UKC

Oh for feck sake.

OK, lets get the awkward stuff out of the way first, this film doesn't fail to have me in tears and I have watched it again today and I had tears running down my cheeks. I'm 37 for crying out loud!

I'm no softie when it comes to films, compared to my wife, who I think is faulty when you consider the rubbish she cries at on the telly but this film just does something to me. The the end part when Hazel croaks is the most heart wrenching scene in a film I've ever seen.

i used to watch this as a kid at least once per week and I remember it having me in bits then so I though I'd watch this today as I found an old DVD and again, it bloody well does it again, over 25 years later! And its a cartoon!

So I expect a few titters from the UKC massive but come on, own up, who else has bawled over this most fabulous animated film ever made.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
Read the book...
Watched the film..
Enjoyed the stew!

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers: I'm with you on this one, must have seen it well over 20 times and still well up at the age of 22. So you're not alone.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

First film I went to see at the cinema as a child in the 70s.

I cried then.

It is a beautifully written book and the film is a good adaptation. Adams still lives in the area and now is in his 90s.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

PS I own a piece of THAT beech tree which sadly blew down in a storm about 5 years ago.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
The film was easy-going mush. No real depth of any kind. Soft-focus light stuff.

The book on the over hand had enormous depth and kept me awake for hours wondering at the immensity of Efrafa, the politics of the rabbits and the whole over-arching message. True, Adams' writing style was old-fashioned and indulgent. His anthropomorphism, whilst necessary for this kind of story-telling, could be cloying and over-laden. But the book still resonates within me now, even though I've not read it for nigh on twenty years. Maybe once again this summer...

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Read the book and saw the film years ago. While I've forgotten the book the film made a lasting impact, from the harrowing scene near the start to the deeply upsetting ending, and I can still remember most of it. I don't think I could bear to watch it again.

P.
(aged 34 and a half)

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
i have only to think of the song "brighteyes" and i mist up... until i remember the scene in league of gentlemen

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Ive just watched this and Im off again. Im going to make an appointment with the quack tomorrow as this cant be right.

youtube.com/watch?v=MODq81_cDKI&

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Be sure to watch Plague Dogs if you haven't already. Not so cheery as Watership Down but you need to give it a go

In reply to paul-1970:

Same here. The book made the lasting impression.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

A beautiful film, and yep, it can still bring a tear to the eye. When I was a kid I used to cover my eyes for the bit where Fiver says 'the field's covered in blood' he he. And also at the bit where Captain Holly describes his escape from the warren.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Saw it in the ABC in Bradford as a kid. Said cinema now demolished and wasteland, thus underlining the fact that seeing it brought me crashing into the realisation of my own mortality.

The second mistake was going to see Plague Dogs.

Then it started to rain.....

In reply to John Rushby: I've read Plague Dogs but I didn't know there was a film, must look out for it. I loved the Wainright drawings of their journey and the use of real characters in it.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:


I love the book's Kipling-esque use of epigraphs.

I think Watership Down was the first place I ever came across any Aeschylus.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

(Except of course that Kipling wrote his own epigraphs. And as far as I can see, some of his poems *started off* as epigraphs, or had little life beyond what epigraphs he quarried out of them. Splendid man, Kipling. What? Sorry, yes it is a bit of a hijack.)

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers: I've always struggled with overt anthropomorphism. It's a book I do very occasionally re-read (or skim read) but whilst the animal/animal elements work well as a metafingy for society, I struggle a bit with the animal/ human elements, when the rabbits suddenly start behaving like rabbits, before going back to this noble civilization as soon as the huming beens turn their backs.

Wasn't sure about the direction he tried to push the RSPCA either, but that's (the RSPCA, that is) another thing I'm very conflicted about

In reply to Al Evans:


SPOILER ALERT!





Years ago, having read the Plague Dogs on my own, I decided to show the film to a class of 12 year olds for their Xmas treat. Without watching it myself first.

Now, in the book's final pages the dogs are swimming across Morecambe Bay in a desperate bid for freedom, on the verge of drowning, when they are rescued by Sir Peter Scott, out birding or something.

You can imagine the last five minutes of the film, dogs swimming and just about to go under, room full of kids snuffling and sobbing, me miming to the poor little heartbroken sods "It's OK, it's Ok, they'll be Ok!"

Then they drowned.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Same here and i'm 40. It's the end that gets me when he looks back at the younger rabbits after he's secured the warren's future. Don't worry about them... they'll be alright...you've been feeling tired for a while now...go on lie down...

In reply to Tom Valentine:

That's one hell of a spoiler

In reply to Tom Valentine: Oh my god, why did they do that, the book ending was fine, thats just cruel. Perhaps they couldn't get Peter Scott or anybody to play him, but it's still a major shock

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers: I've never seen it, but I'm sure I would!

In reply to Tom Valentine: Wiki suggests you just see them going off into the fog without knowing whether they make it or not.

In reply to Tom Valentine: Suppose I dont need to see it now then.

In reply to trouserburp:

Cheery!?

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

youtube.com/watch?v=gFO8dm5QeDk&

The whole film here for your teary delectation.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Cheers, but I get about 2 seconds viewing and then 30 seconds buffering...

In reply to Submit to Gravity: I'd blame your crap connection. Mine works fine.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I will cry if i even sing bright eyes to myself as it reminds me of folks i have lost and.... well, all humanity and all sentient beings and how fragile we all are.