This episode is scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths, and is narrated, recorded and edited by Newell Fisher

73: Watership Down (1978)

Section 14: Watership Down

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths

This section covers from 40 minutes 30 to 42 minutes 20 and the equivalent chapter from the book is Chapter 18

This section of the film is, surely, its optimistic heart. After all the horror of the last few minutes, as Holly recalled his terrible journey to WD, we are, at last, going to arrive at the rabbits' destination.

Somewhat dissonantly, our first shot from close to the foot of WD features the electricity pylons at its base, as the camera zooms out and left to reveal their line.

Hazel, Bigwig and Fiver arrive at the foot of a pylon and Fiver says that is where they need to be as the camera cuts to a shot of the lone tree on the Down.

And now, seemingly, we are at the foot of a pylon nearer to the Down and see the whole group as they set off across a final field towards the base of the scarp slope.

They cross a fence and suddenly they are there.

They pause.

Hazel, looking up the scarp, checks with Fiver that he wants them to climb this, to which Fiver enthusiastically answers yes.

And now the strings of the orchestra really kick in as we get a Hazel's eye-view up the steep slope. Patches of bare chalk visible among the grass.

And then a shot of the group as they set off up the slope together.

We see multiple shots of the rabbits running up the slope, with none of the hesitating trauma with which they do so in the book.

Running through the long Downland grasses, we see Holly and Hazel, then Blackberry, Dandelion and Bigwig, then Dandelion and Bigwig again, as the going gets a little tougher.

The brass music is building again among the strings as we see Holly and Hazel again. Then a tired Pipkin, who pauses, panting, before being urged on with a shouted encouragement by Hazel.

We see Hazel looking back at Pipkin. Fiver, also tired, is with him. I think it is Silver passing them, with Holly behind. Having checked Pipkin is on the move again, Hazel continues.

Dandelion and Blackberry bound ahead of the rest of the group.

With a climactic flourish of brass instruments, the camera pans up the last part of the slope.

Ever the practical rabbit, Blackberry continues straight on, but Dandelion the story-teller, Dandelion the bard, immediately turns around to see what they have achieved.

It is a truly beautiful moment as we see Dandelion's joyful face, followed by a pan across the view of the southern English countryside from high up on the Down.

As the group line up for the most famous shot of them on the Down, practical Blackberry arrives back to report that he has found a burrow under what he describes as a beech hanger, though we have only seen one tree.

He says it has a Great Hall and no sign of death or disease.

I'm sorry, what now? They have arrived at the top of this perfect location for a warren to find it already dug for them?

And with a Great Hall? Seriously?

As Blackberry delivers his... news, Pipkin joins them and the tableau is complete.

The first rabbits of the Warren on Watership Down line up:

Fiver, Hazel, Blackberry, Dandelion, Bigwig, Holly, Silver and Pipkin. The two small rabbits bookending the perfect symmetry of this picture.

As we switch to a shot from behind the rabbits, showing them looking at the view, Dandelion exclaims that Frith on-the-hills made it all for them.

Soberly, Hazel comments that Frith may have made it, but Fiver found it.

It is a moment that slightly takes the mood down, but is also an important acknowledgement of what Fiver has achieved.

For, without him, they would all probably be dead. They owe him everything.

72: Watership Down (1978)

Section 13: Efrafa

Scripted by Newell Fisher and John Ruths

72.2(1) Watership Down (1978)

Section 13: Efrafa

This section covers from 38 minutes 40 to 40 minutes 30 and the equivalent chapters from the book are Chapters 21 and 27.

After Fiver has made his statement about how humans will never rest until they have spoiled the Earth, we learn the little Holly tells us about his journey to WD.

He says he was trying to find them. That he wandered for days. He says that the "Efrafans" wouldn't let him go. That they ripped his ear.

In the book, Holly's ear is ripped as he escapes from the enraged rabbits of the Warren of the Snares. Fortunately they are not very good fighters, so he is able to get away.

