This started out as the title suggests -- thanks to Beth Mann for the idea -- but it has morphed into something more. I'm going to mention the corny movies that always manipulate me into crying, then some of the more serious ones that evoke tears. Even writing these lists was emotional. As a former film critic, some of my choices might be a little out there, and others are more obvious. I could mention about a 100 more movies that make me cry but these are the ones that come to mind first. Every time one of these films plays on TV, I stay up late to watch them, even though I own most of them. Such is the power of cinema and my tear ducts.
Corny choices
The Way We Were -- I don't even like Barbra Streisand, yet there is something about this Hollywood movie that is authentic in spite of itself. The casting is impeccable, the writing is seamless, the romance over the top, but I cry in many places, especially at the end when Barbra says, "Your girl is lovely, Hubble." True love never dies.
Midnight Cowboy -- It was a fine book made into a so-so movie but there are moments that I can't resist. The final scene on the bus to Florida always twists my heart, but I also cry a little when I see Dustin Hoffman's diminutive character hobbling alongside cowboy Jon Voight on the busy New York streets.
Born on the Fouth of July -- There is a tortured moment when Tom Cruise wails to his parents, "But who will LOVE me?" as he realizes what his new life as a paraplegic entails. Some of his best acting is in this movie, and again, I'm not a fan.
Terms of Endearment -- Another great book by Larry McMurtry. This is a no-brainer but still, it takes actors of the calibre of Debra Winger and John Lithgow to make something real out of Hollywood maudlin and they do it proud. You'd have to be made of stone not to cry when Winger tells her kids that she is dying.
Almost anything about animals -- The Black Stallion, It's a Dog's Life, Bambi, Lassie, Old Yeller, Black Beauty, Watership Down to mention a few. Just show me an animal in distress, and I'll probably start bawling.
Dark Victory -- No matter how many times I watch the end of this movie, I always cry. Corny yes, but it gets me every time. Bette Davis rules!
Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Mega corny but two scenes bring on the waterworks. When Audrey Hepburn rejects her loving but hopeless husband, Buddy Ebsen, for the final time, and when she throws "Cat" out of the taxicab. I know, I know, but tears are immune to logic!
To Kill a Mockingbird -- The death of childhood. 'Nuff said.
The Elephant Man -- Again, an obvious choice but I think the scene where he receives the comb set is the saddest and most tender of many sad scenes.
Phantom of the Opera -- Not a great movie but who can resist a thwarted love story this grand?
Cowboyology
I'm borrowing this from the title of Ian Tyson's seminal CD. I'm attributing the choice of these films to my praire/ranch upbringing:
Urban Cowboy -- The death of the love between John Travolta and Debra Winger is a terrible thing to watch.
The Electric Horseman -- I can't help it. This is a bad movie but I always lose it when Wilford Brimley (!) dies in his saddle. It makes me cry just thinking about it. One honest moment that is a tribute to a bygone era.
The Last Picture Show -- A classic based on the second Larry McMurtry book in this list, and it's not corny. There isn't a false note it in it. Even Cybill Shepherd is perfectly cast. Several scenes make me cry but the one where Cloris Leachman discovers that her young lover, Timothy Hutton, no longer wants her, is devastating. And then there's the death of Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), the cowboy mentor who touched so many lives. Picture perfect.
Mask -- Manipulative as all get out, but it's almost impossible not to be moved.
My more "out there" choices
The Sweet Hereafter -- One of my favourite movies ever, based on the book by Russell Banks. A momumentally tragic film about a town full of children killed in a bus crash, it is also inexplicably uplifting. Director Atom Egoyan makes grief palpable without resorting to cliches. Just about every scene in the movie hurts, but the one I love is when Bruce Greenwood's character threatens to beat the lawyer (Ian Holm) senseless. Both men are drowning in pain.
Wit -- A cancer flick that doesn't pander. Emma Thompson is a revelation as the brilliant John Donne scholar dying of terminal cancer. The movie is subtle despite the subject matter, and the medical profession does not come off terribly well, but its essential humanity is revealed.
The English Patient -- Where to begin? The movie is distant in places but Kirsten Scott-Thomas brings it home in the cave scenes. Ralph Fiennes is superb as a dying man destroyed by grief.
The Remains of the Day -- The book was brilliant and Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins give performances that echo in their opportunities lost. The final scene is a mastery of understatement.
