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==Faith & Film XIV: Hamnet==
 
==Faith & Film XIV: Hamnet==
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The famous theologian, Karl Barth, once said that a Christian should approach the world with a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. What he was getting at was this:  To reach the world, we must also understand the world, we must be able to speak in its language. In Karl Barth's era, the newspaper was the best tool for accomplishing that. Today, I think it's the films, the movies, the blockbusters that we flock to see in the millions. Films are the great literature and storytelling vehicles of our era. Sometimes those films are good; sometimes they are bad, but always they reflect (and sometimes shape) our culture. Films are mirrors and magnifying glasses to who we are and what we aspire to be.
 
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As Christians, it is our job to be aware of the places where our faith converges with the themes and stories our culture tells, and where we part company, too. It's my hope that in doing this series on faith and film, we can all learn to see the world through the lens of our faith wherever we go, to be amateur theologians, armchair theologians, connectors and interpreters of the scriptures we hold dear, and the world we live in.
 
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With that, let's take a look at our second film this season, Hamnet.
 
  
 
*Film Clip #1: Trailer
 
*Film Clip #1: Trailer
  
 
====Three-Minute Film Summary====
 
====Three-Minute Film Summary====
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I like to begin each film with a brief summary, without giving away too may spoilers.   
+
Hamnet is an historical drama based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name.  The film is set in late-16th-century England and tells a fictionalized account of a real historical event: the death of William Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son Hamnet, and how his family journeys through love and grief and ultimately redemption.
 +
 
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The story centers not only on Shakespeare himself, but very much on his wife, Agnes who is portrayed as a deeply intuitive woman, skilled in herbal medicine, attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, and rumored to be the daughter of a forest-witch.  She meets and marries young William--at the time a Latin tutor--and together they have three children: a daughter, Susanna, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith.
 +
 
 +
As the family grows, William’s talents as a writer begin to draw him away from home.  He spends long stretches of time in London, working in the theater, while Agnes manages the household and the children on her own.  In a season of sickness and plague, their daughter Judith becomes dangerously ill.  Hamnet, her twin, stays close to her, caring for her and trying to protect her.  Hamnet becomes ill, while Judith recovers.  Hamnet dies at the age of eleven.
 +
 
 +
The remainder of the film follows the family as they grieve, as Agnes and William's relationship becomes strained, and as both try to make sense of things in their own separate ways.  Eventually, Agnes goes to London to see William's new play, a tragedy called "Hamlet."  She is at first angry, thinking her son's name is being profaned.  But as William's love and grief become clear through the scenes of the play, and as she watches the audience embrace (and grieve) her son, she finds peace and joy enough to go on.
 +
 
 +
====He Will Not Return to Me====
 +
This is a beautiful but difficult film, and it deals with one of the most profound and difficult kinds of grief--the loss of a child. Our scripture passage from 2nd Samuel tells a similar story: How King David pleads with God to save the life of his child with Bathsheba, how the child dies, and how David in time resigns himself to the idea that while his child can no longer come to him, someday he will go to his child.  What makes this kind of loss so poignant--in the Bible, in fiction, and in reality--is that it seems to go against the natural order of things. We expect to outlive our children, not the other way around.  But David acknowledges that power over life and death belongs solely to God. We never really understand it, or God's timing; we can only learn in time to accept it, and to appreciate what precious time we are given.  In the film, Shakespeare's mother (who has lost three of her own children) comments on this:
 +
 
 +
*Film Clip #2: Given and Taken
 +
 
 +
She's quoting indirectly from Job 1:21 - "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Both David's story and the Book of Job remind us that grief and loss, while devastating and unexplainable, go hand in hand with life. Others have walked that difficult path before us, and so we do not walk alone.
 +
 
 +
====Through a Glass, Darkly====
 +
Agnes has the ability to see things, to read a person's future by touching a certain part of the hand.  But while her visions are technically correct, they are often limited, and therefore misleading.  For example she has always known that she will have two children, because she sees them standing over her at her deathbed.  And so she is surprised and confused when her second child turns out to be twins, for a total of three.  What she does not see is that one of them will die.  Likewise, when she touches her husband's hand she sees in his future oceans and landscapes, undiscovered countries.  Shakespeare never actually visits any of those things... and yet the vision is true, because he creates them for others in his plays.  In the following clip, Agnes comforts her son after his father leaves for London, and glimpses what she thinks is his future:
 +
 
 +
*Film Clip #3 - What Do You See?
 +
 
 +
Of course we know that what she is seeing is really her son immortalized through her husband's play. Shakespeare famously wrote that "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." Long before that, the apostle Paul wrote that "for now we see as through a glass darkly: but then shall we see face to face. Now I know in part: but then shall I know fully, even as I am fully known."  Sometimes God reveals things to us, and sometimes we think in our own limited wisdom that we understand how things are supposed to work.  But as people of faith, we also know there is a greater truth, a deeper understanding, a more vibrant reality yet to come that will make this life seem like a pale reflection, or like a staged play.
  