Holly, who has been getting more animated, repeats that he tried to find them, as he collapses again.

Bigwig repeats that word: Efrafans. He wonders what Holly is talking about and presses him for more. But Hazel says to let him rest. He can tell them more later.

We see a closer shot of the traumatised Holly, his breathing distressed and heavy.

He goes out of focus, as an eerie musical theme plays.

We cross-fade and come into focus again, to see a dark and gloomy grey burrow.

Several rabbits sit looking at a frightened rabbit between two others.

In the next shot an angry looking rabbit glares at a crowded burrow full of rabbits, all quiet and docile. Spaced through the burrow are other equally angry looking rabbits, looking about them at the docile bunched together rabbits, daring them to step out of line.

Then we see three holes underground. In front of each is a rabbit on guard. As three more rabbits arrive, one at each hole in turn, all 6 go up their assigned runs.

All of the rabbits we have seen in this place had dark fur and blue eyes, with a kind of shadow under them.

And then, as this scene fades, we hear a male voice. He states that a young doe has a request.

An incredulous second male voice, deeper and more gravelly, says "A doe wants to see me?"

The first voice says she says she represents a group.

There is a pause.

The second voice says "Your name?"

A female voice says "Hyzenthlay Sir"

There is a pause.

The second voice tells Hyzenthlay to be Frank and that she is safe here...followed by the slightest laugh.

Then the shot fades to black as the second voice says, harshly, "Get on with it!"

Hyzenthlay hesitantly explains that several rabbits propose an expedition to start a new warren.

Hyzenthlay's suggestion about a new warren is instantly, and strongly rejected.

She persists, saying that the system is breaking down. The voice demands an explanation.

Her blue eyes can now be seen in the half light.

She explains that some Does can no longer produce litters. The warren is overcrowded.

No sooner is an explanation demanded than she is shut down again. The voice says there will be no further discussion about it.

She says they will go as far away as he likes.

He repeats that what he said about no further discussion applies to where they are as well as well as anywhere else.

Hyzenthlay starts to protest.

A large rabbit appears to her right, looks briefly in the direction of the second voice, then glares at her, slightly opening his mouth to show his teeth. He, too, is in silhouette with those deep blue eyes.

Hyzenthlay pauses....then just says "thank you Sir" before leaving quickly.

The other rabbit moves threateningly towards her as she goes, glaring after her. Then looks into camera again as we hear the voice say "Campion".

We can assume this was who the first voice belonged to.

And then we see...the eye in close up.

This is, of course, the damaged left eye of General Woundwort, though he has yet to be named.

The white eye narrows as he adds "Have her watched"

It goes out of focus as we cross fade to Holly, eyes closed. Breathing heavily. Still utterly traumatised.

And we fade to black.

71: Watership Down (1978) Section 12: Captain Holly

Script by Newell Fisher, with script-assistance by John Ruths

This section covers 36 minutes 20 to 38 minutes 40 and the equivalent chapters from the book are Chapters 19-21.

We are in the Lane leading away from Nuthanger Farm, following Hazel and Pipkin's farm expedition earlier.

The camera pans right to show the lone tree on WD in the distance and zooms in on the ditch on the Eastern side of the lane.

This ditch is where the events of the next two sections of the film will take place.

Cut to the interior of the ditch, as the rabbits run past, heading away from the farm towards the Down.

Bigwig, bringing up the rear, stops and turns back, listening. We start to hear an echoing cry of "Zorn!" the lapine word for destroyed or finished.

The rest of the group are now with them. Bigwig moves towards the sound. Hazel asks if he can see what it is. Dandelion says he can hear it. Something big is approaching.

And then Bigwig is struck dumb with terror as whatever it is calls out his name. The terrified Bigwig says it is the Black Rabbit of Inlé.

Cut to a close up of the edge of the ditch. Two grey paws appear as the voice, clearly not supernatural, cries "All dead! All zorn!"

