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Harry and the Hendersons

Film (1987; vt Bigfoot and the Hendersons UK). Amblin/Universal. Directed by William Dear. Written by Dear, William E Martin, Ezra D Rappaport. Cast includes Don Ameche, Melinda Dillon, Kevin Peter Hall, John Lithgow, Joshua Rudoy and David Suchet. 111 minutes. Colour.

This amiable, well-made film is sf only in that it deals with a Lost Race. Harry is a Bigfoot, an 8ft (2.4m) intelligent hairy anthropoid, a shy native of the US Northwest. He is knocked down by the car of and then temporarily adopted by the Henderson family of Seattle. Made by Steven Spielberg's production company, Amblin Entertainment, Harry and the Hendersons is effectively a variation on the theme of his E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), in which the innocent Alien, healer of human hurt, pursued by the unthinking mob, is this time a father- rather than a child-figure. The occasional tartness of the film's wit compensates for its almost excessive sweetness; this proved to be a commercial miscalculation.

The novelization is Harry and the Hendersons (1987; vt Bigfoot and the Hendersons 1987) by Joyce Thompson. There has also been a television sitcom based on the film. [PN]

see also: Apes as Human.

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Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 16:50 pm on 9 December 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/harry_and_the_hendersons>