Watership Down: My Thoughts

Watership Down is an animated feature film about a group of rabbits who escape an oppressive society with a dictator-like chief and start their own colony in freedom. (It's also a novel, but I haven't read the book). Although it's appropriate for children, adults would like it more. You'd think a movie about talking animals would be silly and juvenile, but no. There are only a few comic moments; it's pretty serious. The animation is lovely. This was the era of hand-drawn animation; it has all the charm of classic Disney animation but everything, particularly the scenery, looks more natural.

Basics:

Title: Watership Down
Year: 1978
Rating: PG

Setting: 20th century English countryside

Main Characters:

Fiver: respected prophet
Hazel: Fiver's brother, well-spoken natural leader
Bigwig: the chief's former guard, brave and tough

Plot:

Fiver sees an alarming vision in which the fields surrounding his warren are covered in blood (He doesn't know it, but the land is going to be developed soon). He tells his brother, who believes him, and together they warn the other rabbits of impending danger. They go to the chief to warn him and to suggest that they move the warren, but the chief doesn't listen. Fiver, Hazel, and a few other rabbits who trust Fiver, sneak away that very night. They then take a long, perilous journey full of narrow escapes from predators, other wild rabbits who try to lure them into human snares, and even one death (She's the only girl rabbit who went along and she's snatched up by a hawk). Hazel and Fiver don't have an exact destination in mind, and the hardships almost cause the other rabbits to turn back. Then they meet a lone rabbit from their old warren who tells them about all the horrors that happened back home when their burrows were destroyed. Eventually, they establish a new warren safe in the hills. Their only problem is that they have no does, so they head for a neighboring warren, Ephrathah, which is infamous for punishing its dissenters harshly. Bigwig infiltrates the warren, where he gains a place in the guard. Then one evening he leads all the rabbits there who want to escape, including several does, to freedom. The General and some of his fiercest guards pursue them. There is a scuffle, but they get away that time, only for their enemy to attack after they've safely reached their warren. The rabbits rely on their cunning and the lessons they've learned from previous dangers they've encountered to defeat the General and live in peace.

Themes:

Good citizens are united with their community rather than submissive to an authority. All of the authority figures in the film are dictators who refuse to let anyone leave the warren, order the secret police to watch anyone they suspect of not being completely submissive, and torture anyone caught escaping. In short, they aren't worthy of their citizens' respect, and to submit to them is shameful. Their only concern appears to be their own power. Despite being a lowly animal of prey in the big scheme of things, the chief of the rabbits' original warren is aloof and out of touch, never coming above ground or mingling with his subjects. He doesn't care at all that danger might threaten his tribe. Clearly, he can not keep them safe. Later on, Hazel is sometimes referred to as "chief" because he makes the difficult decisions and motivates others to do the right thing, but he never seems to have asked for the title. He constantly reminds everyone to stay together. When someone leaves the group is when trouble happens.

The greatest enemy of a downtrodden group is actually their own kind- or those on the top. There is no doubt larger predators exist; they briefly encounter wild beasts in the dark, dogs, cats, hawks, hunters and of course developers. At one point a character asks why the humans hate them, and another rabbit responds (I'm paraphrasing) :"The humans don't hate us; we're just in their way." The treatment they get from their own chief or the General is more akin to hate.

The weak and oppressed are not helpless against aggressors. They have their own strengths- "cunning" is the one this story focuses on- but they need to use some initiative, not just take the suffering passively. The rabbits who don't try to run away die in the tunnels as the land is bulldozed. Ephrathah contains several "troublemakers" who have tried to escape but have been caught and tortured and then given up hope. Hazel and his group, on the other hand, make plans ahead of time and persevere through setbacks. (Their raid on Ephrathah is not their first attempt at rescuing does from captivity; they try to release some does who are being kept on a farm, but that is unsuccessful.) They make alliances (with an injured bird they nurse back to health) and learn from previous scares and failures, (such as the time they narrowly escape from a dog by jumping on a raft).

While watching this film, I kept picking up on similarities to the Israelites journey from Egypt to the promised land. Besides the obvious bondage to freedom/death to life tale, there was the brother who served as the spokesman, the predicament of being trapped between an enemy and a body of water and crossing the water to escape, deceitful neighbors, and grumbling followers who want to turn back. Perhaps a coincidence, but interesting.

The filmmakers don't seem to be promoting an agenda. These themes subtly rise to the surface in the storyline and were probably unintentional on the part of the filmmakers. It's just a feel-good underdog story.