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====Theme 1====
+
====I Stand at the Door====
 +
One of the most beautiful and striking motifs in this film is the repeated image of the door, or the window, silhouetted in light or darkness. I'm going to run through a bunch of clips pointing out several of them, and commenting along the way.
  
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*Film Clip #2:
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*Film Clip #4 - Doors-1 (First meeting)
 +
*Film Clip #5 - Doors-2 (Mother's glove)
 +
*Film Clip #6 - Doors-3 (Wedding)
 +
*Film Clip #7 - Doors-4 (Firstborn)
 +
*Film Clip #8 - Doors-5 (Death of Hawk)
 +
*Film Clip #9 - Doors-6 (Death of Hamnet)
 +
*Film Clip #10 - Doors-7 (Building the set)
 +
*Film Clip #11 - Doors-8 (Entering the theater)
 +
*Film Clip #12 - Doors-9 (Entrance of Hamlet)
 +
*Film Clip #13 - Doors-10 (Exit of Hamnet)
  
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====Theme 2====
+
All the doors in the film represent both life and death.  Life and light is on one side of the door; death and darkness is on the other side.  The characters in the film are continually coming and going, either into the light, or into the darkness. Of course, as Christians, we know it's not really darkness on the other side of this life--it just seems that way: We cannot see or understand what's on the other side.  But it's not completely hidden from us, because we know someone who walked through the door, and then walked back out again into the light. 
  
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*Film Clip #3:
+
Jesus, in Revelation 3, says. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sit with my father on his throne."  Jesus is the light the darkness could not overcome, and he calls us to be light and life to this world.  Because of him, we can face death without fear, much like Hamnet does at the end of the film.
  
 +
====And a Little Child Shall Lead Them====
 +
Hamnet also happens to be... our first Christ type of the year.  In case you missed that, here's the giveaway clip, as Hamnet crawls into bed with his dying sister, in order to trick death into taking him instead of her. 
  
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*Film Clip #4:
+
*Film Clip #14 - Breathe With Me
  
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====Theme 3====
+
Hamnet is the savior who comes into the world as a child, who takes death upon himself so that we might live, and who is later brought back to life again, made immortal by his father.  Through his death and rebirth, he shows us the way, he heals the brokenhearted, and his story is told and retold in every age.
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*Film Clip #5:
+
  
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*Film Clip #6:
+
Hamnet is widely regarded as one of the best films of the past year.
 +
Hamlet (the play which inspired the film) is widely regarded as Shakespeare's greatest play.
 +
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer of all time.
 +
And his greatest story draws deep inspiration from the greatest story ever told. 
  
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====Theme 4====
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Which is God's story.  And our story. 
 +
The story of love that conquers death.
 +
A story that is more true, and more real than all of our realities this side of heaven.
 +
May that story continue to inspire you and transform you, wherever you encounter it, just as it has the greatest among us.

Latest revision as of 00:37, 11 January 2026

2 Samuel 12:15b-23 (OT p.285)

The Lord struck the child whom Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill. 16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 The elders of his house stood beside him urging him to rise from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” 19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead, and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”

20 Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped; he then went to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ 23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Faith & Film XIV: Hamnet

  • Film Clip #1: Trailer

Three-Minute Film Summary

Hamnet is an historical drama based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name. The film is set in late-16th-century England and tells a fictionalized account of a real historical event: the death of William Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son Hamnet, and how his family journeys through love and grief and ultimately redemption.

The story centers not only on Shakespeare himself, but very much on his wife, Agnes who is portrayed as a deeply intuitive woman, skilled in herbal medicine, attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, and rumored to be the daughter of a forest-witch. She meets and marries young William--at the time a Latin tutor--and together they have three children: a daughter, Susanna, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith.

As the family grows, William’s talents as a writer begin to draw him away from home. He spends long stretches of time in London, working in the theater, while Agnes manages the household and the children on her own. In a season of sickness and plague, their daughter Judith becomes dangerously ill. Hamnet, her twin, stays close to her, caring for her and trying to protect her. Hamnet becomes ill, while Judith recovers. Hamnet dies at the age of eleven.

The remainder of the film follows the family as they grieve, as Agnes and William's relationship becomes strained, and as both try to make sense of things in their own separate ways. Eventually, Agnes goes to London to see William's new play, a tragedy called "Hamlet." She is at first angry, thinking her son's name is being profaned. But as William's love and grief become clear through the scenes of the play, and as she watches the audience embrace (and grieve) her son, she finds peace and joy enough to go on.