Two similar-in-tone movies:
Breaking the Waves -- Lars von Trier's masterpiece (in my opinion) about what grief does to a woman (Emily Watson) whose new husband is terribly injured. Watson is resplendent, tragic, wild, and one of the most under-rated actors working today.
Trois couleurs: bleu (Blue) -- Juliette Binoche is a composer's wife who loses her husband and child. Crazy sad and beautiful. The first film of the late Krzystof Kieslowski's trilogy.
The Bicycle Thief -- One of the first movies I saw as a film student and it has stayed with me. The young boy's face when he learns the family's bicycle, essential for their livelihood, is stolen says it all.
La Strada -- One of Federico Fellini's best. The scene when Anthony Quinn's brutish character challenges sensitive clown Giulietta Masina's love for him is my sad favourite. The music is exquisite.
The Pianist -- Say what you will about Roman Polanski, he knows how to direct a film and Adrien Brody rises to the devastating subject matter. I can't pick just one moment.
Kundun -- I sat crying silently in the theatre throughout much of the second half of the film triggered by the gorgeous/awful image of a blood-red flower expanding to represent the genocide of Tibet.
Wings of Desire -- One of the most beautiful and poetic movies ever made. Wim Wenders shows the transcendence of ordinary life in death. You just have to see it to understand.
Separate Tables -- I've never forgotten David Niven as Major Pollack or Deborah Kerr as Sybil in this movie about the sadness and smallness of "proper" British life among residents at a seaside hotel. The scene where the disgraced Niven enters the dining room and Kerr stands up to acknowledge him always makes me cry.
Truly, Madly, Deeply -- Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman explore the meaning of love and death. And yes, I cry. A lot.
Jules et Jim -- Francois Truffaut's classic love triangle. Bittersweet doesn't seem adequate to describe it. My favourite self-sacrificing moment is when Jules gives Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) the freedom to pursue a romantic adventure with Jim. There is no such thing as perfect happiness, but Moreau almost makes us believe it is possible.
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Thanks for the list -- Breaking the Waves looks really good and that Deborah Kerr flick, too.
Oh wait, another Atom Egoyan picture that's great, Exotica.
No matter how many times I've seen Kundun, and it's a considerable number, I find myself in devastate tears.
Animal movies such as The Black Stallion are definitely in my "soggy mush" category.
I love your choices, particularly The Last Picture Show, The English Patient, The Remains of the Day, The Pianist, Bleu, Wings of Desire and especially The Sweet Hereafter because I thought I was the only person who appreciated it.
Two others that are on my own tear-inducing list are Grapes of Wrath and Carousel. Grapes of Wrath was recently on TCM and that "we're the people" speech kills me.
@skeletnwmn: I don't care for Beaches but love Enchanted April
@Owl: crying is good for the soul
@mypsyche: I like to cry and not always know the reasons why. Blue is my favourite too.
@RenaissanceLady: there are so many worthy films out there, it's impossible to watch them all.
@devilgrrl: I like all the ones you like too.
@Coyote: that's funny. Kundun is heartbreaking no matter how many times we watch it.
@thanks, Michael.
@Julie: I know, it's almost eerie.
@
The number 1 tear jerker for me has to be An Affair to Remember.
Great choices Emma.
It is one thing to see, and another to "feel" it is implict in it's approach to get it right, and to see it for what it is, when it is shame, the subject feels it, when it is sadness the suject experiences it, when it about life happening the character is ready to accept the happiness along with sadness of saying good bye to childhood, and accepting responsibility for ones actions.
I get teary eyed when listening to things like "Toy Land", the lyrics say, "once you leave it's borders, you can come back again". There is something so completely sad.
