HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS

(vt Bigfoot and the Hendersons UK) Film (1987). Amblin/Universal. Dir William Dear, starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Joshua Rudoy, David Suchet, Don Ameche, Kevin Peter Hall. Screenplay Dear, William E. Martin, Ezra D. Rappaport. 111 mins. Colour.

   This amiable, well made film is sf only in that it deals with a lost race (LOST WORLDS). 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 adoptedby the Henderson family of Seattle. Made by Steven SPIELBERG's production company, Amblin Entertainment, HATH is effectively a variation on the theme of his E.T.: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982), in which the innocent ALIEN, healer of human hurt, pursued by the unthinking mob, is this time afather - rather than a child-figure. The occasional tartness of the film's wit compensates for the 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 UK) by Joyce THOMPSON. There hasalso been a tv sitcom based on the film.

   PN

   See also: APES AND CAVEMEN (IN THE MODERN WORLD).