He Will Not Return to Me

This is a beautiful but difficult film, and it deals with one of the most profound and difficult kinds of grief--the loss of a child. Our scripture passage from 2nd Samuel tells a similar story: How King David pleads with God to save the life of his child with Bathsheba, how the child dies, and how David in time resigns himself to the idea that while his child can no longer come to him, someday he will go to his child. What makes this kind of loss so poignant--in the Bible, in fiction, and in reality--is that it seems to go against the natural order of things. We expect to outlive our children, not the other way around. But David acknowledges that power over life and death belongs solely to God. We never really understand it, or God's timing; we can only learn in time to accept it, and to appreciate what precious time we are given. In the film, Shakespeare's mother (who has lost three of her own children) comments on this:

  • Film Clip #2: Given and Taken

She's quoting indirectly from Job 1:21 - "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Both David's story and the Book of Job remind us that grief and loss, while devastating and unexplainable, go hand in hand with life. Others have walked that difficult path before us, and so we do not walk alone.

Through a Glass, Darkly

Agnes has the ability to see things, to read a person's future by touching a certain part of the hand. But while her visions are technically correct, they are often limited, and therefore misleading. For example she has always known that she will have two children, because she sees them standing over her at her deathbed. And so she is surprised and confused when her second child turns out to be twins, for a total of three. What she does not see is that one of them will die. Likewise, when she touches her husband's hand she sees in his future oceans and landscapes, undiscovered countries. Shakespeare never actually visits any of those things... and yet the vision is true, because he creates them for others in his plays. In the following clip, Agnes comforts her son after his father leaves for London, and glimpses what she thinks is his future:

  • Film Clip #3 - What Do You See?

Of course we know that what she is seeing is really her son immortalized through her husband's play. Shakespeare famously wrote that "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." Long before that, the apostle Paul wrote that "for now we see as through a glass darkly: but then shall we see face to face. Now I know in part: but then shall I know fully, even as I am fully known." Sometimes God reveals things to us, and sometimes we think in our own limited wisdom that we understand how things are supposed to work. But as people of faith, we also know there is a greater truth, a deeper understanding, a more vibrant reality yet to come that will make this life seem like a pale reflection, or like a staged play.

I Stand at the Door

One of the most beautiful and striking motifs in this film is the repeated image of the door, or the window, silhouetted in light or darkness. I'm going to run through a bunch of clips pointing out several of them, and commenting along the way.

  • Film Clip #4 - Doors-1 (First meeting)
  • Film Clip #5 - Doors-2 (Mother's glove)
  • Film Clip #6 - Doors-3 (Wedding)
  • Film Clip #7 - Doors-4 (Firstborn)
  • Film Clip #8 - Doors-5 (Death of Hawk)
  • Film Clip #9 - Doors-6 (Death of Hamnet)
  • Film Clip #10 - Doors-7 (Building the set)
  • Film Clip #11 - Doors-8 (Entering the theater)
  • Film Clip #12 - Doors-9 (Entrance of Hamlet)
  • Film Clip #13 - Doors-10 (Exit of Hamnet)

All the doors in the film represent both life and death. Life and light is on one side of the door; death and darkness is on the other side. The characters in the film are continually coming and going, either into the light, or into the darkness. Of course, as Christians, we know it's not really darkness on the other side of this life--it just seems that way: We cannot see or understand what's on the other side. But it's not completely hidden from us, because we know someone who walked through the door, and then walked back out again into the light.

Jesus, in Revelation 3, says. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sit with my father on his throne." Jesus is the light the darkness could not overcome, and he calls us to be light and life to this world. Because of him, we can face death without fear, much like Hamnet does at the end of the film.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

Hamnet also happens to be... our first Christ type of the year. In case you missed that, here's the giveaway clip, as Hamnet crawls into bed with his dying sister, in order to trick death into taking him instead of her.

  • Film Clip #14 - Breathe With Me

Hamnet is the savior who comes into the world as a child, who takes death upon himself so that we might live, and who is later brought back to life again, made immortal by his father. Through his death and rebirth, he shows us the way, he heals the brokenhearted, and his story is told and retold in every age.

Hamnet is widely regarded as one of the best films of the past year. Hamlet (the play which inspired the film) is widely regarded as Shakespeare's greatest play. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer of all time. And his greatest story draws deep inspiration from the greatest story ever told.

Which is God's story. And our story. The story of love that conquers death. A story that is more true, and more real than all of our realities this side of heaven. May that story continue to inspire you and transform you, wherever you encounter it, just as it has the greatest among us.

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