I remember watching as a young child, I will say about twelve years of age, my mother watching a movie, that I would just get sucked in. It was Willa Carther, it was a story about a woman who was a tennis champion, and it goes along, I didn't get the whole picture, except the part, where she is speaking to the two children under the tree, and they hug her, when they learn she is dying of cancer. There is also "Letters From the Edge" how do you not tear up? Another one that gets me, oh I am surprised you didn't mention this one, "The Other Side of the Mountain". The other one was one that my mother had asked me to read, but anything my mother ever asked me, I always went counter clockwise to, that was "Little Women". I didn't read it, but one day when my kids were still kids, it was on. I decided what did I have to lose, well about a ton of tissues and a gallon of tears thats what. I can get emotional over "Peter Pan", there is something about Peter Pan the imagery is heavy with connotation of growing up, leaving childhood behind, there is something so staunch in that uprising that sets off alarms still. There is also another fantastic movie by Federico Fellini, it is perfect in it's offset of madness, due to the inferior thinking of the brain, and the conscious, and that keeping the two on the same track is not only far from easy, but is a mission for even the people that belive their lies, or are trying to get it right. "The Joy Luck Club" is another one, that is inescapable, the examples that are brought forth of the families in question are just intriguing of how fate can play a role in what happens that is why it is not good to play with fate, or with matters of consciousness. I would also think, "The Sound of Music" classifies with tears at one point poingnantly streaming down as "Edile Wise" is being sung and the family is in danger, and even in the very begining when the family is getting to know Julie Andrews character. Thank you for your wonderful examples and if I think of any more, I will pm them to you.
This is the line that I'll always associate with The Way We Were. I remember seeing it for the first time in a theater when it first came out, I was in Jr. High and it was my introduction to the age of Hollywood blacklisting and the McCarthy witch hunts.
Great selection, with a few here that I have not had the pleasure of seeing but will now make it a point to.
Dr. Zhivago always turns on the water works for me. The scene when Yuri has finally been released by the white Russians and is trudging through the vast frigid whiteness, emaciated, propelled by love alone back to Lara. Then when she leaves the ice palace with Komorovsky, and he watches the sleigh from a window that he must break to see out of --- watches her leave. sob sob Then the near final scene when Yuri spots Lara walking on the street but he is riding a trolley and cannot get her attention. He leaps off and chases after her but his heart gives out and dies there, surrounded by strangers, and she walks on, oblivious to their near reunion.
Sorry to blab on. Great post emma!
"Brokeback Mountain"...such a sad and beautiful love story for men or women...I cry every time I watch it.
"An Affair to Remember"- Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr make romantic history in this movie. Try keeping it together when he comes to her apartment and discovers she is paralyzed...
I was just thinking about TMD tonight, probably b/c I was at the symphony. I stared at the first cellist so long that he tentatively smiled at me. I was remembering the scene where the sister tries to get Nina to let her son use the dead Jamie's cello, and how Nina, so kind and sweet, becomes angry b/c to do so would be to kill her beloved again.
A wonderful list...merci!
The most emotional and tear-drawing movie of all time, in my opinion, was the 1940 Waterloo Bridge (Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson).
Nice selection, Ms Romantic.
Rated.
:-(
Shadowlands: The CS Lewis biopic with Anthony Hopkins and Deborah Winger.
And the granddaddy of cheesy weepers:
It's A Wonderful Life. Can't quite make it through "Auld Lang Syne" without a few tears.
When I'm at my lowest I watch 'Gone with the Wind' and sob my way through to the bitter end.
But then some days, even adverts can make me teary.
Because of DVDs and Netflix and a great home theater - anyone can enjoy these great movies - there are no excuses. I hope someone actually hunts down these movies and watches them because of this post.
Great job.
The first one I remember bawling about was the Disney animation Dumbo, when the baby was taken from her mother.
I often cry when there is noble suffering, or when an underdog prevails.
I tried not to cry to Simon Burch, and it was just useless.
The final scene in The Apostle always gets me.
For some reason, Educating Rita made me cry.
And Terms of Endearment! Maudlin and overly sentimental, but very cathartic.
Terms of Endearment would be on the top of my list. I feel embarrassed it affects me so deeply! When Debra Winger is dying in the hospital and Shirley McClain (sp?) freaks out at the nurses. Ugh. Or the moment Debra dies and she shares this look with her mom. Double ugh.
But I'm also really moved by Nicholson's performance, which was so nice and subtle (thank god, for once!) And the children. And the deadbeat husband.
I watch it alone, because I cry about 5 times really hard...shh...don't tell anybody!
Great job, Emma.
"The death of the love between John Travolta and Debra Winger is a terrible thing to watch. "
HA!
Glad to see the The Joy Luck Club caused someone else to cry. I wept all the way through that movie and couldn't exactly explain why.
Lars & the Other Woman made me cry, too!