A bedraggled and scratched grey rabbit appears and tumbles, at the end of his strength, into the ditch.

It is Captain Holly of the Sandleford Owsla.

Holly looks up and opens his eyes, recognising his old fellow Owsla member and repeating "I've found you!" in sheer relief.

Holly says he remembers Fiver. How he was the one who saw "it" coming.

We hear Dandelion ask what happened.

We see trees tumbling in a spiral as Holly says the warren was destroyed. There is a rumbling sound building.

We hear Silver ask how.

In the background of the tumbling trees we could see a circle. That now becomes clearer. It is a view of the entrance of a burrow from underground.

And then we see earth falling into the burrow, covering the view.

Holly's voice says men came and filled in the burrows. We see another hole being filled. And another.

Holly says they couldn't get out. There was a strange sound. A hissing.

We hear the sound and see a terrified rabbit. In the dark of the filled in warren, his fur is blue and his eyes a deep red.

And then we enter the realm of the surreal.

Six disembodied rabbit heads move along converging burrow forms. pursued along every path by a yellow gas.

They converge and press together, pressing upwards as the paths behind them are closed.

Holly says "The air turned bad"

We see six terrified heads pressed together in another blocked run.

Holly says "Runs blocked with dead bodies"

There is a building sound of voices echoing in despair.

We see five heads desperately reaching upwards, the yellow gas all around them. The camera zooms in on one as its eyes close in pain.

Holly repeats "Couldn't get out!"

And now rabbits crushed into a narrowing run, some with their eyes closed, some pathetically still trying to press forward.

As Holly says "Everything turned mad" we zoom in on a rabbit's eye closing.

The closing rabbit eye cross-fades and becomes a rift in turf that rips open, revealing red earth underneath.

Holly says "Warren, earth, roots, grass. All...pushed into the air"

As he says this, we see pointed fence posts, two of them tipped with blood. Behind them we see red trees and purple rabbit corpses flung into the air, with a fiery sky behind.

We see the green turf again. A human mechanical digger scrape into it, scoring a set of parallel red lines as it disappears into the background.

The red lines move and swirl in a circle. More tumbling tree branches join them, as the camera pans down to rejoin the rabbits in the ditch.

Dandelion says "Men have always hated us"

Holly replies "No. They just destroyed the warren because we were in their way."

Fiver, in close up, looks away and says "They'll never rest until they've spoiled the Earth"

70: Watership Down (1978) Section 11: Nuthanger Farm

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script-assistance by John Ruths.

This section covers from 32 minutes 20 to 36 minutes 20 and the equivalent chapter from the book is Chapter 24. Nuthanger Farm.

This section begins with the rabbits arriving at a traditional farm cart as the theme from the previous section ends.

Cut to early the following morning and Hazel wakes up first, sniffing the air. He whispers for Pipkin and suggests they go and have a look around the farm.

Pipkin is understandably reluctant. Hazel says he has a plan, but doesn't detail it.

Cut to a panning shot of a working farm in 1960's Hampshire.

As we hear a cockerel crowing, the camera zooms in on an elevated barn with a dog kennel in front of it.

Cut to a close-up of a plough by the barn, with the stone toadstool shapes the barn rests upon visible.

Hazel emerges from between the blades of the plough, sniffs and is followed by Pipkin, who says he can see a dog.

They dodge behind the kennel under the barn.

A tense musical theme plays as they reach the end of the barn.

As Hazel and Fiver make their way across a yard, we hear a voice on a radio Pipkin points out that the humans are "up".

Pipkin says he wants to go back, but Hazel says they will go just a little bit further. They dodge behind a wood-pile by the entrance to another barn, then look through a crack in the door where we see a rabbit hutch.

Hazel goes straight in and we see the interior of the kind of timber-beamed British barn.

Hazel reassures Pipkin it's safe and tells him to stand guard and let him know if he sees a cat.

