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

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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.”

Western® with Bacon Flavor, Monday, 5 June 2023 18:46 (one year ago) link

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

calzino, Monday, 5 June 2023 18:53 (one year ago) link

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

two grills one tap (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 June 2023 18:55 (one year ago) link

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.

Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 5 June 2023 19:05 (one year ago) link

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

carthage marine park (Deflatormouse), Monday, 5 June 2023 19:10 (one year ago) link

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

omar little, Monday, 5 June 2023 19:13 (one year ago) link

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

ledge, Monday, 5 June 2023 19:16 (one year ago) link

‘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’.

Dan Worsley, Monday, 5 June 2023 19:19 (one year ago) link

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.

Dan Worsley, Monday, 5 June 2023 19:22 (one year ago) link

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

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, 5 June 2023 19:24 (one year ago) link

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

ⓓⓡ (Johnny Fever), Monday, 5 June 2023 19:24 (one year ago) link

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".

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 5 June 2023 19:39 (one year ago) link

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

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 5 June 2023 19:55 (one year ago) link

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.)

Stars of the Lidl (Chinaski), Monday, 5 June 2023 20:03 (one year ago) link

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.

Stars of the Lidl (Chinaski), Monday, 5 June 2023 20:03 (one year ago) link

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

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 5 June 2023 20:07 (one year ago) link

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.

MaresNest, Monday, 5 June 2023 20:13 (one year ago) link

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

Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Monday, 5 June 2023 20:46 (one year ago) link

The needle drop at the end of Jojo Rabbit

Hideous Lump, Monday, 5 June 2023 20:52 (one year ago) link

have never been able to watch ET without crying

or something, Monday, 5 June 2023 21:00 (one year ago) link

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

just the sound of four guys smelting in a room (Matt #2), Monday, 5 June 2023 21:41 (one year ago) link

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!

calzino, Monday, 5 June 2023 22:00 (one year ago) link

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.

clemenza, Monday, 5 June 2023 22:08 (one year ago) link

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

Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 5 June 2023 22:14 (one year ago) link

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

Dan S, Monday, 5 June 2023 22:47 (one year ago) link

I broke down during the first section of Up and try not to think about it anymore, but what's even more vivid is the memory of looking behind my cinema seat during the montage, and seeing rows of rows of brokn people behind me. It was almost a relief when the rest of the movie was total nothingburger.

After that and Toy Story 3, my partner won't see Pixar movies anymore. If anything, I think TS3 prodded them in the direction of going to far - I still think that final scene, on the conveyor belt, is way too much for a childrens' movie - it's like heading to Life is Beautiful territory

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 5 June 2023 23:42 (one year ago) link

Aftersun killed me, it touched so many nerves about my separation and my relationship to my kids. And each time I've seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind it drags tears from me. The Elephant Man likewise. I don't know how Lynch made a film with that depth of feeling at that age.

assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 00:22 (one year ago) link

The famous final shot of The 400 Blows has gotten to the older me.

clemenza, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 01:19 (one year ago) link

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

"He's handsome." ;_;

Vast Halo, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 12:37 (one year ago) link

The radio call of Ingemar Johansson winning the title in My Life as a Dog and the whole village going crazy.

clemenza, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:46 (one year ago) link

xp pls no or i fp

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:48 (one year ago) link

On the Waterfront:

Edie: "I remembered you the first moment I saw you."

Terry: "By the nose, huh? Some people just got faces that stick in your mind."

clemenza, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:50 (one year ago) link

everyone taking a moment to watch if mitch and mickey will kiss in a mighty wind

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:51 (one year ago) link

A certain kind of utter joy is, I think, much more likely to make me tear up at the movies than sadness.

clemenza, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:52 (one year ago) link

"Wyatt Earp is my friend."
"Hell, I've got lots of friends."
"I don't."

ⓓⓡ (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:07 (one year ago) link

Tombstone is so good

calzino, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:14 (one year ago) link

My eyes spring a leak at all kinds of stuff. There have been many recent televisual instances but I'll have to think hard to recall what they were (pretty sure Station Eleven did it a couple of times).

Two 1930s films I've seen somewhat recently that got me to almost that hitching breath state of weeping were Make Way for Tomorrow and The Young in Heart. Tender depictions of senescence would seem to be a trigger.

I'm sure I mentioned it elsewhere 'round these parts but I was pretty much just full-on bawling through basically the entirety of Tree of Life when I first saw it. Glad I was sitting in the front of the theater.

Beautiful Bean Footage Fetishist (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:25 (one year ago) link

The Burmese Harp, though I've only seen it once

The Terroir of Tiny Town (WmC), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:25 (one year ago) link

oh yes tree of life hit me several times

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 21:50 (one year ago) link

have never been able to watch ET without crying


Me too, as much now as I did when I was three

TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:19 (one year ago) link

If I was ever replaced by a replicant my parents’ Voight-Kampff test would be playing the end of ET for me. One of the first times my mother met my now-husband it was over Christmas and ET was probably on as it is, and she mentioned that when I was a baby my parents would put the video on just because I cried at the end!

TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:21 (one year ago) link

heart light or home or all of it

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:25 (one year ago) link

watched it again recently the kids are across the board incredible

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:26 (one year ago) link

Have only seen it twice, blubbed both times.

Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:27 (one year ago) link

a week or two before my first child was born I watched Never Let Me Go with my wife and it just fucking destroyed us, not stuff you want to be thinking about when you're about to bring a life into the world.

the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:30 (one year ago) link

The scene in 20th Century Women where Annette Bening goes to a punk club for the first time at 60 (it's 1979) and tries to find the words to describe what she's seeing; when Bill Paterson talks to the woman in the hospital in Comfort and Joy ("You make an old lady smile every morning"); Alan Ginsberg describing the first time he heard Dylan in No Direction Home.

clemenza, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:39 (one year ago) link

heart light or home or all of it


The latter

TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Tuesday, 6 June 2023 22:41 (one year ago) link

a week or two before my first child was born I watched _Never Let Me Go_ with my wife and it just fucking destroyed us, not stuff you want to be thinking about when you're about to bring a life into the world.


Oh god, yes. Just sat in the cinema at the end, eyes stinging from tears, unable to move.

Alba, Wednesday, 7 June 2023 08:04 (one year ago) link

The campfire scene in My Own Private Idaho.

Lew Ayres' sad probably queer alcoholic brother in Holiday whenever he and Katherine Hepburn commiserate.

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 7 June 2023 08:11 (one year ago) link

The father-son game of catch in Field of Dreams is a famous tearjerker moment, but the one that always got me is when Burt Lancaster's character as a young man gives up his youth and opportunity to play baseball in order to save the choking girl. Many a time over the years I have tried to psychoanalyze my emotional self, pondering why the latter and not the former brings the waterworks

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, 8 June 2023 05:39 (one year ago) link


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