Watership Down is a 1978 animated film written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the book by Richard Adams. It was financed by a consortium of British financial institutions. Originally released October 19, 1978 the film was an immediate success and it became the sixth most popular film of 1979 at the British box office.[1]
The film was rated PG by the MPAA, and featured the voices of John Hurt, Richard Briers, Harry Andrews, Simon Cadell, Nigel Hawthorne and Roy Kinnear, among others, and was the last film appearance of Zero Mostel, as the voice of Kehaar the gull.
Art Garfunkel's British No. 1 hit, "Bright Eyes", which was written by British singer and songwriter Mike Batt, was also included. The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson.
After the genesis story rendered in a narrated simple cartoon fashion, the animation style changes to a detailed, naturalist one, with concessions to render the animals anthropomorphic only to suggest they have human voices and minds, some facial expressions for emotion and paw gestures. The animation backgrounds are watercolours. Only one of the predators, the farm cat, is given a few lines, the rest remaining mute.
Synopsis
Set in the English countryside, Watership Down opens with a narrated prologue establishing the Lapine culture and mythology, describing the creation of the world by the sun god "Lord Frith", who gives many animals many characteristics, but makes the rabbits and their prince, "El-ahrairah" agile, friendly, and tame, creatures. When Frith warns El-ahrairah to control his family birth rate, the prince scoffs at his warning. Therefore, Frith gives each animal a gift, turning some into predators that hunt down and eat many of the rabbit prince's descendants. Frith's gift to the rabbits is speed and cunning; all creatures may seek to kill El-ahriarah and his descendants, but the rabbits may survive by their wits and their quickness.
The film then switches from the stylized narrative to a realistic-looking story for the remainder of the film. Fiver, a young runt rabbit with prophetic abilities, foresees the end of his peaceful rabbit warren and asks others to leave with him. Fiver and his older brother Hazel attempt to persuade their chief rabbit to have the warren evacuated and moved elsewhere, but they are dismissed, and attempt to recruit individuals instead. The group meets resistance from the warren's Owsla, or military, but eight manage to fight and escape: Fiver, Hazel, the burly ex-Owsla officer Bigwig, the cunning Blackberry, the smallest rabbit Pipkin, Dandelion, Silver, and the only female, Violet. Eventually, the rabbits stop to rest at a nearby field, where Violet is killed by a nearby hawk.
After crossing a road, evading a hunting dog, and escaping from a rat-infested cemetery, the band meets a rabbit named Cowslip, who comes from a warren of what appears to be friendly rabbits. The rabbits are invited inside Cowslip's warren for food. The majority of the group is content and grateful for shelter, but Fiver senses something wrong and soon leaves. Bigwig follows him, taunting, but becomes caught in a snare. Fiver attempts to get help from Cowslip and the rest of his warren, but he is dismissed. The Sandleford rabbits discover that the warren is fed by a farmer, who occasionally snares rabbits in return for his food and care from predators. Bigwig passes out, still trapped, and after he is released the rabbits assume he is dead; however, he awakens moments later. On Fiver's advice, the band moves on with a profound new respect for the seer's wisdom.
The rabbits discover Nuthanger farm, which contains a hutch of female rabbits. Hazel realizes that females will be needed to begin a new warren, but the rabbits are forced to leave by the appearance of the farm's cat and dog. Hazel promises to return, and the rabbits set off again. They are unexpectedly found by the Sandleford's Owsla Captain, Holly, who is injured and at the point of death. He recounts the destruction of the Sandleford warren, proving Fiver's visions to be true, and collapses after mentioning a warren called Efrafa. Shortly after, Fiver discovers the hill Watership Down, where the rabbits discover an empty space suitable to live in.
