Great but heart-breaking films that leave you in tears with each watch.

Letter to an unknown woman would get lost in the mail probably, a tragedy of a different kind.

The Seventh Seal
A Canterbury Tale
Only Yesterday

Have only dared watch Grave of the Fireflies the once for this reason.
Twenty-Four Eyes (mentioned in the first post) is indeed a tearjerker du jour, but I felt the emotion was being wrenched from me by force of sentiment and waved around a bit.

I cried during A Serious Man because it was so Jewish

Like, the first (and probably last) film I've ever seen with a Jewish experience that vaguely resembles my own

Winter Light

Some previous threads in the archives:

Boo-Hoo: Film Scenes That Make You Well Up
Draining Movies
recommend me some tearjerkers/melancholic films

Microhabitat

oh man, when Paris Texas gets to Harry Dean Stanton's "I knew these people" speech... (which just doesn't have the same impact on its own, I know it's on youtube etc)

― StanM, Monday, June 5, 2023 3:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, that's a heart wrenching scene

A multitude of moments in documentaries

There's a scene in the documentary 'Moog' (2004) where Bob Moog plays 'Old Man River' on a theremin while standing next to a river. It must have seemed hilarious when they filmed it - old man plays 'Old Man River' by a river! - but Moog passed away the following year.

the obvious scene in manchester by the sea

i also cry all the time during movies

Kinda proud of the men of ilx itt being open about feelings

I cried when Superman came back to life during Justice League.

because i wanted that fucker dead

ian otm

oh, fuck...the death scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. forgot about that one. actually a reason I didn't do a rewatch recently because Yeoh's dialogue woulda been too much for me

I have a peculiarly lachrymose relationship with the ageing Sylvester Stallone. He only has to appear on screen in the Creed films and I want to bawl.

Even bits of Last Blood made me tear up. Although that might have been how awful it was.

im beginning to think we might need a thread about how honest and natural an actor stallone has been in great roles throughout his career tbh because his being great is not a one-off nor a new thing

Would absolutely contribute to that. He's always carried extraordinary pathos; watching him age is shattering for me.

everybody in this thread is my people, man. when my older son was small I'd take him to these rot-your-brain kids' movies because he enjoyed going to the theater and I enjoyed taking him and I'd just cry at the most maudlin stuff. Smurfs 2 made me crying. fuckin Smurfs 2.

may actually need a poll at where you are *most likely* to cry during its a wonderful life, tbh

I cry basically anytime the director or editor wants me to cry unless I can see it coming from a mile away. Then I proudly don't cry and say "try again, motherfucker."

may actually need a poll at where you are *most likely* to cry during its a wonderful life, tbh

― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, June 5, 2023 2:31 PM

I break at the end like most people, but also halfway through when Mary says "this is what I wished for."

i seem to cry the most during "smurfs 2" type situations. i'm tricked into thinking i can safely check out, and then wham a sudden pure emotional pitch combined with a memory or something.

that famous opening sequence in Up got to me when i first saw it, of course, but i think i actually lost it worse when Dug said "I was hiding under your porch because I love you"

One that did a complete 180 for me after I became a parent was at the end of The Little Mermaid when Triton bids farewell to Ariel and she says “I love you, daddy.”

I'm a cold mofo in recent years when it comes to weeping over movies. But the scene where Anju slowly descends into the water in Sansho the Bailiff hit me hard. I think I might have also been getting emotional about how technically brilliant it is as well, lol

i was thinking about Sansho, there's a lot in there, the ending especially

that famous opening sequence in Up got to me when i first saw it, of course, but i think i actually lost it worse when Dug said "I was hiding under your porch because I love you"

― two grills one tap (Noodle Vague)

i actually cried at that film when i saw it _pre-transition_

i _never_ cried pre-transition, that was the #1 reason i started hrt. because i wanted to cry and couldn't.

nowadays i cry all the time. a little bit estrogen, a little bit severe depression. i don't really watch movies these days, they get me too emotional.

everybody in this thread is my people, man...Smurfs 2 made me crying. fuckin Smurfs 2.

yeah like a lot of ppl itt i cry at every single movie. rot your brain kids' movies = it's guaranteed, action blockbusters with lots of shit blowing up = i surprise myself but yeah

doesn't matter if i know i'm being manipulated, bring on the endorphin rush

this started in my early 30's, previously i was the coldest mofo alive

Last time I welled up a bit was the mantis/peter scene at the end of the guardians of the galaxy holiday special.

I cannot watch the opening part of Up, I have to leave the room.

‘Cocoon’ always had me blubbing, now I can see that future over the horizon for me don’t think I’d be able to handle it now.

Last one I cried at was ‘A Man Called Otto’, think the one before that was ‘A Good Day in the Neighborhood’. I hope Hanks never does a remake of ‘Its a Wonderful Life’.

Incidentally this thread reminded of an Arab Strap song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdkBYGqX9TQ

I always cry at musicals
When loving dreams arе sung
I've stained many books, their stories false and true
I cry at rom-coms, dramedies
The news and children's films
The Muppet Movie, Frozen, Frozen 2

Good to know Aidan Moffat is a big softy too.

No one's mentioned "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2? Welling up just thinking about it now.

