Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, John Boyega, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, Peter Capaldi, Mackenzie Crook, Anne-Marie Duff, Taron Egerton, Freddie Fox, Lee Ingleby, Miles Jupp, Daniel Kaluuya, Craig Parkinson, Daniel Rigby, Jason Watkins, Gemma Chan, James Alexander, Rosamund Pike, Andrew Walton, Olivia Colman, Lorraine Bruce, Rosie Day, Henry Goodman, Murray McArthur, Tom Wilkinson, James Faulkner, Lizzie Clarke, Rory Kinnear, Charlotte Spencer, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Peter Guinness, Sam Redford, Luke Neal.
It would be hypocritical to ever suggest that a classic cannot be improved upon, it would be churlish to insist that a timeless piece of art should never be covered or re-imagined, Time is always looking for ways to seek a new audience, Time is ravenous for change and to witness a new mark created; and yet sometimes Time is greedy, Time is undeserving of the transformation, the revolution it wishes to bring to the world. In the 2018 adaptation of one of the most loved books and films of the 20th Century, Watership Down seems to fill that sense of reputation floundering, of Time bitten off more than it can chew.
A modern-day all-star cast should in theory be able to bring life to such a concept, a new design of presentation, not always the case, the pull and beauty of the 1978 adaption may have its 21st Century detractors, criticising its almost barbaric nature, its sense of viciousness highlighted and yet there was something artistically ferocious, a canvas of compelling wildness in which nature was at its heart; it is in this that the version put to the television audience in 2018 lacks, a story in which supposed savagery but which was a superbly observed look at the natural world and the imbalance that humanity brings to it, thrived.
A classic is only as good as the perceived allegory and reflection of society in which it dwells, and whilst it would be unjust, if not unfair, to suggest that modern television audiences are overly sensitive to their wants and desires over the Christmas period, it cannot but be helped to notice that many of the original’s defining moments, the appearance and disembodiment of the Black Rabbit, the features of General Woundwort, the anger and vocal ill-discipline of Kehaar, the fear installed, in which the memory of disease of Myxomatosis and the dangers of authoritarianism were overriding, were seeming smoothed over, not forgotten, not dismissed, just made friendly.
One should never compare one person’s vision with another’s updated context, it leads to a stunted form of art, and yet Watership Down arguably deserved more, several wonderful touches aside, including a poignant memorial to Richard Adams, the film regretfully feels flat, no sense of the personal affection to the characters to be found in abundance.
It is perhaps with the faintest of praise in which to call a piece of art nice but it is hard to get past this point in the 40 years since the original was presented in cinemas, nice but ultimately not fulfilling.
Ian D. Hall