Why I love “Watership Down”.
Every person under the sun can usually agree that there was at least one film they watched growing up that they say “messed them up”. Often times it was some film from the eighties or nineties where age ratings where held very fast and loose. The line between “G” and “PG” was exceptionally blurred, exposing developing minds to traumatic scenes and films that would not see the light of day in today’s climate for kid films.
The most notorious example, if some even remember it, is the 1978 British animated film “Watership Down”, based on the novel written by Richard Adams.
My focus will not be on the book which I haven’t read yet, or the new Netflix series I haven’t watched. No, I will be divulging why I love the original film that I watched many a time in my early years.
Those who are familiar with the animated feature, can certainly attest that it is not as charming and carefree as the animation may lead you to believe.
The epic follows the journey of a group of rabbits, lead by Hazel (voiced by a young John Hurt), who break away from the rest of their warren near Berkshire, under fear that a great tragedy is about to fall upon the warren. This premonition is discovered by Fiver, Hazel’s brother, who has a certain sixth sense for these sorts of things.
The group of rabbits then seek new sanctuary in the form of a new warren near a place called Watership Down, all the while being plagued, chased, and tormented relentlessly by every single living danger that threatens the everyday lives of rabbits and hares alike.
Birds of prey with sharp talons, badgers, foxes, cats, bloodthirsty dogs, and most especially humans, with all their man-made by-products, prove to be obstacles in the path of our long-eared friends. This story really presses the lens onto how perilous the life of a rabbit is, and how many enemies they have that seek to destroy them.
It is made so clear that the life of a rabbit can be snatched away so easily by the hand of nature, such as losing poor Violet at the hands of a falcon.
Even other rabbits from other warrens are a danger too, including a rival warren the rabbits encounter that rules like a tyrannical dictatorship, subjugating its citizens like an Orwellian nightmare. The leader of this warren, General Woundwort, proves to be the greatest villain in this saga, second only to the whole rest of the world that despises rabbits with a passion.
The movie does not sugar-coat this brutality either. Death, blood, and violence are not in short supply throughout the film. Five-year-old Daniel witnessed fluffy cartoon bunnies being ripped to shreds by a Rottweiler with blood on its lips, and rabbits being trapped underground and suffocating among dead bodies after humans filled in the burrows to clear them away, like pests. In spite of this, as a young kid, I don’t I had the frame of reference yet to understand the dark intensity of what I was watching. In a way, it made me far more tolerable of other chilling films like it from there on out. “Gremlins”, “The Witches”, and watching Artex sink in “The Neverending Story”, are a walk in the park when “Watership Down” is your benchmark.
But despite how dark “Watership Down”, may have gotten at times, contrary to popular belief, It didn’t “mess me up” like how others would assume. And I believe that it carries messages and truths that everyone should hold to themselves in life, most especially in children.
From beginning to end, “Watership Down” makes it very clear that the entire world is out to get rabbits. Every living creature the main characters encounter is either an irritating pest like the rats in the shed, deceitful and backstabbing like fellow rabbits from other warrens, or life-threatening like dogs and humans. The exception of course being the brash and hot-headed seabird Kehaar, who hails from “Beeg Wataa!”, and soon proves to be a valuable ally.
Yet, despite all that stands in their way, Hazel and his friends persevere over it all, through both cunning and trickery to deceive their enemies. It proves, firstly, that sometimes, life and the world is not always a beautiful or caring place.
In the worst case, it can be cruel, unforgiving, unfair and punishing upon oneself. That’s a very powerful message to deliver to kids, but one that may prove more valuable in the long run for their sake if they hope to get by in life.
But though such a world may be cruel, that doesn’t mean that we have to be. Hazel proves to be an exceptional leader among his peers, seeing the strengths and weaknesses of everyone and coordinates them accordingly. A good and true friend is worth its weight in gold against a cruel world, like Kehaar. Not to mention, that sometimes, there is more than one way to defeat an enemy or an obstacle. Rabbits know that they cannot best their foes by strength or power alone. Even their own culture and faith values the skills that keep their race alive.
The legendary rabbit prince of rabbit folklore, El-ahrairah, teaches them these values. Swiftness, alertness, teamwork, cunning, deceit and trickery.
Instead of pulling ourselves down for our flaws, we must take advantages of our strengths. It was how our rabbits managed to navigate a forest filled with predators, how they released a bunch of does from a human hutch to lead them to freedom at Watership Down, and it was how they managed to turn a rabid dog upon the rival warren that sought to wipe them off the face of the earth. All facing enemies that were often vastly bigger, stronger and sometimes just as fast as them.
And I certainly cannot say enough justice and praise to the beautiful and soul-bearing soundtrack by Angela Morley, that captures the woeful uncertainty of a dangerous world, yet with crescendos of hope weaved in between.
And hope, while it is an overplayed and overstated virtue, is one I believe that resonates most fervently with “Watership Down”. Even when everyone believes that Hazel died when he was shot after escaping the human hutch, Fiver never lost faith, and found him shortly thereafter, led by the elusive and haunting ‘Black Rabbit of Inle’, the Grim Reaper of the rabbit world.
Even when things seem dark and beyond redemption, it is always imperative to remember that there is still goodness and beauty in this world. Goodness that, we can hopefully assure outweighs the bad.
Watership Down, the place, is an absolute paradise of a warren for the rabbits, both geographically and based on survival. It’s separated from the human world, raised very high so you can see the world all around (and rabbits value such a wide vigil), and natural predators are virtually non-existent.
Symbolically, Watership Down is that beacon of hope, a beacon of happiness, that makes Hazel and company strive to keep fighting and to keep pushing on despite everything that stands in their way.
And their efforts are finally rewarded, for Hazel and co.’s efforts to secure Watership Down, ensures the happy lives of many generations thereafter. The fight was worth it.
It’s that hope for a better life, free of danger and pain, that reflects our own lives to a T. To simply remember that for as long as there is still good to be found in the world, it is worth fighting for. And with a little bit of cunning and skill, we can find our Watership Down too.
Rest in Peace, Richard Adams.
“My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today."
Thank you for reading and have a beautiful day.
Daniel
