User Reviews

In Italy, Franco Zeffirelli is best known for his work in grand opera, and he brought all his experience in this larger than life art form to bear upon the two films for which he is best known, the 1968 ROMEO AND JULIET and the 1967 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.

Scholars usually consider Shakespeare's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW to be among the playwrights lesser works, but it has been an audience favorite since its first known performance in 1594. Although many suitors beg for Bianca's hand, her widowed father is determined that she may not marry until her elder sister Katherine is wed--and Katherine is a hot tempered, willful, and vicious woman who makes life miserable for all who cross her path. Fortunately for Bianca, Petruchio is in need of money, and he is more than willing to marry Kate, no matter how resistant Kate herself is to the whole idea.

Shakespeare's original script has been trimmed here and there, and while purists may scream about it the result not only works for film, it also manages to capture the flavor of Shakespeare's language much better than any other film version of SHREW both before or since. And the look of the thing is beautiful: Zeffirelli brings his mastery of opera's larger than life visuals to bear upon the project, and the result is eye-popping production values, most particularly in reference to the costuming. Every cent spent shows on the screen.

Although she was a very fine screen actress, Elizabeth Taylor is not a name one would expect to find playing Shakespeare--but she carries it off in fine style, kicking, snapping, and snarling with tremendous panache in the first portion of the film, and then making Kate's "taming" seem entirely plausible in the latter portion. Unlike many later Shakespeare plays, SHREW is not greatly noted for its language; even so, Katherine's final speech is widely known and extremely memorable, and Taylor pulls it off with such credibility that one wishes she had done other classical roles as well.

Taylor's then-husband Richard Burton co-stars as the deliberately uncouth Petruchio, who sets out to tame a shrew and finds himself as much tamed by her as she by him. Burton, of course, was accustomed to the classics in general and Shakespeare in particular, and he plays with tremendous bravado. The supporting cast, which includes a young Michael York, is also very fine, and when all is said and done the 1964 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is a tremendous amount of fun even if you don't like Shakespeare.

The DVD transfer is very nice. The picture has the occasional blemish, most often in the opening titles and closing credits, but on the whole it is remarkable, showing every detail of every set and every costume to fine effect. The sound is also quite good. Sad to say, there is really nothing in the way of bonus material, but the film is the thing, and Taylor, Burton, York, and Zefirelli do it up brown. More than just worth watching: worth owning.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is a lavish presentation of William Shakespeare's classic comedy, highlighted by the ideally cast coupling of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the pivotal roles. Hers was the questionable characterization, but Ms. Taylor keeps "Katharina" well within her range, and sparks the original role with an appealing update. Burton balances with a fine interpretation of "Petruchio". The bombastic Burtons are only hindered by the relatively slight material; some of this humor doesn't transcend the centuries, although much is appreciated. Director Franco Zeffirelli and several in this company soon went to work on "Romeo and Juliet" (1968), which was a greater use of their skills.

******* The Taming of the Shrew (2/27/67) Franco Zeffirelli ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Michael York, Natasha Pyne

Liz and Dick, you gotta love them in this...somehow you feel you may be getting more insight into their personal life than intended. One of the great things about this film is that it's made Shakespeare accessible to many more folks who might not have even bothered otherwise. Zefferili does for Shakespeare what Emeril does for cuisine--makes it entertaining while keeping all the quality. And what a fun production--great costumes, a young Michael York, lots of sexy repartee. A good choice for a snowy night when you'd rather stay in. It keeps you pretty entertained throughout, simplifies some of the plot intricacies. One drawback is that Miss Taylor appears to be a little long in the tooth to be playing a young, never-married, girl.

Shakespeare's bawdy comedy was perhaps the perfect vehicle for the Burtons four years into their real-life stormy marriage. Although Liz Taylor had no experience of playing ‘the bard' she is actually entertaining as Kate, that fiery girl who has no intention of becoming any man's plaything or possession. Richard Burton is on surer ground as Petruchio and doesn't disappoint, this is a rip-roaring performance and one of his best.