Cut to the interior of the rabbit hutch.

Hazel introduces himself and Clover, the first doe to speak in the book, reciprocates.

She asks where Hazel comes from, to which he responds with an ambiguous "far away" and immediately starts selling his lifestyle.

We cut to Pipkin on the lookout then the Dog waking up, just as Hazel mentions lying in the sun. The juxtaposition seems deliberate.

He asks if they ever get out, to which she replies that a human child sometimes takes them out on the grass.

As Clover says this we see Pipkin startle. He has seen a cat.

Hazel seems to be getting to his point, asking if they would like to join them. Clover is confused and asks how this would be possible. But we never get to hear Hazel's answer, as Pipkin arrives in a panic to let him know about the cat.

He is forced to give a garbled version, backing away from the hutch rapidly, oddly jumping backwards onto a pile of hay without looking, before leaping in the direction of the barn door.

Pipkin says he thinks the cat has smelt them to which Hazel replies he will get them away.

Hazel tells Pipkin to follow him closely and run when he does.

The camera zooms out to bring it into view, tail waving in readiness to pounce.

As the cat hisses, Hazel begins to taunt it, saying how hungry it looks and how the rats must be getting too clever.

The dog, now fully awake, begins to bark.

In the book the cat has nothing to say at this point, but here it responds to the suggestion that it cannot run with a calm "You'll see" as it drums its claws on the ground in mock calm.

As Hazel repeats his opinion on whether it can run, the cat screams and leaps. But the two rabbits are already gone, Hazel's insults having seemingly done their job of making it act hastily.

The cat pursues them, making Hazel's calm planning look a little less safe. Pipkin accidentally runs into a dustbin. This startles the pursuing cat and brings a human girl to the door.

We hear her say "What's all that then?"

Then she sees the cat and says "Tab? Tab! Let 'un alone! Cruel thing!"

Having reassured Lucy of its cuteness, Tab now sits in the lane cleaning herself as she watches the rapidly retreating Hazel and Pipkin running up a lane.

With an ironic, and feline sounding, violin flourish, the camera fades to black.

69: Religion, Folklore and Seership in Watership Down

Scripted by Mateus Ramos, Ronny M Worsey, Andrew Stevens, Leea Mäkelä and Newell Fisher

The Rabbit Religion

What kind of religion do the rabbits of WD have?

Mateus Ramos 11/4/22:

"The rabbits' religion draws from many sources. Some things look like ancient myths, like the Sun is the major god as in the Egyptian mythology and others, also El-Ahrairah is both a god and and a hero, like the demigods from Greek mythology such as Hercules, Perseus and Theseus; but also other heroes from other mythologies and religions like Gilgamesh, Moses and even Jesus.

El-Ahrairah on the other hand is a different breed in the way that he's the main hero but is also a Trickster.

So, long story short, at the same time Frith is Rah the Sun-God, Zeus, Helios, Odin, Alah, Jehovah and God

El-Ahrairah is at the same time Gilgamesh, Hercules, Moses, Noah, Loki, Jesus and Adam

And The Black Rabbit of Inlé is Thanatos, Hades, Satan and the Angel of Death"

Andrew Stevens 19/6/22:

“In "El-Ahrairah and Black Rabbit of Inlé", Adams draws on the Judeo-Christian tradition and pagan myths of suffering, maiming, sacrifice and rebirth of heroes, messiahs and gods, again starting with archetypes but quickly building on them.

With his rabbits losing a long-running siege waged by King Darzin, El-ahrairah journeys to the warren of the Black Rabbit of Inlé and offers his life for his people’s salvation but learns that the Black Rabbit makes no such bargains.

When Dandelion explains the nature of the Black Rabbit to his audience, it is easy to interpret the first view as him as a sort of rabbit devil, but the storytellers own understanding of him as a servant of Frith is more convincing. Rather than a Judeo-Christian Hell, his warren is more like Hades, a necessary place performing a role in the world with a steward ultimately answering to a higher power.”

