Back to School 4—Based on the Classics

Last week we looked at back to school films that are true classics. This week, let’s take a look at back to school films based on the classics. Think about it, while we can use a ‘classic’ back to school film as a guide, attempting to write one might be a bit daunting. But there are many successful films that are based on classics in literature that you might want to study, as ‘classics’ are often novels/plays in public domain that can be fun to update to the present day.

Three films that come to mind when talking about back to school films based on classic literature are Clueless [1995] by Amy Heckerling, 10 Things I Hate About You [1999] by Karen McCullah and Kirstin Smith, and Easy A [2010] by Bert V. Royal.

Clueless came out to rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. Loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma, the film tells the story of Cher’s attempts to make over a hapless new girl and help her find love. She does the same with a couple of teachers, btw, whom she helps come out of their shells to fall in love and marry. Both the novel and the film play with the stereotypes of the societies they’re set in, and both main characters are rich and a bit headstrong. Emma was set in a small English village and Clueless wisely changed that setting to a US high school.

10 Things I Hate About You is based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. The film uses very much the same construct as the play—the younger sister can’t date until the older sister does, so hilarity ensues as the younger sister tries to get her difficult older sister a date. In the course of the two sisters dating, both believe they’ve been wronged by their dates but are wooed back by them in the end. The beauty of 10 Things is the way it takes that simple premise and puts it into a high school and watches what happens. It’s a real gem.

Easy A tells the story of a high school girl, Olive, who is the victim of rumors that she’s a skank, that she’s ‘easy’—but, of course, she accidentally started the rumor herself. So she decides to have fun with it and play the part—wearing sexy clothing and changing her personality to be what everyone thinks she is already. She even wears an “A” on all of her clothing, ala Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, a novel they’re studying in lit class.

What each of these films has in common is taking the bones of a classic story and updating them for today’s audiences. So ask yourself if there are classic stories that you love and if YOU could take the essence of such a story and bring it into modern times. It’s a classic because it worked when it was written and still works today—why not take that knowledge and make a classic your own?

New Week: The Fantastic

Copyright © Diane Lake

30Sep18

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