They settle in, developing their own warren, and Hazel is informally recognized as Chief Rabbit. They befriend an acerbic injured seagull, Kehaar, who offers to survey the local area for females. Meanwhile, the rabbits return to Nuthanger farm to free the does, but as they make their escape, Hazel is shot by a farmhand and presumed dead. Fiver, following a vision telling him that his brother is alive, returns to the farm just in time to find and save Hazel. Kehaar returns, having found Efrafa as a main warren which may have females. Holly, who knows of Efrafa, begs them not to go there, describing it as a highly militarized and totalitarian state. Hazel, however, feels they have no choice but to seek does. Bigwig decides to infiltrate the colony. He meets the Chief Rabbit, the powerful General Woundwort, who makes him an officer of the warren. Bigwig easily recruits several would-be escapees to his cause. Among them are Hyzenthlay, an outspoken, rebellious doe, and Blackavar, a male rabbit who was wounded and permanently scarred by Efrafa's Owsla to be an example in order to dissuade any rebellious rabbits. They soon flee Efrafa, with the help of Kehaar and the other Watership Rabbits. However, their union is short-lived. Efrafa's trackers find their trail several days later, following them to Watership Down, and the General himself has come to recapture the escapees.
Hazel attempts to reason and offers an alliance, but when he is refused, he decides to fight. The Watership rabbits dig themselves into their own warren to be safe and are besieged. In all the commotion, Fiver slips into a trance, in which he envisions "a dog loose in the woods". His moans scare the Efrafans, but he inspires Hazel to free the dog from Nuthanger and lead him to the warren to attack the Efrafans. Several of the rabbits taunt the dog into following them uphill, where the dog will be let upon the Efrafans. When the Efrafans finally break into Watership Down, Woundwort jumps in first. Blackavar attacks him, but Woundwort quickly overwhelms and kills him. Woundwort is soon ambushed by Bigwig, and the two fight to near exhaustion. Woundwort tries to persuade Bigwig to surrender, but Bigwig defies him. Suddenly, the farm dog arrives, having been led to the warren by Hyzenthlay; the dog goes into a blood-rage and quickly kills most of the Efrafan rabbits. The General emerges and leaps to attack the dog; later, no trace of him is found, and his memory becomes a ghost story used by rabbit parents to frighten their children into obedience. All of the rabbits of Watership Down are safe at last.
The epilogue shows the warren several years later. Hazel is old and tired, but his warren is thriving. As stories of the warren's early exploits—distorted and mythologized—are retold in the background by new rabbits, he is visited by a shadowy shape he cannot make out. He asks Hazel 'You know me don't you?' to which Hazel replies 'I don't'. The rabbit then reveals himself to be El-ahrairah, the mythological rabbit trickster,to which Hazel gasps and excitedly answers 'Yes my lord, I know you!' El-ahrairah then invites Hazel to join his Owsla, he tells Hazel that he shall be glad to have him and he thinks he will like it there. He also comments that Hazel is looking tired and that he thinks he is ready to come along. Hazel sadly looks at all his friends and family in his Warren before El-ahrairah tells him not to worry about them and that they will be perfectly alright without him. Hazel subsequently falls asleep on the grass and peacefully passes away. In a reprise of other mystical scenes in the film; Hazel discards his body and follows El-ahrairah through the woodland and trees towards the sun—which metamorphoses into Frith—and into the afterlife.
As Hazel and El-ahrirah fly through the air, the narrator announces the movies famous quote; 'All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner. Prince with a swift warning. Be cunning and your people will never be destroyed'.
Comparison to the novel
Similarities
Unlike many animated features, the film faithfully emulated the dark and violent sophistication of the book. As a result, many reviewers took to warning parents that children might find the content highly disturbing. This attitude extended to when the animated TV series was marketed with the producers making an effort to reassure parents that the violence was softened and that the main characters would not be permanently harmed in their adventures.
Some marketers in the U.S. were also worried that the main promotional poster (see above) appeared too dark and may scare some children. The poster is actually showing Bigwig in a snare (his distinctive hair is clearly visible), and the image on the poster does not appear in the film, which has a far bloodier depiction of the scene.
Differences
Although the film was fairly faithful to the novel, several changes were made to the storyline:
- The Watership Down warren is significantly smaller in the movie at the time of their expedition to Efrafa. By that point in the book it had grown to seventeen rabbits: the original eleven plus Strawberry (who joined them from Cowslip's warren), two other Sandleford survivors (Holly and Bluebell), and three hutch rabbits liberated from the farm (Clover, Boxwood, and Haystack). In the movie they are still only a band of eight—the original seven plus Holly.
- In the novel, Hazel and his companions dig Watership Down Warren themselves, under the direction of Strawberry. In the film, Blackberry finds an empty warren already dug that they move into.