In Zeffirelli's cast we also see Michael Hordern, Cyril Cusack, Natasha Pyne (as Kate's sister Bianca), and Michael York (making his film debut as Bianca's suitor). The action can drag a bit when away from the leads (who always did tend to swamp other players in their movies), but the wit and mischief of the original play shines through. My only quibble would be with Kate's final speech. Interesting that Taylor plays it this way, but my guess is that it isn't the end of the bumpy ride for these two!

There is no denying Franco Zeffirelli's visual sensibility, nor his dramatic strength. He takes this Shakespearean comedy, chops and cuts and edits the text to his liking, and regurgitates a wonderful film. If one were to watch the film without sound, it would still be entertaining, that is how well Zeffirelli put it together. But it wouldn't be enough without a terrific Kate, and Elizabeth Taylor, certainly in her prime in 1967, more than fills the bill. She hams it up when hamming is appropriate to the moment, and plays it with more subtlety when that is required. She is well matched by Richard Burton as Petruchio. He is good, but there is something not quite there. I think perhaps he seems more jaded and a tad less calculating than I'd expect in the role. I think I prefer the more caustic performance of John Cleese in this role.

I can't help but wonder what Zeffirelli would've done with an operatic version of this play.

This is a film version of a Shakespeare play the way Shakespeare would have wanted it to be seen - as funny and entertaining. The gorgeous colour in the sets and costumes reminds us that this story is taking place in sunny Italy - maybe it takes an Italian director to realize and bring out that light-hearted joyfulness. The actors are all wonderful, so natural in their roles that the Shakespearean verse sounds like believable daily conversation. Richard Burton is perfect as Petruchio, a self-confident, swaggering lout at the beginning, who in a way undergoes his own "taming" process to become a loving husband, proud of his wife and delighted with the happiness ahead of them. Elizabeth Taylor as an actress is not really up to the demands of Shakespeare, but she certainly looks her part, and on the whole does pretty well, especially as she is given a lot of action rather than speaking in this film, until the very end. Zeffirelli does wonderful things with the visuals - the scene at the beginning, when what appears to be a solemn church service suddenly erupts into a wild carnival can be seen as a joking reflection of the typical viewer's reaction to this happy treatment of Shakespeare; where we expect to be bored by solemn, po-faced reverence in the presence of Art, we suddenly find ourselves swept away in a merry romp. And the recurring glimpses of a huge grotesque blonde woman continually attended by her small, dark-haired pretty sister, always scaring away the latter's possible suitors is a witty summary of the main story we are watching. This movie is a great introduction to Shakespeare for anyone who hasn't seen his plays before, and a perfect antidote for anyone who's been intimidated into thinking that Shakespeare is "too hard" for anyone but experts and scholars to understand.

This is Burton and Taylor's best film together. It is full of color and fun, and some very fine comedy. All of the actors are brilliant in it. It's a big, romping chase of a movie, and when you hear Petruchio's deep chuckle, it makes you laugh, too.

It's based on the bare bones of Shakespeare's play about Baptista, a rich man with two unmarried daughters. The older daughter is so nasty that no one can stand her long enough to marry her, and everyone in town wants to marry the younger daughter but can't till the older is married off. A bad-mannered fortune hunter shows up and agrees to take the older daughter off the father's hands for a steep price. After the marriage, Petruchio sets about breaking the pride of Kate, and eventually he wears her down, but she works her own magic on him, and in the end they both find that they love each other.

Richard Burton should have won the Oscar for this role; he IS Petruchio. It's a national disgrace that he didn't get it. And Liz is really good as Kate. She makes us believe that she is a horrible shrew, and when her soft side emerges she makes us believe that she could have been sweet all along.

If you can find this film at all, try to watch it in it's letterbox version. You miss far too much of the action in the pan and scan format. It's shown on cable quite a bit, but mostly on the pay channels.

Lovely costumes and nice to see "location" shots but this really is just a loud romp for the famous couple. The other characters don't get much of a chance to shine. Bonus points for keeping the iambic pentameter going.