Ronny M Worsey 11/4/22:

"Cowslip's Warren represents, to me, a closed community completely obsessed by religion. A cult, basically. You can't leave, you can't ask certain questions. Pictures on the wall are worshipped and everything is ritualised, even saying hello. There's also a patronising attitude to outsiders.”

Rabbit Folklore

Leea Mäkelä 11/5/22:

"The stories of El-Ahrairah in the world of Prince Rainbow and King Darzin seem indeed to be part of same continuum - like it had been another, larger rabbit story going on in a different world than the Sandleford/Watership rabbits, but intertwined with it.

El-Ahrairah seems to be the dominant character of rabbit folklore, attracting also motifs of stories that were originally stories of other rabbits. So who knows, if the Tale of Rowsby Woof was something that happened to (a) now un-named rabbit from Sandleford's owsla.

It seems to me that especially in the first part of Tales from the Watership Down the stories are written to formulas that have been inspired by some theories on folklore.”

Rabbit Seership

We now move on to the subject of seership in WD, a theme that was much developed in both the 1999 TV series, particularly in series 3 as I recall, as well as in the role-playing game Bunnies and Burrows.

Leea Mäkelä 22/6/22

"In the beginning of Watership Down Fiver is the weird kid, smaller than others and lacking in social skills so he needs Hazel as a mediator between him and others. He has extraordinary skill, that comes and goes in a way he can't control.

TheWarren of the Snares is some kind of turning point in how others don't see what Fiver sees, and how he needs to learn to communicate in ways that also others understand.

In 'Tales From Watership Down' he is already presented as a religious specialist of his community.

It seems that it might be Silverweed, who sets the process moving in Fiver to come (to) better terms with his own special skills and learning to use them”

68: Watership Down (1978) Section 10: The Shining Wire

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths

This section covers from 29:20 to 32:20. The equivalent Chapters from the book are 17 and 10.

As a rising tense musical theme plays, we see Hazel and Fiver react instantly.

Cut to Bigwig's face in extremis, with a straight black line running from his neck.

The camera zooms out as we see Hazel join him.

He recognises that Bigwig is in a snare but has no idea what to do about it. In desperation Hazel tries to chew at the wire.

Fiver arrives and Hazel tells him to run and get the others. He says Bigwig will die.

We see Fiver rushing back towards the warren crying out for Blackberry and Dandelion.

Bigwig, who is gasping now, flips himself from left to right.

We now see four rabbits running back with Fiver.

Blackberry is straight on the case: closely examining the wire and saying they have to loosen it somehow.

As Blackberry inspects the wire, Hazel asks if Cowslip is coming.

Cowslip has said he won't come and told him to "stop talking about it"

Hazel's shocked reaction to this is interrupted by Blackberry, who has located the peg and says they have to dig it out.

Silver is instantly on the case, starting to dig it out.

And now we see Bigwig convulsing.

Silver says he can't get his teeth into it, so Blackberry tells Pipkin to go into the hole.

He says the splinters are pricking him but carries on. As he says it's hard to breathe, we see Bigwig, barely drawing his last breaths.

Pipkin comes out of the hole saying the peg is nearly through.

Hazel tells Fiver to go in.

Dandelion says he can't hear Bigwig breathing. Then Fiver says the peg is free.

There is a close up of Bigwig, his eye opening as he makes a strangled sound.

We see his point of view, as the silhouettes of all five other rabbits appear against a dark sky.

This seems to be the last view of the dying.

Bigwig is still. Blackberry calmly says he thinks Bigwig is "gone".

Hazel, forgetting leadership for a moment, tragically nudges him as he says they have got him out and that he is free.

Hazel's pleading with Bigwig grows more desperate. Dandelion says that its no use.

Blackberry, ever practical, sadly asks how they will manage without Bigwig.

And then comes acceptance, as Hazel leads the brief but effective rabbit funeral.

