Harry and the Hendersons: A Filthy Movie for the Whole Family
They don't make them like they used to.
When it comes to Harry & the Hendersons, I assume you fit into one of three categories:
You’ve never heard of this movie.
You have a vague sense of it being a movie but can’t remember if you saw it.
You loved it but totally forgot about it until this post.
Since I saw this movie over 3 decades ago I didn’t remember much at all, but knew I liked it as a kid. When I recently stumbled upon it on a streaming service, I decided it might be a fun movie to show my own family. It’s always fun to try and connect your family with your own childhood, so I thought Harry could be the vehicle for that.
To save you the suspense of whether or not you should watch this with your family, I think you could pass. That said, I assume you’re an adult so do what you’d like.
While I do like John Lithgow (George Henderson) and he actually turns in a solid performance - he carries this entire movie on his shoulders - there’s a reason why it’s become a forgotten movie.
Someone on IMDb has a review entitled “Better Than E.T.”, which is laughable. While there are some similarities (I mean, who wouldn’t want to try and churn out an imitation of one of the most successful movies of all time) it’s not in the same ballpark as E.T.
An interesting aspect of this movie is that it chose to focus on the father’s narrative instead of the kid’s. Again, Lithgow is great but his story isn’t one that easily resonates with children. He’s wrestling with adult concerns throughout most of the movie. An added hurdle for children connecting with this story is the runtime; just shy of two hours.
I would argue that the reason it resonated with me as a child, is due to the fact that my options were limited. I didn’t have hundreds of new movies to pick from. Harry was the one family film released at the time, so I saw it. Simple as that.
One Similarity to E.T.
As the Hendersons are driving home from a camping trip, they crash into a Sasquatch, whom they later name ‘Harry.’1 As they’re unsure of what it is, George and his young son, Ernie, investigate the, supposed, dead animal on the side of the road.
George notices that it has hands like a gorilla, ruling out the possibility of this animal being a bear. Upon further investigation, they believe the animal is in fact Big Foot. This realization moves Ernie’s exclamatory, “Holy $#&%!”
Let’s be honest, if any of us stumbled upon a Sasquatch, we might let a profanity fly as well; I don’t want to come down too hard on young Ernie. That said, I was surprised that the first obscenity of the movie came from a 10-year-old boy and became repeatedly surprised as more profanities would follow.
Here’s a sampling of the language in the movie:
Pissed (this was a bad word in the 80’s…to my family, at least.)
A**hole
S*** a total of 5 times
Bulls***
Son of a B****
Hell
Damn
G.D. a few times
Bastard
Sucks (again, in the 80’s this was frowned upon)
And several misuses of the Lord’s name
Just look at this list and scroll back up to the adorable picture of the Hendersons and Harry. These people are filthy. Okay, I’m slightly joking, but this is obviously a PG movie that’s aimed at families.
The shocking amount of profanity in a movie aimed at children is a similarity to E.T. However, when comparing the two, you’d much rather your children hang out with E.T. than Harry (Harry’s language is labeled as ‘moderate’ on IMDb compared to E.T.’s ‘mild’ labeling). Maybe it’s just me, but there was something about the content of 80’s movies compared to today.
I’m sure some of this was due to the PG-13 rating still being such a new phenomenon (Harry came out just three years later), but I wonder if there’s any connection to the concept of parenting.
Parenting Becoming Popular
While I would make the case that many PG-13 movies have become creative in ways to push the boundaries of that designation, it seems like the PG rating has become more protected and perhaps some of this is the fruit of over-protected parents. Don’t mishear me, I’m not trying to argue a case here, I’m simply making an observation.
Looking at the below chart, this displays how much the word “parenting” appeared in literature. Needless to say, the idea of parenting wasn’t on society’s radars until the late 70’s/early 80’s.
This isn’t to say that no one was talking about or thinking about parenting prior to this time. But it seems that the culture became much more conscientious about the concept of parenting, which, I would assume, led to other discussions like what content our children were being exposed to in movies, for example. This is a gross oversimplification, but - as parenting became more of a conscious awareness in society - I would assume that filmmakers, studio executives, and viewers became more aware of the content younger minds were exposed to.
If you’re a little surprised that an article discussing Harry and the Hendersons has lead us to this point, I’m right there with you.
What am I trying to say? I’m not totally sure. That said, I’m wondering if PG movies have become more tame in our day. Has PG become more like the G-rating? In our diligence to protect/shelter our children from anything that might offend/trigger/harm them, has it shaped the product movie studios offer?
Seriously, take a minute to look at the list of obscenities above and imagine taking your children to a PG movie that contained those words. I don’t think that would be the case anymore.
Maybe this is simply the fruit of the PG-13 rating actually doing what it set out to do. Maybe my thinking is just way off. Or, maybe it’s just the Hendersons.
Hmmm. Tangentially, I think part of it is a focus-shift over the last few decades from stories that were aspirational to stories that are representational. Growing up, I remember my favorite cartoons were about adults - Tarzan, Zorro, Thundarr, the Superfriends, Hulk, even the 80s "Spider-man and his Amazing Friends" cartoon cast them as young adults (college age). Some of my favorite shows were the Wild Wild West, The A-Team, the Man from UNCLE and The Greatest American Hero - adult heroes, spies and superheroes. E.T. wasn't the norm, and even in film kids watched Star Trek, Close Encounters and Superman - LOTS of stories were about "adult concerns" or the idea of "becoming" adults. Even the Scooby Gang was post-high school, and family films like The Last Starfighter (and Luke in Star Wars) were about young men becoming adults.
This focus made young me (and others) meditate and dream and think about what it would be like to be a man (or woman) someday, versus sitting in my childhood and adolescence. I'm not sure of all the psychological ramifications, but wonder if the predominance of kid shows about kids may or may not be the healthiest diet. Not a completely formed thought, but a musing from the cheap seats:)