This is a great Shakespeare movie that the man himself would surely approve of. It has just the right mix of action and dialogue and if the light dims a little during the scenes without the Burtons, certainly Michael Hordern keeps his brightly lit. Michael York and Natasha Pyne are inexplicably weak after their brilliant early moments. But maybe it just is that the two main performances are so captivating, we really only wish to see them. Some find fault with the acting of Elizabeth Taylor but I'll hear none of it. Her early scenes of wild madness are fantastic as are her slightly less confident scenes as she finds herself the object of the chase. The scene I remember most from my original 60s cinema viewing is that of the pair wrestling on the bed of feathers having fallen through the roof. Watching this again at a BFI South Bank, London screening in a packed audience I can surely see why. Pure electricity as the snarling/alluring, struggling yet desiring 'shrew' begins to succumb to the power of the male above her. Great moments, great music, excellent sets and a tremendous if controversial final speech.

Pros: sets, scenery and costumes, and indeed all the technical aspects; supporting cast; dialogue; adaptation; and most of all direction. Cons: Burton. He tries to get back to his roots, but appears so alcohol-soaked his timing is all off, he mumbles those magnificent lines, and he seems dazed by the size of the production. Only Zeffirelli's masterly hand pulls him through. Taylor is as beautiful as ever, but her pace is also a bit off, and after all the hype it's hard to take her seriously as a Shakespearean actress.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton at their peak are a joy to behold--they

infuse this gorgeous film of "The Taming of the Shrew" with so much life and

energy, that it becomes a wonderful, bouyant, three-ring circus of entertainment. The sets and costumes of Zeffirelli's meticulously recreated Renaissance Italy are ravishingly beautiful. Each scene is composed like a painting--and Nino

Rota's score complelemnts the film perfectly. His melodies ring in the air long after the film has ended. Shakespeare would have been delighted.

Franco Zeffirelli's energetic handling of William Shakespeare's raucous battle of the sexes has been directed with the filmmaker's customary flair for pageantry, and yet the star duo, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is disappointing. Blustery Petruchio, a 16th century fortune-hunter from Verona, is slated to woo Katharina, the wicked wench of Padua, whose hand is readily available; with her dowry looming large, Petruchio manages to get Katharina to the altar, where their stormy tussle of exchanges continues on to the honeymoon. Taylor and Burton would seem to be ideally suited to this material, but Burton's self-amused cackling begins to gnaw at one's nerves, while Taylor's mincing post-taming smiles aren't at all convincing (her best scene is her first one, leaning out the window). Whole sequences such as the wedding ceremony and the final gamble fail to take off, this mainly due to Zeffirelli's timing. The director does wonderful work with the small details but grand-scale storytelling seems to hinder him. A modest success at the box-office, the film set the stage for Zeffirelli's follow-up, 1968's "Romeo and Juliet", which finally made the Bard '60s accessible. **1/2 from ****

Comically Poor - I'm going to claim ignorance on this one: I really don't know if it's the original Shakespeare play or just they way this adaptation was written that made it so horrible. This was a non-story. The overall "theme" is a great one - the beautiful younger daughter can't get married until the older "shrew" is, which leads to all sorts of misadventures by the suitors interested in courting the young one. Great. It's used will in 10 Things I Hate About You, Kiss Me Kate, and many others. However, in this film version, we instead follow the shrew and the suitor who wants her just for her dowry. These two terrible people clearly hate each other and gallivant around for two hours doing terrible things to each other, and in the end fall in love for no reason whatsoever. Terrible. Could have been so much better, but as is was a miserably boring and non-sensical melodramatic romp. Elizabeth Taylor is crazy.

I saw the movie on DVD and liked it. I think if Shakespeare were alive today he would have like. Taylor and Burton do justice to their roles and the movie also introduced a brilliant actor Michael York as Lucentio. I had read the play and had seen the movie 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU which was loosely based on the play. When I got a chance to see the movie, I grabbed it. Elizabeth Taylor as Katharina the shrew is brilliant. She shows why is much more than a celebrity. Richard Burton shines as Petruchio. Franco Zeffirelli is a reputed director and he shows why. A must see movie for the fans of Shakespeare and the play.

The best 'Hollywood' (via Italy) ever did for Shakespear. Burton and Taylor were married at the time and played off exceptionally well together. Finally, Elizabeth Taylor in her final speach once again established herself as an actress over being a just celebrity.

