Watership Down (1978)

John Hurt: Hazel

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hazel : [mourning the supposedly-dead Bigwig]  My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.

• Black Rabbit : Hazel? You know me, don't you?

  Hazel : I don't.

  [the visitor reveals himself as The Black Rabbit] 

  Hazel : Oh, yes, my Lord... I know you.

  Black Rabbit : I've come to ask if you would like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now.

  [Hazel pauses to look back at his rabbits] 

  Black Rabbit : You needn't worry about them. They'll be alright, and thousands like them. If you'll come along, I'll show you what I mean.

  [Hazel lies down and dies] 

• Hazel : Lord Frith, I know you've looked after us well, and it's wrong to ask even more of you. But my people are in terrible danger, and so I would like to make a bargain with you. My life in return for theirs.

  Frith : There is not a day or night that a doe offers her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla, his life for his chief. But there is no bargain: what is, is what must be.

• Bigwig : Hazel? It is Hazel, isn't it?

  Hazel : It is.

  Bigwig : What are you doing here?

  Hazel : [Motioning to Fiver]  We want to see the chief rabbit, Bigwig.

  Bigwig : We? You mean he wants to see him too?

  Hazel : Yes.

  Fiver : I must.

  Bigwig : What on earth for?

  Fiver : Well, I...

  Holly : Bigwig? What do they want?

  Bigwig : They want to see the chief rabbit.

  Holly : What for?

  Fiver : Well, I...

  Holly : Send them away.

  Bigwig : I'll take care of it, Holly.

  [Turns back to Hazel] 

  Hazel : Look, Bigwig, when have I EVER asked to see the chief rabbit?

  Bigwig : [Thinks over, hesitating]  All right, all right. Wait here.

  [Goes into warren, speaks to Chief Rabbit for a moment, comes back up] 

  Bigwig : Come along then. Though I'll probably get my ears chewed off for this...

• Hazel : [to the cat]  You look hungry! Rats getting too clever, I suppose?

• Dandelion : If we meet again, Hazel-rah, we'll have the making of the best story ever!

  Hazel : And you'll be the one to tell it!

• Hazel : Where are you going?

  Fiver : Away, to the hills.

  Hazel : By yourself, alone? You'll die!

  Fiver : You're closer to death than I am.

• Black Rabbit : Hazel... Hazel... you know me, don't you?

  Hazel : I don't know.

  [the apparition reveals himself to be the Black Rabbit, and Hazel gasps] 

  Hazel : Yes, my lord. I know you.

  Black Rabbit : I've come to ask if you'd like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now.

  [Hazel looks at all the younger rabbits of Watership Down] 

  Black Rabbit : You needn't worry about them. They'll be all right, and thousands like them. If you come along now, I'll show you what I mean.

• Hazel : Are you hurt?

  Kehaar : Kaah kaah!

  Hazel : If he's hurt, maybe we ought to help him.

  Bigwig : A bird? What for?

  Hazel : We - help - you.

  Kehaar : Piss off!

• Dandelion : [looking at the countryside from Watership Down]  O Frith on the hills! He made it all for us!

  Hazel : Frith may have made it, but Fiver found it.

• Fiver : There's something very queer about the warren this evening...

  Hazel : Is it dangerous?

  Fiver : It's not exactly danger, it's... oh, I don't know. Something oppressive... like thunder.

• Hazel : We'll fill in the holes good and deep. They'll have to dig us out, and they can't stay out in the open for long without attracting elil.

  Blackavar : You don't know the Efrafans. They'll never give up.

• Hazel : [while running to the farm to save his rabbits from Woundwort]  Lord Frith, I know you've looked after us well and it's wrong to ask even more of you, but my people are in terrible danger! So I would like to make a bargain with you... my life in return for theirs.

  Frith : There is not a day or night that a doe offers her life for her kittens or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief, but there is no bargain. What is is what must be.

• Bigwig : [They're being chased by a dog at the stream's edge]  Come on! What d'you think will happen when he picks up our scent? Those that can swim swim. The others... will have to make out the best they can.

  Hazel : That's not good enough! We all got into this together, we'll all get out of it together!

• Pipkin : [while all are digging in the rain]  What's happening back home, I wonder? Think, when we lived in our own burrows? Dry, soft, warm bodies...

  Dandelion : [to Hazel]  Look, we can't go on like this.

  Silver : It keeps getting worse and worse wherever we go. Where ARE we going?

  Hazel : It won't be much longer, then we can all rest.

  Silver : How MUCH longer?

  Pipkin : We never should have left.

  Blackberry : Suppose Fiver's all wrong?

  Pipkin : We want to go back and find out.

  Hazel : Go back? After all we've been through?

  Bigwig : And probably get killed for wounding Captain Holly? An Owsla officer? Talk sense, for Frith's sake!

• Hazel : [Bigwig is being strangled in a snare]  Bigwig! Listen, you're in a snare! A snare! And what did they tell you in Owsla? Think!

  [Hazel tries to chew the wire loose] 

  Bigwig : [gurgles]  No good biting wire...

• Hazel : [Holly is trying to stop them from leaving the warren]  Go... now... or we'll kill you!

  Holly : It's you who'll be killed!

  [He attackks Hazel] 

• Hazel : [to Cowslip]  Rabbits will always need tricks!