65: Watership Down (1978)

Section 7: The Road and the Beanfield

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths

This section covers from 18 minutes 30 to 21 minutes 20 and the equivalent Chapters from the book are Chapters 10. The Road and the Common, 9. The Crow and the Beanfield and 11. Hard Going

And so, having crossed the Enborne, the 8 rabbits head south. In the book this is where they find the beanfield and rest, after a frightening encounter with a crow. However the filmmakers decided that they should encounter the road first.

As the theme plays, we see the rabbits heading towards a hedgerow, followed by a shot of them running among cows, almost playfully. They run through a gate and across a field towards the road.

The camera zooms in on Fiver's troubled face for a moment. What is he sensing?

And now we arrive at one of the scenes I clearly remember being most used to promote the film when it came out in 1978.

Bigwig explains Hrududus and roads to Hazel in a matter-of-fact way that does not seem like showing off.

And then Bigwig cannot resist showing off for a moment, which he does not do in the book, just sticking to the verge as a car passes.

However, here, sitting out in the middle of the road, he sits calmly as a landrover with the registration MR767 drives west right past him. Luckily for Bigwig, the driver doesn't fancy an easy bit of rabbit killing that day.

Neither, it seems, does the driver of a red sports car, registration WD 3231 C, who immediately speeds past in the opposite direction, causing Bigwig to panic and leap about the road in a circle, ending up on the other side.

With a flourish of light music, he comes back out into the road to tell the others to cross it quickly.

And now we see the Beanfield for the first time. Hazel says there is something up ahead and sniffs. The beanfield will give good sight and sound cover for them as they rest. Shouldn't this phrase be "sight and smell"?

As we see a beautiful layered panning shot across the tops of the beans, we hear Blackberry say that Hazel is beginning to sound like a Chief. He uses the phrase 'Hazel-rah'.

Bigwig's response is why I have counted chapter 11 of the book as being included in this section. For that is the chapter, from later on in the story, in which the Lost Paragraph is featured. But here there is no promise from Bigwig to stop fighting the day he calls Hazel a chief.

The 8 rabbits are next seen at rest among the beans.

But now a bee buzzes by. As it passes through the group, we see Violet, the only doe, seem to notice it and smell the air. She runs to the edge of the beans, where Fiver is, sleeping, significantly. For he exists on the margins in many ways.

He notices her leave cover and seems immediately concerned. As he looks at her starting to feed on the white flowered plant she smelt, we see a shadow, as an alarming musical theme plays.

The Hawk appears. We see the horror on Fiver's face. Then we see its it's talons close-up, then a violent moment of screeching...and blackness.

In the next shot, we see the plant with a couple of small feathers floating in the air.

The other rabbits join Fiver, who just looks on and says "Violet's gone".

Her inclusion in the film, considering the nature of her departure, seems curiously disjointed to me.

Hazel's only comment is "We'd better keep moving", which, though a moment of leadership, is telling.

Violet, unlike Bigwig, gets no "My heart has joined the Thousand..." She just ends. And, with the sound of a sad clarinet, that is that. Was her rank too low to earn this accolade? Or just too female?

Fiver hesitates for a moment. Then he leaves too.

Comparison with the book

This is the section of the film in which summary of the book becomes divergence from the book.

And the death of Violet, while an effective cinematic moment, just seems a bit...odd?