Burton and Taylor are a delight to watch, their chemistry is -as expected- great. The "hunting" scene is very funny and the whole movie is kinda enjoyable, i guess. But this was too long. This was boring at times. I don't know if they butchered Shakespear or this theatrical play is not to my taste. In any case, i didn't find it that clever. I must be fair: In the way of so many movies/tv series today are misandric, this way TTOTS is misogynistic to the core. Last scene is barely watchable, as Taylor declares her female "inferiority". Of course every work of art is a product of its time, you can't "cancel" Shakespeare. But still, this movie is the definition of "Outdated". And justly.

There are a lot of things to enjoy here. Still, i can't recommend it.

The "Rotten Tomatoes" website says about this film that "It may not be reverent enough for purists, but this "Taming of the Shrew" is too funny - and fun - for the rest of us to resist". Well, much as I love, Shakespeare, "The Taming of the Shrew" is one of his plays about which I have never been able to feel much reverence. I have often thought that it is one of those plays which, if it had come down to us in an anonymous form without Shakespeare's name on it, would arouse little interest today except among academics specialising in the Elizabethan theatre, who would be furiously debating to which minor dramatist of the period it should be attributed.

The play can be a controversial one today because it is a "battle of the sexes" which ends in complete victory for the man, a victory won by some very dubious tactics. Petruchio never actually physically assaults his wife, but he nevertheless subjects her to some unpleasant psychological bullying. Criticism of the play is not just due to 21st century political correctness. More than a hundred years ago George Bernard Shaw was calling it "altogether disgusting to modern sensibility" and Arthur Quiller-Couch "tiresome to any modern civilised man and to any modern woman, not an antiquarian, offensive".

The play deals with the two daughters of Baptista Minola, a gentleman of Padua. Both girls are beautiful, but the elder sister Katherina ("Kate"), the "shrew" of the title, is notoriously ill-tempered whereas her younger sister Bianca is sweet-natured and gentle. Baptista, however, has decreed that Bianca may not marry until her elder sister is also married, and Katherina's temper means that no men are interested in her. Eventually, however, Bianca's various suitors persuade Petruchio, a gentleman visiting Padua from Verona, to take on Katharina, hoping that if he marries her this will open the way for them to woo Bianca. The film omits the Christopher Sly framework device (no great loss) and cuts out much of the subplot about the rivalry between Bianca's three suitors, concentrating upon the Petruchio/Katharina story.

The film was originally to have been an Italian language one ("La Bisbetica Domata") starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. It eventually became an English-language movie, but it was shot in Italy with an Italian director, Franco Zeffirelli, and Hollywood's favourite married couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, brought in to play the leads. Publicity for the film was helped by gossip that their real-life relationship was just as turbulent as that of Kate and Petruchio; it was advertised under the slogan "The motion picture they were made for"!

Despite that slogan, Taylor was not perhaps a natural born Shakespeare heroine. She had no previous experience of acting in Shakespearean drama and was not the greatest speaker of blank verse. At 35 she was considerably older than the character as envisaged by Shakespeare. (We are never told Kate's exact age, but 16th century women tended to marry young, and she is probably in her late teens or early twenties. Anything over thirty, and even Baptista would have given her up as a confirmed old maid). Given, however, that Burton was to play Petruchio, it would have been unthinkable for any actress other than Taylor to play Katharina.

Moreover, as Burton himself was 42 at the time, given the controversial storyline a very young Katharina would have seemed too much like the helpless victim of a nasty bully. An older woman like Taylor could at least give the impression of a Kate who can stand up to her husband and give as good as she gets. There is a strong hint that her supposed submission to Petruchio is all a ruse and that behind the scenes Katharina is far from subdued.

The following year Zeffirelli was to make another Shakespearean film, the romantic and poetic "Romeo and Juliet", also filmed in Italy. Like that film, "The Taming of the Shrew" is beautiful to look at, with lavish sets and costumes designed to capture the look of Italian Renaissance paintings. Zeffirelli, however, wisely decided to concentrate less upon poetry than upon comedy, including physical comedy; some scenes come close to slapstick, including one where Taylor and Burton dash across the rooftops and end up falling through the roof onto a feather bed below. That one could have been from a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd silent. Taylor plays her part with such drive and vivacity that any worries about her lack of experience in Shakespeare come to seem irrelevant.

