeffirelli’s pungent adaptation of the play. Plus the performance of the Lucentio/Bianca sections is so lacklustre, it suggests that Shakespeare may have been parodying his earlier romantic comedies. Director Jonathan Miller cuts the Induction, which provides a play-within-a-play framing device and, thus, the ironic distancing crucial to the material. So, it is an interesting adaptation, with Cleese (who was probably at the height of his popularity in 1980) in the lead, but not a great one.
Review by rob ★★★★

I've always hated this play by Shakespeare (and still consider it one of my least favorites, although I know I can't blame a single man, who moreover is the genius who gave us all those other masterpieces that are among the most beautiful things in existence, for the reason I dislike it, which is its inherent misogyny)
but dammit, John Cleese made me love it! His acting is so composed, nuanced and brilliant it gives a new insight into the character of Petruchio as well as his purpose in the play. By the way, I would actually marry him if he was dressed like that at the wedding.
Review by Phil ★★★★

John Cleese's performance as Petruchio, probably not an interpretation available to other actors. Is it, as intended, played as a shrewd adaptation to a problematic situation (basically gaslighting) and even kind and sensitive? A problematic play for modern society.
Notes from Wikipedia:
Jonathan Miller argues that although the play is not misogynistic, neither is it a feminist treatise:
I think it's an irresponsible and silly thing to make that play into a feminist tract: to use it as a way of proving that women have been dishonoured and hammered flat by male chauvinism. There's another, more complex way of reading it than that: which sees it as being their particular view of how society ought to be organised in order…
Review by Kevin ★★½

It's a decent adaptation, and very faithful, but I'm just not into watching domestic abuse.
Review by Lucas Oertel ★★★

So uh by no means is this a good interpretation of the script, it's plays 100% straight which just will never work. How they handled the submission speech was abominable. However I still somehow had a good amount of fun with it. All of that pretty much boiling down to John Cleese. Now as you'd expect, he absolutely nails the humour of Petruchio. However what I most certainly didn't expect from him is the fact that he's also a complete menace. there a true darkness to his character, a violence that is crucial to the his dynamic with Kate. And on top of that, he absolutely nails the physicality. Unfortunately on the other side, Kate is.....well rather meek to be…
Review by Trevor

I thought this was gonna be like 10 Things I Hate about You but it was more like an origin story for the neighborhood in Stepford Wives, which is nothing like that

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Where to watch

The Taming of the Shrew

Synopsis

The swaggering Petruchio, eager to wive it wealthily in Padua, agrees to marry the spitting hellcat, Katherine.

Cast

Director

Original Writer

Production Design

Composer

Sound

Costume Design

Makeup

Studios

Country

Language

Genres

Releases by Date

TV

23 Oct 1980

Releases by Country

UK

23 Oct 1980

Popular reviews

Where to watch

The Taming of the Shrew

Synopsis

The swaggering Petruchio, eager to wive it wealthily in Padua, agrees to marry the spitting hellcat, Katherine.

Cast

Director Director

Original Writer Original Writer

Production Design Production Design

Composer Composer

Sound Sound

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup Makeup

Studios

Country

Language

Genres

TV

23 Oct 1980

UK

23 Oct 1980

Popular reviews

Director

Original Writer

Production Design

Composer

Sound

Costume Design

Makeup