I saw the movie Hamnet at the end of last week on its opening day in the United States. In 2022 or 23, I read the novel Hamnet and was unable to put it down. Hamnet’s subtitle is A Novel of the Plague and it is that, although somewhat less so with the movie. The novel and movie are named for the twin son of William Shakespeare and Agnes (Anne) Hathaway, who died from the plague or Black Death in 1596 at age 11.
In the historical novel by Maggie O’Farrell, William first sees Agnes from an attic window of a classroom where he is tutoring three boys. For a moment, the tutor believes it to be a young man. He is wearing a cap, a leather jerkin, gauntlets; he moves out of the trees with a brand of masculine insouciance or entitlement, covering the ground with booted strides. There is some kind of bird on his outstretched fist: chestnut-brown with a creamy white breast, its wings spotted with black. It sits hunched, subdued, its body swaying with the movement of its companion, its familiar (p. 19). As the “hawk-taming youth” (p. 20), comes into full view he sees that the person he has been watching is a young woman. William is either smitten, or just curious, and after leaving his students he finds Agnes to speak with her and see her bird. The bird is alternately described as a hawk and a falcon.
The movie Hamnet opens with the young woman napping in the roots of a gigantic tree. (The movie was shot on location in Herefordshire, England.) She is awakened by a change in the wind, or possibly something else. She rises and inserts her right hand and arm into a falconers glove. She whistles and a hawk flies down to land on her arm. With close-up framing, she speaks to the bird as she feeds it and acknowledges that it’s hungry.
The bird that flies down and lands on Agnes’s arm is a Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus). Now I admit that I was in the theater to see a movie about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and their three children and, as any movie lover, I am no stranger to cinematic privilege. I had forgotten all about Agnes’s hawk in the book. I was immediately distracted by the presence of a Harris’s Hawk in England around the year 1580. How could that have been possible? I believe falconry is still a popular hobby in Great Britain. Why not use a Sparrowhawk or a Goshawk for the scene? Both would have been present in England in the late 1500s. Both are birds trained by falconers. Of course, the Harris’s Hawk was beautiful and beautifully trained and commanded an onscreen presence. The scene appeared to be filmed as it actually occurred. If you go to see Hamnet, and I recommend it, don’t be surprised when a Harris’s Hawk joins the scene.
Hamnet, the movie, moves along quickly and I needed to pay attention. But when I was driving home from the theater I began to think of other movies where I was startled by the inappropriate use of birds—mostly vocalizations. One of my favorite movies of all time, The Shawshank Redemption (1997), based on the novella titled Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King (1982), came immediately to mind. You know the line: “Get busy living or get busy dying.” Yeah, that movie.
In the scene where Red, played by Morgan Freeman, and now finally paroled from Shawshank Prison, follows his escaped friend, Andy Dufresne’s, played by Tim Robbins, request to go to a big farm field with a stone wall along the road, and a big oak tree in the middle, where “no oak tree has a right to be”, there will be something there for Red. “I want you to go there and dig it up.” Red remembers Andy’s request, and from his halfway-house room for paroled prisoners, he hitchhikes to the field. There is no one around and no cars on the narrow, two-lane rural road, but after 40 years in prison, Red is alert and cautious. He is startled by the song of a Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). Now, Shawshank Prison is located in the state of Maine. The halfway-house is likely in Portland, Maine. Why is a Cactus Wren singing in a farm field in Maine? True enough, the Cactus Wren’s song is a very good fit for the drama of the scene. Red finds the tin box and rests his back against the stone wall to open it. He hears the Cactus Wren song again and he gives a cautious look around to be sure he is still alone. In the box Andy has left money and a letter saying “by now, if you are reading this, you’re out of prison” and reminds Red with his location hint. The closing scene has Red purchasing a bus ticket to Fort Hancock, Texas where he will cross over into Mexico to find his friend Andy on the beach repairing an old wooden boat. Great, great movie. You will love the singing Cactus Wren in a Maine farm field.
Cold Mountain, the 2003 movie, based on the 1997 historical novel by Charles Frazier with the same title, is a movie I don’t remember quite as well, but there is one scene that I have not forgotten. The story is based in North Carolina during the Civil War, but the movie was shot in Romania because, apparently, this was the most suitable location the filmmaker could find. The main character, Inman (Jude Law), escapes from his infantry and is walking home along a forested, mountain road in a snowstorm to re-unite with his love, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). In the absolute quiet of this endeavor the song of a Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) is suddenly heard. Now, considering that the movie was shot in Romania, why is a Red-eyed Vireo singing? And, during a snowstorm to boot. Wouldn’t this bird have been in Central or South America by the time the snow fell? I don’t think it would have been so difficult to edit in a more suitable bird vocalization for this scene. A Blue Jay, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a Cardinal … perhaps?
These are the scenes I remembered while I was driving home from the movie. There are, no doubt, countless other examples like this. After I get over my surprise at hearing a Red-eyed Vireo singing in a snowstorm or a Cactus Wren singing in the state of Maine or seeing a Harris’s Hawk in 1580 England, I settle in to enjoy the movie. I’m always grateful to be able to identify such oddities, especially when I know that most viewers (not all!) will never notice.
Cover photo: Not exactly the best photo for the post, but at least it’s a soaring raptor. Golden Eagle taken in Finnmark, Norway in June, 2025.
There weren’t, of course, any Harris’s Hawks in England when Shakespeare was alive. Falconry is still practised in England, with the Goshawk the hawk of choice of those who fly short wings (hawks) and Peregrines favoured by people who fly long wings (falcons). Hybrid falcons are also popular.
Harris’s hawks are kept widely because they are by far the easiest birds to train. They are known as the beginner’s hawk for this reason, and would be much simpler to use as a film prop than a temperamental goshawk.
Many spaghetti westerns feature Griffon Vultures, European birds that you don’t find, of course, in the Wild West. I’ve also heard Nightingales singing in so-called westerns. However, I wonder how many people notice?