Now Fiver has his moment.

He is angry. Very angry. He sums up the extended story of how the Warren of the Snares became what it is that he tells in the book.

With Fiver's words, the rest of the group look around them nervously. But then there is anger from them as well.

But in their anger, all of them, except Hazel it seems, have missed Fiver's point. They want to drive the rabbits out of this warren.

Fiver now drives that home with a shocking expletive in Lapine, calling them fools.

The phrase he uses, "embleer Frith", means "stinking god".

He says they will be helping themselves to a death trap. A "roof of bones".

We hear another strangled sound. It is Bigwig!

The group cluster around him until Hazel tells them to let him rest.

Bigwig, clumsily removing the loose snare from around his neck, says he doesn't need to rest.

Blackberry asks Fiver, who is clearly in charge temporarily, what they should do now.

And his advice is instant. They need to leave this place right away.

We see Watership Down in the distance for the first time since the opening titles.

During this, an optimistic and anticipatory stringed musical theme plays as Fiver delivers a speech that appears far earlier in the book.

But here his speech has been moved to this point in the story and this is very effective.

Comparison with the book

This shocking episode from the book transferred to the film very faithfully.

The one major plot difference here between book and film is that there is no Strawberry here, running desperately away from his warren in fear for his life.

67: Watership Down (1978)

Section 9: The Warren of the Snares

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths

This section covers from 26 minutes 10 to 29 minutes 20 and the equivalent Chapters from the book are Chapters 13-14 and 16-17

Chapter 15 does not appear in the film.

The dark subdued colours of the last scene are replaced with the orange and purple of the interior of this mysterious new warren.

We see Silver coming down a run. He joins Dandelion further off down another run as the latter comments that the place seems to almost smell of...man.

We see the group arrive in a large underground burrow. We see flayrah, or good quality food grown by humans, on the floor.

And now Cowslip, with Denholm Elliot’s wonderfully offhand manner, expresses politely faked surprise at their arrival.

I think it is Blackberry who comments on what a large warren this is, as the group look around them curiously.

Cowslip brushes past this comment and invites them to help themselves to the flayrah. He says that "the man" leaves fresh roots daily. Or "throws it out" as Cowslip puts it.

This is a large and significant contrast to the book, in which the food is left in a nearby pasture and carried back to the warren.

The ever vigilant Hazel questions this mention of a man, but Cowslip, again, brushes past the question by saying, in his casual offhand manner, that there are plenty of empty burrows for the group to sleep in.

Hazel's next question "Where are all the others?"  elicits an angry reaction from Cowslip. However, he immediately recovers and says they can eat all they like and will be left to themselves.

There is no hint of the friendly hospitality of the book. Here the group will only receive catering.

So now we cut to the other scene, besides Bigwig on the road, that I clearly remember being used to promote this film when it came out in 1978. And no wonder, as it is wonderfully shot.

We see the group feeding from behind. And now, as the camera pulls back,

As Pipkin speaks, the technique that makes this shot so special begins.

First the group are framed by an entrance to the burrow.

And now the camera tracks right to another entrance and now we are seeing the group from the side.

The camera tracks right again, to another entrance. Our view of the group is now nearly from the front.

The camera tracks right again.

We arrive at the last entrance, with a frontal view of the group.

The shot has lasted 30 seconds, a very long duration for a single shot in a cartoon, and is what must have been a very rare animated circular dolly shot.

Cowslip appears again. He says some of the warren rabbits are gathering and suggesting stories.

Silver suggests Hazel tells about their journey and how they came to the warren.

After an awkward pause, Hazel suggests Dandelion tells a story of El-ahrairah.

In the book, of course, this leads to Chapter 15. The Story of the King's Lettuce, but here Cowslip is not so polite. And here we lead straight into this film's equivalent of Chapter 16. Silverweed.

Only here there is no Silverweed the poet. To save time, Cowslip merely refers to him as "one of our poets".

