I was quite glad when this film appeared on one of the streaming services, namely because I have been wanting to watch it for a while. Actually, I would have preferred to read the book, and I might have it somewhere but I have so many books on my shelf that it is hard to know what I have and what I don't have at times. However, the film was the next best thing, though I'm not entirely sure how close to the book it follows. Oh, and it is also an animated production that has probably the only song by Art Garfunkle that anybody really remembers (or at least where I am concerned).
The story is about a rabbit warren where one of the rabbits has a vision of impending doom. They approach the grand wise old rabbit, but he is to stuck in his ways to do anything, so they decided to go it alone, and venture out into the world to find another place to live. It turns out that this rabbit was right because they later discover that the humans had come along and destroyed the lands in which the rabbits lived to make way for a new development. Anyhow, they come upon another place where they can live - Watership Down - but they suddenly realise that they have no women, so the warren is destined to die, unless they can find some to join the warren. The problem is that the only ones nearby happen to be under the control of this cantankerous general.
In a way it is like a fantasy, but it is also a quest, a quest to leave a place that is familiar to find a new place to live. Mind you, while it might be familiar, there is also this concern that things aren't going to last the way that they are forever. Thus, in a way you could say that this is a story of refugees, though the funny thing is that back when this movie was made, and the book was released, refugees were nowhere near as huge a political football as they happen to be now.
However, this film could be interepreted in a different way, namely because the rabbits who flee the warren due to it being destroyed, move into a new area, and then invade the neighbouring warren to basically steal their women. This certainly sounds to be very Roman. Further, they actually win the battle against the general, and of course the general is portrayed as being a mean and nasty creature. Yet, this is the view that we are seeing from the invader's perspective.
From another perspective, there are quite a few connections between this story, and the heroic epics of Ancient Greece and Rome. In a way there are connections to both The Oddyssey and to The Aenied. One difference though is that there are more central characters to the novel than there are in the epics, which seems to focus on a singular hero. Yet like both traditions, they face trails and challenges before reaching their final goal. As I suggested, there are elements of the Aenied, and it is probably closer to that story than the Odyssey, particularly since it involves fleeing impending doom and setting themselves up in another land, yet this isn't necessarily the end as they discover that there are not only problems - the lack of women - but also the fact that nearby inhabitants don't want them there, so they inevitably go to war. Mind you, like the Aenied, they also come across a warren halfway through their journey, and are tempted to stay there as well, but end up leaving due to certain issues.
The thing is that a part of me still wants to read the book, probably because I can get a lot more from the book than I could get from the film. Still, the film is pretty good, and in a way it is a classic in its own right.
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