What is a piece of media (book, movie, song)
that changed how you see the world?
I loved Watership Down when it came out in 1978. I saw the film first, and was so affected by it that I went on to read the book. That is very rare for me. Usually, if I have seen the film, I leave the book alone, or if I have read the book, I approach the film with caution. But Watership Down drew me further in.
I saw it as a young adult, which may be why it affected me so deeply. I was old enough to recognise that this was not simply a story about rabbits. It was a story about power, displacement, ecological destruction, violence, courage, and survival.
At first glance, it looked like an animated film about animals. But it was never merely that. The rabbits were not cute figures in a gentle children’s story. They were vulnerable creatures trying to survive in a world shaped by forces much larger than themselves.
The destruction of their warren crystallised something in my mind about human greed. From a human point of view, it may have looked like progress: development, expansion, land use. But from the rabbits’ point of view, it was catastrophe. Their home was destroyed. Their community was scattered. Their future was thrown into uncertainty.
That shift in perspective reminded me that the natural world is not simply scenery for human ambition. It is habitat. It is home. It is full of life that human beings easily overlook.
The film also defies easy categorisation. It is animated, but it is not escapist. It has the appearance of a children’s film, but it carries themes that are very adult. It is too violent to be treated as simple children’s entertainment, too earnest and allegorical to be regarded as ordinary animation, and too beautiful and mythic to be dismissed as merely grim.
That tension is part of what makes it unforgettable. It holds beauty and brutality together. The fields are beautiful, but they are dangerous. The rabbits are innocent, but innocence does not protect them. Freedom matters, but it is costly. Leadership matters, but it can become oppressive.
Then there is the music. I have always loved Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes.” It is an unusual emotional centrepiece in an otherwise bleak narrative. The song does not erase the darkness. It gives grief a voice. It allows beauty to exist inside sorrow.
Many years later, the story feels remarkably current. The rabbits flee ecological destruction. They encounter oppressive leadership. They search for a place where they can live freely and safely. They are displaced creatures seeking home.
Perhaps that is why Watership Down changed how I saw the world. It taught me to look at human progress from the perspective of those displaced by it. It taught me that the natural world is not silent just because we do not listen. It reminded me that we do not live alone in the world. We share it.
The Afterword 
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