synopsis:

The film opens with a rabbit creation myth. The great Frith creates the world and makes all the animals with similar abilities. But the rabbits soon overpopulate and are consuming all the food, so Frith tells the Prince of Rabbits, El-ahrairah, to control his people. El-ahrairah arrogantly refuses, claiming that his are the strongest people in the world. So Frith blesses some of the other animals with special attributes such as fangs and claws and a sharp desire to hunt and kill the children of El-ahrairah. Soon, the rabbit population is decimated and El-ahrairah flees in fear for his life. Frith comes to bless him as well, but El-ahrairah is too terrified to face him and hides in a partially dug hole. So Frith blesses the only part he can, El-ahrairah's bottom. Great speed comes to El-ahrairah and all of his children and as the Prince of Rabbits runs off to face the world's dangers, Frith gives him both a warning and a pledge: "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warren. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed."Hazel and Fiver are brothers who live in an average warren in the English countryside. On one lazy afternoon, Fiver has a vision that the field outside their warren is covered in blood, that every rabbit in the warren is in great danger and that they all must leave immediately. Cognizant of the fact that Fiver's visions are right time and again, Hazel takes him to see the Chief Rabbit who quickly dismisses their concerns.

Hazel decides to leave the warren and a number of the other rabbits decide to accompany him and Fiver. But they run afoul of the warren's Owsla or military police. A number of them are captured but Hazel, Fiver and a few other rabbits escape with the help of Bigwig, an Owsla officer who decides to join them on their journey.

Fiver tells them that they need to find a "high place" where they can find refuge. Along their arduous journey, the rabbits must face a dark and dangerous forest, a graveyard crawling with rats, being caught between a curious dog and a swiftly moving stream, a seemingly inviting warren of rabbits eager to share but who conceal a dangerous secret, and an inviting farm house that has a couple of surprises of its own. On that journey, Hazel must also contend with doubts about their journey raised by some of the other rabbits and conflict with the rival warren Efrefa and its militaristic leader.

about this movie:

Producer, writer, director Martin Rosen has treated Richard Adams' best-selling novel with the same name with respect. In an interview he stated: "What makes Adams' vision so special is its characters — their daring, their thirst for freedom, their wonderful legends, and perhaps most of all, their boundless good humor." This screen version steers clear of interpreting the story in either a cute Disney fashion or a heavily allegorical way.he vocalizations of the characters are all top-notch: John Hurt as the stalwart Hazel, Michael Graham-Cox as the macho Bigwig, Sir Ralph Richardson as the august Chief Rabbit, Harry Andrews as the villainous General Woundwort, and Zero Mostel as the loveable Keehar.

The film's theme song Bright Eyes (also covered by msp) by Mike Batt was an immediate and prolonged chart hit, and seemed to propagate the theory that 'watership down' was going to be an easygoing childrens' film production. But that simply was not so; the rabbits are moving against a dark background palette of doom, oppression and violence.