Don't put that out in the universe. Some studio will see it as a challenge to make Potter a sympathetic character. xps

None of the scenes people are mentioning are bringing up any strong feelings, I think I must watch movies to understand emotions rather than engage them.
It reminds me of something one of Mizoguchi's assistants said: "when we were on the set, filming a tragic scene, everyone would be in tears; then when you saw it on the screen, he had made it distant somehow, and you couldn't cry".

that famous opening sequence in Up got to me when i first saw it, of course, but i think i actually lost it worse when Dug said "I was hiding under your porch because I love you"

― two grills one tap (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 June 2023 18:45 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes, wrecked

two scenes in parasite- the family trapped under the table listening, and the flood, but song kang-ho is a cheat code anyway for this ofc

Thricefold yes to being unsuspectingly ambushed when watching ostensibly crappy films with kids. I think it's a rite of passage for them to see the auld folk quietly weeping to Smurfs 2/Gnomio and Juliet/Shitehawk's Revenge.

(Kids busting into a room to find a grown man sobbing to, eg, The Koln Concert and sensing something sacred but not knowing what is an adjacent genre.)

And I can't think of a particular scene now, but there always comes a moment in Miyazaki films when the essential goodness of a character's motives or actions overwhelms me. My poor old heart, I think, it's OK to break now.

I wept through a good part of A Dog's Journey.

I'll never see Up or even Wall-E, they just seem like certain scenes will be way too sad and it sticks to me that kind of thing.

And that reminds me of another, the ending of Silent Running, well most of the second half but yeah, that Joan Baez song, damn.

I dont think a movie deals with divorce with such devastation as Sing Street. The musical set piece/fantasy of Drive It Like You Stole It where the kid is looking out to the crowd at the school concert and sees his parents together and they are smiling up at him just crushes me

The needle drop at the end of Jojo Rabbit

have never been able to watch ET without crying

I cried at Terms of Endearment once, maybe I should watch it again to see if lightning will strike twice

in the Martin Eden movie amongst some of the real archive footage and made up stuff is a scene where a Tiny Tim style disabled kid is hobbling painfully on a crude excuse for a walking stick back to his slum hovel, while ostentatious laissez faire capitalism is represented by a firework display outside his dismal home as rain falls through his wrecked ceiling. It got me at first, even though corny af!

The "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" sequence in School of Rock; Max Fischer looking out through his window at Margaret Yang in Rushmore as "I Am Waiting" plays; when Darnellia sinks the tournament-winning foul shot in Heart of the Game. At least a dozen other moments.

I've only seen it a couple times, but the Swedish film Together ("Tillsammans" - 2000) made me weep both times

Also Stanley Kramer's On the Beach is a wonderfully maudlin tearjercker

the obvious scene in manchester by the sea

― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, June 5, 2023

that chance meeting between Randi and Lee on the street just slayed me

I saw The Flash last night and briefly broke down when Barry broke down and said goodbye to his mother for the last time, saying "I love you mom". really hit me when it wouldn't usually since dad has been so zoned out lately that he doesn't react to us when we visit, and we don't know why.

wish I still had my ET plush. that thing was badass.

my husband brought his ET doll to that screening we went to :)

not in sob category but I still like to respond "It was nothing like that, PENIS BREATH" to people.

the house party I watched it at as a kid erupted at that part (the kids, the adults were annoyed)

I thought I'd mentioned the short Bao already, but I guess not! Anyway, that one turns on the waterworks for me.

https://letterboxd.com/film/celia/

Two scenes in The Return of the King

"You already did... Eowyn. My body is broken. You have to let me go. I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed."

"My friends, you bow to no one."

I get choked up typing those lines out.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood: the ending w Sharon talking to Rick through the intercom & then the slow pan up to overlook the garage & driveway the aerial shot as Sharon & Jay & Abigail & Frykowski come outside & the Maurice Jarre music is playing

seen this movie like 10 times & i’m a mess everytime

it makes me cry so much

xpost -- both solid. On our podcast we just did the film ROTK the other month and my cohost Oriana noted that the Theoden/Eowyn relationship as acted through the films is really remarkable. The film version of their parting isn't the books, but it absolutely works in its own right.

the ending w Sharon talking to Rick through the intercom & then the slow pan up to overlook the garage & driveway the aerial shot as Sharon & Jay & Abigail & Frykowski come outside & the Maurice Jarre music is playing

Yeah. It's such a nice quiet 'what could have been.'

VegemiteGrrl, have you seen Celia I assume you have as its an Aussie film? I don't want to create a spoiler for those who haven't seen it, but if you have, you will know exactly what I mean.

Can't believe Make Way for Tomorrow isn't in this thread! Messed me up but good.

cracking film.

So Long, My Son

deleted post re lotr ppl can react how they like to peter jackson

sam and theoden prob the two /performances/ that can wrench a tear through gritted teeth tho

i know the thread title says great films and i am opening myself up to all manner of ridicule here

but when the little girl breaks and runs calling for her daddy in the patriot i got got

the fuckin patriot lads

there’s a couple of scenes in BROKER (2022) that just ended me

I've been trying to think of any movie that has made me cry and I finally remembered.

The Plague Dogs

I am pretty sure that I cried during my second viewing of Audrie and Daisy too.

Which I think qualifies as a great documentary because it does not hold back and tells the grim stories of these two young women unflinchingly. And they have both died from suicide.
;_; to infinity

One that particularly struck me recently was Okja. Just describing the final scenes to people got me emotional !

River Phoenix's campfire scene in My Own Private Idaho ("I really wanna kiss you, man").