Harry and the Hendersons 4K UHD Review

Harry and the Hendersons earned one Oscar nomination (and won!) for Rick Baker’s marvelous, beautiful, and endearing bigfoot suit. That same year, the Oscars committed a crime, which was not nominating Kevin Peter Hall for acting inside that same suit. It’s a co-equal performance by Baker’s team and Hall’s endearing charms.

The seams show in Harry and the Hendersons script. The idea isn’t unique, not just mimicking E.T. and Alf, but a slew of “creature(s) live with an American middle class suburban family” movies that followed the former two, whether tinged with horror or comedy. It’s an idealized ‘80s America where the dad is able to afford a home and two kids working at his father’s business, while living next door to the obnoxiously nosy neighbor the family cannot escape. It’s every sitcom from the era. At feature length. And because of Baker and Kevin Peter Hall, none of that matters.

Harry is a masterpiece. Rick Baker remains one of the greatest to ever do it, and no matter his prior or future successes (Gorillas in the Mist, notably), Harry bears an emotional core unlike anything else he ever did. The schmaltzy softness in Kevin Peter Hall’s eyes break through the foam rubber and hand-laid hairs to produce a character with endless appeal.

It’s funny in that Sasquatch adapts to domesticated life and enjoys an Addams Family marathon (don’t we all?), but it’s remarkable how convincing that absurdity looks. Hall makes the situation comfortable, plausible, and genuine. Working as a (typically) mute creature, Hall becomes a silent movie actor, conveying this creature’s soul through his own body. It works in opposite too when his soul is ripped out as co-star John Lithgow forcibly slaps Harry near the finale.

Composer Bruce Broughton’s score doesn’t hurt either. It’s just as magical, and forms to Harry and the Hendersons’ emotional core. It’s a simple family fantasy, nothing more, one where the pieces form such a genuine, pure, and endearing whole, Harry and the Hendersons is able to bury its cliches and find the emotion that when the kids cry, when dad cries, and Broughton’s score kicks up, the tears unavoidably flow, now just as much as they did 40 years ago.

What wizardry is this? Not that a gorgeous new 4K scan of an ’80s movie is anything unusual anymore (let alone a major studio production), but Harry and the Hendersons looks marvelous in 4K. Maybe it’s the years of watching this on VHS as a kid, but not even the Blu-ray comes close. The outstanding resolution pulls out fidelity in the forests, delivering definition unavailable from previous home video releases. Texture is visible on the Harry suit, including every hair. Facial detail misses nothing. Grain resolves easily.

Equally revitalized, color blossoms. Whether it’s the dense nature of the forest, clothing, drawings, or anything making wide use of this naturally saturated palette, it looks outstanding. There’s an organic quality to the flesh tones and really the entire palette.

Graded with Dolby Vision, there’s a pop to flashlights, headlights, and any other light sources. It’s a satisfying energy, adding an appropriate amount of life to the image without calling too much attention to things or feeling excessive. Grand shadows add the depth needed to make this a fantastic presentation from a faultless print.

In DTS-HD 5.1 (an alternate stereo track is available too), the forest is lively with ambiance. Birds and insects remain constant and lively in the rears. Stereos track cars passing through fluidly. There a few unremarkable low-end thumps courtesy of Harry, whether falls or footsteps. Whether from 1987 or not, fidelity doesn’t reveal any audible signs of age.

Commentaries come in triplicate. Director William Dear is involved with two of them, one brand new and moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale. The other with Dear is pulled from the Blu-ray. Podcaster Joe Ramoni is on the third, with three featurettes also from the Blu-ray. Deleted scenes and a trailer finish things out.