Movie Review: Watership Down

Back in August, I decided that I'd do a few posts on classic novels that have movie adaptations.  Given that I subscribe to one of these services that sends me movies fairly randomly, I haven't received a movie based on a book since this time, but I finally received one in November - Watership Down.  This is the first book club book I read, more than three years ago now.  I remember not really enjoying it at the time, but I have to admit that Shannon's comment about the book being memorable is apt.  I still remember some of the made up words like 'silflay' and 'hrudu'.

Book: "Watership Down" by Richard Adams
Movie: "Watership Down"
Book Publication Date: 1972
Movie Production Date: 1978
Read: August 2007
Watched: November 2010
Stars: 3

First off, let me say that I was impressed by how much the plot of the movie followed that of the novel.  For an animated movie from before I was born, I am surprised at how much death permeates the movie. This is true to the book, but it is fairly graphically displayed and I wasn't really prepared for it.
 
The movie starts out simply enough with the talk of the great Firth and how rabbits were created and then overpopulated.  When the great Firth told El-ahrairah to take care of the problem so he didn't have to do something about it, he was ignored and so Firth made a bunch of predators for the rabbits and had to give the rabbits traits like 'strong hind legs' so they could survive by outrunning threats.  After this little opening, the animation changed to what you see in the picture to the left.
 
I loved the way Fiver was portrayed, and his character was the glue that held together the story.  Hazel was there in all his glory, and so is Bigwig, Woundwort and the Black Rabbit.  The Black Rabbit (death) was portrayed in an interesting manner, which I really enjoyed as well.
 
I found the movie didn't hold my attention very strongly, but it was a movie I will probably never forget.  I would recommend watching it for those who enjoyed the book, but be prepared that the animation may be nothing like what you've seen before.

Watership Down | Richard Adams

Tonight, we just finished our first book club meeting for "Watership Down." Consensus was that the author was largely descriptive but not entirely poetic or memorable. I won't get into our discussions on themes and key areas, unless you're all really curious.

As always, I will provide no spoilers... but I will share my two favourite quotes from the book. These quotes were the only ones that I found vaguely noteworthy.

"Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it. For them there is no winter food problem. They have fires and warm clothes. The winter cannot hurt them and therefore increases their sense of cleverness and security."

and...

"You're all alone, sharp and clear, like a dead branch against the sky."

If the book would have contained more quotes like these two, I would have been hooked. The book really read to me like two separate novels. There was not a lot of plot until the 3rd part (there are four parts) of the novel, where the intrigue started. At this time, the concept of an alternate rabbit society made the story much more interesting.

The author also used quotes in different languages, with no translations. While the quotes loosely described the chapters they represented in the book, they did nothing to foreshadow or add to the story in the slightest.

What I did find very interesting was the portrayal of different areas of society... country folk, Russians, women, etc. I don't know exactly what Adams was trying to say, with his stereotypical portrayals, but it did add a lot of intrigue.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book... but it's probably better than a lot of the other rubbish considered literature these days :).