Watership Down

This evening I shall settle down to watch the film of Richard Adam's novel again, this time on TV. I am reminded that when we went to see it at the cinema I asked 'Are we the only adults coming to see it?' In my view it is an adult book and film.

Watership Down is an animated film directed by Martin Rosen and based on the book by Richard Adams. It was released in 1978 and was largely financed by Jake Eberts' company, Goldcrest Films. After a slow start upon release, it became the sixth most popular film of 1979 at the British box office.

The film 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", was also featured, although in a different arrangement from the version released as a record. The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson.

Synopsis

The movie is fairly faithful to the book of the same title. It begins with an animated prologue (by John Canemaker), which establishes the Lapine culture and folklore history used by both the book and film for their context. It describes the rabbit version of Creation, in which the sun god "Lord Frith" creates the world, and in a mixed blessing, deems the mischievous rabbit prince El-ahrairah and his descendants to be forever hunted but forever agile survivors.

The story is set in the English countryside. A peaceful rabbit warren is disrupted by the concerns of the mystic runt Fiver, who foresees the end of the warren and persuades others to leave with him. Despite the disparaging view and wishes of the Chief Rabbit, several rabbits set off only to be largely prevented by the warren's Owsla, or police. The eight remaining—including Fiver's older brother Hazel and the burly ex-Owsla officer Bigwig—are then confronted by Captain Holly, but he is forcefully prevented from deterring them and returns to the warren unsuccessful.

After various adventures, the band (less Violet, who is snatched by a hawk) reaches a warren which appears to be inhabited by friendly rabbits. Fiver is suspicious and senses something wrong; the rest are grateful and ridicule him as being paranoid. Disillusioned, he leaves; Bigwig goes to seek him, and is caught in a snare. The price for the warren's existence is the taboo subject that in exchange for the local farmers putting food out, they will occasionally trap rabbits. Shocked, the band move on rather than stay.

They discover Nuthanger farm, which contains a hutch of domesticated female rabbits as well as other animals, including a cat and dog, and unexpectedly are found by Captain Holly of their old warren. He is in extremis, injured, exhausted and in shock. He tells of the destruction of the warren and the horror he miraculously survived. He then mentions a warren he found called Efrafa but he collapses before he can say any more. Shortly after, Fiver finds the home he had always felt was waiting for them—Watership Down. The rabbits eagerly ascend the steep climb to miraculously discover an empty space suitable to live in.

The rabbits settle in, developing their own warren. Hazel is informally recognized as their Chief Rabbit: Hazel-rah. They befriend an acerbic injured seagull, Kehaar, who observes they have no females, and offers to survey the local area for them when healed. He is absent a long time; the rabbits fearing he has abandoned them return to Nuthanger farm to free the does. Although some escape, Hazel is shot and injured, but manages to conceal himself before collapsing; back at the warren, Fiver is not convinced that Hazel is dead. In an abstract scene covered by the iconic song "Bright Eyes," the Black Rabbit of Inle, the Lapine personification of death, is portrayed as leading Fiver to find Hazel, who finally returns to the warren and slowly heals.

Kehaar returns having identified Efrafa as the main warren which may have females. Holly, who knows of Efrafa, begs them not to go there, describing it as highly militarized and almost fascist in its paranoid protection of the state and in its crushing, rigid control of its citizens. Hazel, however, feels they have no choice but to seek does from Efrafa for their own long term survival as a warren.

A number of the warren visit Efrafa, and Bigwig stays to infiltrate the colony. He meets the Chief Rabbit, the powerful General Woundwort, who is impressed at his size and strength, and makes him an officer of the warren, responsible for compliance and behavior of the rabbits there. Meanwhile Hazel, Blackberry, and Kehaar are exploring possible escape routes for future use. Bigwig finds that beneath the surface, there is much discontent, and easily recruits several would-be escapees to his cause. Having arranged a meeting point with Kehaar, at sunset, Bigwig tackles the guard, whilst the rest of the escapees flee, the Efrafans close behind. Kehaar attacks the Efrafans at a key moment, after which the Watership rabbits use a boat to cross a stream, evading pursuit and leaving the Efrafan guards confounded.

Some days later, however, it transpires that Efrafa's trackers have found their trail, and the General himself is coming with a hand-picked group to avenge himself and recapture the escapees. Despite fear, the rabbits decide to fight rather than capitulate. Hazel attempts to reason and offers an alliance of warrens rather than conflict, but is dismissed and told to tell the warren to surrender or be killed. The Watership rabbits dig themselves in and are beseiged; Fiver then slips into a trance in which he envisions "a dog loose in the woods." His moans scare the Efrafans, but also inspires Hazel to free the dog from the farm and lead him to the warren to attack the Efrafans. Dedicated to killing Bigwig, the General is unconcerned and allows Hazel and three others to bolt; en route to the farm, Hazel offers his life for his warren's in a silent prayer. They free the dog and taunt him to follow them uphill, but Hazel is caught by the farm cat—only to be saved by the farmer's daughter.

The Efrafans finally breaks into the warren, Woundwort diving in first, and is ambushed by Bigwig. They fight to near exhaustion. Woundwort tries to persuade Bigwig to surrender, asking why he chooses to fight an unwinnable battle; Bigwig shocks the General by replying, "My Chief told me to defend this run." Woundwort stammers "Your ... Chief?"—having assumed that was Bigwig, and now imagining a rabbit yet bigger and stronger. Suddenly, the dog arrives, and rapidly kills most of the General's soldiers. The General emerges and leaps to attack the dog.… No trace of him is found, and his memory becomes a ghost story used by rabbit parents to frighten their children into obedience.

The epilogue shows the warren some 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, he is visited by a shadowy shape he cannot make out. The rabbit reveals himself to be the Black Rabbit of Inlé (or "Death") and, it is implied, El-ahrairah, inviting Hazel to join his Owsla. In a reprise of other mystical scenes in the film, Hazel discards his body and follows the Black Rabbit towards the sun—which metamorphoses into Frith—and into the lapine afterlife.

Richard George Adams (born May 9, 1920) is an English novelist who is best known as the writer of three novels featuring animal characters, in particular Watership Down and to a lesser extent Shardik and The Plague Dogs.

Life and work

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire. He served in the British Army from 1940 until 1946, during World War II. He was given a Class B discharge to continue his studies and in 1948 he received a master's degree from Worcester College at Oxford University. He was a senior civil servant who worked as an Assistant Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, later part of the Department of the Environment, from 1948 to 1974. Since 1974, following publication of his second novel, Shardik, he has been a full-time author.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamund, and they insisted he publish it as a book. It took two years to write and was rejected by thirteen publishers. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972. To date, Adams' best-known work has sold over 50 million copies world-wide, earning him more than all his other books put together.

As of 1982, he was President of the RSPCA.

He also contested the 1983 general election, standing as an Independent Conservative in the Spelthorne constituency on a platform of opposition to fox hunting.

He now lives, with his wife, Elizabeth, in Whitchurch, Hampshire, within 10 miles of his birthplace.