This "Taming of the Shrew" is never going to be my favourite Shakespeare film. It is not even my favourite Zeffirelli Shakespeare film; I prefer both "Romeo and Juliet" and his later "Hamlet" from 1990. I felt, however, that the director succeeds in the difficult challenge of turning this controversial, problematic play into a highly enjoyable film. 7/10.

The Taming of the Shrew is admittedly not my absolute favourite of Shakespeare's plays, but it is a fun if not so politically correct tale of Petruchio's subduing of his shrewish wife Katherina. This film version from Franco Zeffirelli, who also directed the wonderful 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, certainly looks very lush. The cinematography is very ravishing and the sets and costumes are nothing short of colourful and impressive, and Nina Rota's score is wonderful. Zeffirelli's direction is also secure, while opting for colourful action, the script is excellent and fairly faithful and the acting is very good. Both Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor give one of their better performances, Burton being perfect as the brutish lout known as Petruchio and Taylor alluring and convincing particularly in her final scenes as Katherina, and their chemistry is believable. As Baptista and Grumio Michael Hordern and Cyril Cusack give great support, while Michael York and Natasha Pyne are sweet as the young lovers Lucentio and Bianca. The film does drag in places, but overall, it is a beautiful film and a well done adaptation as well. I am impressed! 8/10 Bethany Cox

Richard Burton is amazing. He just is. There's no one else in the world who can speak Shakespeare and make me understand what he's actually saying. I took drama classes for five years, and I always coasted through the Shakespeare sections. It truly was a foreign language to me; no one could get through to me.

No one besides Richard Burton. In The Taming of the Shrew, Burton plays a fortune-seeker intent on wooing and marrying an infamous rich manhater, played by his wife Elizabeth Taylor. The two bounce off each other beautifully, and both energy levels are intense, but whenever she spoke, I heard a foreign language. I'm not trying to dis her performance, but whatever she was saying, she wasn't saying it in a way that was clear to a non-Shakespeare speaker. When Burton spoke, he translated. It was incredible. I was able to follow the plot! I laughed at the jokes and listened to the dialogue.

For those of you whose knowledge of Shakespeare doesn't extend past 10 Things I Hate About You (the fantastic modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew), this movie is for you. If you actually like Shakespeare (more power to you) then you'll definitely want to watch this one. It's obvious Burton shares your love and understanding, and his passion is wonderful to watch on the screen.

And, if you liked this movie, be sure to watch Richard Burton's version of Hamlet. It's truly incomparable.

The whole package was almost here in this movie.It delivered on almost all technical aspects demanded for this movie version of the great Shakesperean comedy.The problem here was the low quality script which dulled the comedy,thus struggling for laughs.The director tried to compensate as much as he could but he could only in the end turn out an average movie.Also,Taylor could only manage a decent Shakesperean performance depite the film makers limiting her lines as much as they could.Taylor is a great actress but Shakespeare acting demands a very high quality in ORATORY ACTING which is another ballgame.In this regard,Burton shows how it is done.Watch this movie for his great performance here if for nothing else.Burton will demand and get your respect if you have an eye for acting.Only for fans of the lead actors and fans of Shakespeare movies......

Hollywood's golden age produced many films that will never die and it could definitely include The Taming of the Shrew as one of its greatest. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the famed Shakespeare enthusiast whose works include the successful later adaption of Romeo and Juliet in 1968, this film showcases his devout love of Shakespearean plays. Zeffirelli was clearly ahead of his game at the time, which can be shown through his use of some of the best resources Hollywood had to offer; including leading actress Elizabeth Taylor and Actor Richard Burton.