- In the novel, Hazel's band learns of Efrafra some time after they have settled at Watership Down. Here in the film, Holly intercepts them and tells them of Efrafra before they reach the down.
- In the film a doe named Violet is added to the original warren. She has a very minor role and only has about four lines of dialogue, and she is killed the second day of the journey when she wanders away from the rest of the group and is snatched by a hawk. She didn't exist in the novel.
- In the film, Blackavar is killed by General Woundwort; in the novel this does not happen.
- In the novel, when Holly finds the group he says he was attacked by Cowslip. However, in the film, it was the Efrafans who attacked Holly. It is also never explained how Holly got into Efrafra in the first place, since in the book it is a good further way off from Sandleford than Watership Down is.
- In the novel, after the Sandleford escapees spend the night in a beanfield, Pipkin is attacked by a crow. This incident is replaced with a scene in which a rabbit called Violet, who never existed in the novel, is killed by a hawk.
- In the novel, Hazel and Pipkin successfully free three of the hutch rabbits (two does and one buck) from Nuthanger farm. In the film they are quickly interrupted and forced to flee before doing so.
- In the film, Hyzenthlay is given a more heroic role, aiding in luring the dog back to the warren (saving Blackberry's life in the process); in the novel she is only mentioned during the siege as being "heavily pregnant".
These changes were most likely made to make the film easier to understand. Several characters were also taken away from the film (probably so there would be fewer characters to keep track of). In the book, eleven rabbits go on the trek to Watership Down; in the film, eight leave (but seven survive).
Also, the order in which some events occur is re-arranged, and the length of time spent in different places is changed. For example: in the movie, Pipkin and Hazel make their first visit to Nuthanger farm during the journey to Watership Down. In the book, they make their first visit much later, after the journey is over and they've been settled on Watership Down for a while. Additionally, in the movie the rabbits find Holly before finding the down, whereas in the novel they find him later.
And some characterizations are changed. For instance, the character of Silver takes on some of the attributes and actions of the absent Hawkbit, and Dandelion's primary roles in the book as the group's best scout and storyteller are almost entirely absent; his storytelling ability is alluded to a couple of times, but he never actually tells a story or does any scouting in the movie. The poetry recited by Silverweed is instead said by Cowslip himself and Silverweed is only alluded to as "one of our poets".
Music
The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson, Morley replacing Williamson after the composer had fallen behind and only composed the prelude and main title theme in sketch form.[2] A list of the musical cues for the film can be found on the composer's website, which also gives information about the different composers working on the project.[3]
The soundtrack also featured Art Garfunkel's British No. 1 hit, "Bright Eyes", which was written by British singer and songwriter Mike Batt (although in a different arrangement from the one released as a single). Batt also wrote other songs for the film which were not used. The composer recorded three songs with vocals by Art Garfunkel, but only "Bright Eyes" made it to the film. The song "When You're Losing Your Way in the Rain" has a very similar feeling and arrangement, and was recorded by ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone in 1979. Art Garfunkel's was heard years later, on the TV series soundtrack released in 2000. The song (like many others which appeared on the TV soundtrack) was never used in the show.
Another song, "Watership Down", was written by Gerry Beckley of America for use as the theme song. It was never used, but the band recorded it for their 1976 album, Hideaway. An alternate mix can be found on the box set Highway.
Critical acclaim
To date, the film has received a generally positive critical reception, with an 81% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a rating of 67% from select critics.[1] The movie was nominated for Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1979. In 2004, the magazine Total Film named Watership Down the 47th greatest British film of all time and it was also ranked 15th in the "100 Greatest Tearjerkers".
Picture book
A picture book of the animated film was also produced, titled The Watership Down Film Picture Book. Two editions of the book were published, one a hard-cover, the other a reinforced cloth-bound edition. The contents include multiple stills from the film linked with a combination of narration and extracts from the script, as well as a preface written by Richard Adams and a foreword written by Martin Rosen.
DVD releases
- Watership Down Deluxe Edition (Region 1, USA) (October 7, 2008)[4]
- Watership Down Deluxe Edition (Region 2, UK) (2005)
- Watership Down 25th Anniversary Edition (Region 4, Australia) (2003)
- Watership Down (Region 1, USA, currently out of print) (2002)
Major cast
Notes
External links