And so Cowslip launches into a sumarised quotation of the poem from the book.

As Cowslip reaches the clear reference to death we see a terrified and disgusted Fiver. And then Fiver is off with "I've had enough!"

We see Fiver making his way towards a hedge-line followed by Hazel.

Fiver has time to say he is going away to the hills, to which Hazel responds he will die. But Fiver says Hazel is closer to death than he is.

Before anything else can be said, Bigwig arrives, again going around the edge of the hedge.

He is instantly angry. With a promise to make sure everyone has had enough of Fiver, as in the book, Bigwig runs off...but through the hedge this time.

And instantly there is a strangled cry...

Section 8: The Rat-attack and the Stranger

Scripted by Newell Fisher, with script assistance by John Ruths

This section covers from 21 minutes 20 to 26 minutes 10 and the equivalent Chapters from the book are Chapters 10-12

In the book there is a long section of the journey to WD that we only hear about in passing. This is the part from the departure from the Warren of the Snares to the arrival at the foot of WD.

Part of the description of that journey, at the start of Chapter 18. Watership Down, describes how they were attacked by rats in an isolated barn near Ecchinswell.

That episode is transplanted to earlier in the plot in the film and seems to occupy the part of their journey that, in the book, is taken up with the terrible overnight journey over Newtown Common. And instead of a barn, it takes place in an abandoned church.

Following the shocking death of Violet, two more zooming shots of backgrounds establish the rabbits' journey continuing as the skies darken.

Next we see the churchyard as Blackberry, Hazel and Bigwig discuss resting there. The exhausted rabbits enter the church.

The next shot is an effective silent zoom out from above, during which the only human face in the film appears at the right. That of a statue.

This implied threat is immediately punctuated by the simultaneous appearance of two rats at either side of shot, along with a sudden loud harsh squeaking.

A group of 4 rats make their way down to the floor. One of them launches an attack at the sleeping Bigwig.

And then, the rest of the rabbits having immediately woken up, the scene strangely descends into farce, with percussion based music to match.

This episode is a strange replacement for the terrible journey across the Common. The only hint of the journey across the Common comes now, as rain and thunder sets in.

This is where what must be one of the longest conversations in the whole film takes place.

Pipkin wonders what is go on back home.

Dandelion says to Hazel it can't go on like this. Silver agrees that things are getting worse and worse. He pointedly asks Hazel where they are going. Hazel reassures him that it won't be much longer then they can all rest. Silver asks how much longer.

Pipkin says they never should have left. And then, shockingly, Blackberry, of all rabbits, asks what if Fiver was wrong.

Pipkin says he wants to go back and find out.

At this point Hazel intervenes and points out all they've been through, and Bigwig angrily makes the practical point that having injured an Owsla officer, a captain no less, they will probably be killed if they go back.

Now Fiver makes his contribution, saying they must go on until they reach the hills and slipping into a fearful trance as he seems to sense the consequences of not doing so, consequences that are about to start playing out.

The whites of his eyes become frighteningly prominent as he looks about him and hops in a circle in terror, saying those that go back will not be safe.

Silver now makes a direct allegation towards Hazel that he does not know where they are going.

In doing so he takes on the role of Acorn, Speedwell and Hawkbit in the book.

Bigwig begins his angry intervention, but is rapidly interrupted by BlackBerry’s urgent stamping of an alarm.

A strange rabbit has suddenly appeared and is standing a few yards away.

Hazel and Bigwig address him.

The stranger announces himself as Cowslip. He excuses himself as he hates the rain and lollops away with a curiously leisurely run to a nearby hole.

Fiver immediately says they should have nothing to do with Cowslip or his warren.

Blackberry says Cowslip seems friendly but wonders what they have to gain by asking them to join their warren.

At this moment the authority of Hazel seems fairly undermined.

Hazel follows the rest of the group to the Warren and urges Fiver to join him.

Reluctantly,

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?