The film boasts the use of prodigy Nino Rota's music which draws the audience into the atmosphere of the film and gets them hooked on the storyline. The set and costumes are immaculate; they truly lead the viewer to believe that it is set in the late 1500's. Attention-to-detail is impressively significant; fine details in the background, such as a labelled drunkard hanging in a cage over the street, are what intensify the film's quality greatly. There is one point in which Lucentio's accomplice talks directly to the camera about the situation and I found that this brought an interesting touch to the camera work; it almost felt as though I was part of the film! The script is also relatively similar to Shakespeare's original text and some memorable line's such Petruchio claiming "Will you, Nill you, I will Marry you" are none the less brought to life by Burton's macho voice. The fiery character of Katharina is also brilliantly portrayed through Taylor's acting, although some could argue that perhaps she should have toned down her make-up and overacting in a role such as this. The priest's obvious fear of Katharina is shown at the marriage ceremony; a fear which is only too common in the story! Humour is rarely used vocally in the film, but it seems as though Katharina's rages and reactions, as well as a personal comedic key point of Petruchio chuckling as well as engaging in a choking fit during the marriage ceremony, appear to be examples of the type of humour seen in the film. Compared to the original text, it could be said that the humour was quenched and replaced with a more modern quirky version.

However, it is inevitable that one would notice that this film seems to focus overly on the characters of Katharina and Petruchio, even perhaps on the real life relationship of Taylor and Burton, as this was filmed during their first marriage. The couple lived their lives in the eyes of the media and I somewhat got the impression that Zeffirelli may have used this to his advantage in order to secure more popularity for his film. The power of Elizabeth Taylor as an actress is highlighted and despite that fact that her character is quite unattractive to the audience, I found that towards the end of the film, I had almost become a fanatic of her and was interested in viewing more of her work. The role of a young, unmarried girl is almost unrealistic for her as she was in her thirties when the film was released. The chemistry between Taylor and Burton positively enhances the impact of the film and it is undeniable that the pair are profoundly comfortable with each other, even though the storyline tells a different story. On the other hand, it is noticeable that other characters in the film were very much in the shadow of Katharina and Petruchio. The character of Bianca seems to have gotten much less attention in the film than I had expected, which I disagree with as she is the cause that led to Petruchio trying to woo Katharina.

The film had flaws which were more substantial than the previous. Petruchio's mental abuse of Katharina after their marriage in the film was short of appalling. I found that, at times, I became quite uncomfortable during the film and would have preferred if Zeffirelli had perhaps sugar-coated some of Petruchio's harsh actions. Katharina's spirit is more so shown as broken, as opposed to her personality being tamed, which added an unwanted melancholy touch to the film. The duration of the film was likewise exhausting, as I perceived that my attention diminished at times.

Over all, The Taming of the Shrew is an enjoyable film, but unfortunately it is not suited to modern audiences, as some aspects may disgruntle viewers, particularly feminists. At the time of its production, it was of remarkable quality, but in today's world it is somewhat timeworn. However, older audiences would definitely gain a thriller from watching the film and viewers of any age would kindly warm to the character of Katharina and even Elizabeth Taylor as an actress, as I believe that amongst Cleopatra, this film is doubtlessly one of the greatest showcases of her career.

As Will Shakespeare wrote this story, it was supposed to be a comedy. However, Burton & Taylor removed all the comical elements to make it just plain drama probably to portray their own lives.

Shakespeare wrote comedies where a great deal of the comedy is acted by minor characters in the stories. In this production, no minor characters were allowed to do that and the removal of all that comedy can only be attributed to Burton & Taylor being producers of the film. It appears that Burton & Taylor wanted to use this production to portray their own personal marriage travails, not to portray Shakespeare drama.

The scene where Biondello brings the books for Baptista's daughters to study became very dry though Biondello is supposed to be comical in this scene. The scene where Petruchio gets clothes becomes dry because the Haberdasher is not allowed to react to Burton's comments.

All this might be of small consequence if Burton & Taylor could act comedy themselves, but they can't. Neither Burton nor Taylor were capable of comedy. They are both fine dramatic actors, but not for comedy. They take their parts far too seriously to act comedy. Unless the actor is doing a monologue, comedy usually requires a working relationship between two actors. Burton & Taylor did not allow that relationship with the minor characters in this production, though they did attempt it between themselves. But they are far too serious in their dialogue to come off comically.

For real Shakespeare comedy, see "Much Ado About Nothing" with Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson. Now that is real Shakespeare comedy. Be sure to observe the flippant dialogue & bantering between Benedick & Beatrice, as well as Dogberry's lines to the judge and the criminal's reactions when they are brought before the judge. This production of "The Taming of the Shrew" is a true disgrace to the spirit of William Shakespeare.