If Jeanne Moreau wanted a romantic relationship with me, I'd cry tears of joy.
Born on the Fourth of July? Nope. I never found Cruise believable in anything but Risky Business, and the only thing to cry about in that movie was when the Porsche crashed into Lake Michigan
The English Patient - far and away toooooooooo long, but I admit I cried for having wasted that much time watching
Breaking the Waves -- now that was a movie, even if it was too twisted for my taste, but Emily Watson is a fantastic actress
On my list of weepers:
Talk to Her
The Sea Inside
Five Easy Pieces (the scene with Bobby and his father)
Awesome post, Emma.
But every time I watch the video of Susan Boyle singing "I Dream a Dream" and her completely unstudied reaction to their praise...I cry a little.
You know what movie just does me in? Auntie Mame! The pure joy and love of this woman for that boy and life just slays me.
Your list is exceptional. Shirley MacLain AND Jack Nicholson in Terms, comes to mind. The bus scene in Midnight Cowboy, although every time Hoffman opens his mouth in that film, he just breaks my heart.
Movies where people triumph do it for me. Billy Elliot is a grand film about a boy who dances in spite of his idiotic family. The King and I..UGH...that death scene...but REALLY the waltz scene, where she teaches him to dance but really teaches him how to love her. marvelous.
oh well...I could go on forever with this topic. love it.
"On the Beach" really gets to me in a couple of places. I got tears two or three times in "Seabiscuit." (I know. I can't account for it.) And "Steel Magnolias" has gotten to me more than once. It is one of Sue's favorites and I try not to pay attention when she watches it, but I do, and always get upset.
Wonderful post.
Monte
Harry, I agree about the final scene of La Strada, and Lisa, I am so glad to have finally run into someone who remembers Separate
Tables! Tom, your choices are also "out there" and I do remember that great scene from Johnny Handsome.
Brokeback Mountain didn't move me as much as it did most people, but it was a good film. Some others I need to see so that I can cry some more. I had a lot of fun writing this and may do more movie pieces, but I could never hope to top you Monsieur Chariot.
The Sweet Hereafter was one of the most amazing moviegoing exepriences I ever had. From about 20 min into it till the end, no one in the entire theater seemed to move a muscle. It was the quietest, most rapt audience I've ever experienced, and I was the same. That movie had me in its thrall. I've been afraid to re-watch it!
I have arguments with some -- Wit is among those movies that I dislike because I think it makes dying very unlike how it really happens, making it more palatable even as it supposedly is a realistic, wrenching look at it. And I'm among that minority of people (altho we do have our own Seinfeld episode) who disliked The English Patient despite all the talent behind it. And Breaking the Waves, well, I'd have to do a whole blog post on that one.
But most of your choices get a nod!
A few memorable crying moments for me - seeing Bambi in the theatre as a child (pure torture), watching Old Yeller in school (ditto, with the added embarassment factor for sobbing in front of my entire class), the song from Toy Story 2 ("when she loved me" or something similar, which I saw as an adult and still cried), and a single moment from Titanic (the movie was horrible, but I couldn't watch the scene with the band/orchestra on the deck without remembering that they really did go down with the ship).
One that I'm not ashamed of and have come to embrace - I watch White Christmas every year and I'll be damned if I don't cry a little every time the surprise is revealed and the soldiers come marching through that ski lodge.
I, too, cry at the sight of tears on another human's face, not to mention American Express commercials.
I'm so glad somebody else mentioned "White Christmas," a definite guilty pleasure. Then there's "Dances with Wolves," which is an embarrassing choice to admit but gets me every time.
I cry outright at the end of Kazan’s “East of Eden” (1955) when James Dean’s Cal finally makes peace with his proud and authoritarian but now stroke-paralyzed and helpless father (Raymond Massey).
As for the many, many times I have experienced Kazan’s “Splendor in the Grass” (1961), I am overwhelmed first when Natalie Wood, as Deanie (the character who inspired my Salon.com name), is in emotional distress and stammers when called upon in her high school English class to interpret lines from Wordsworth. (Shades of my secondary school years!) By the end of the film I am a wreck: Deanie has spent a few years at a sanitarium following a nervous breakdown. Now she wants to see high-school honey Bud (Warren Beatty) and try to bring closure to their lost relationship, the source of her previous turmoil. Her girlfriends and her mother deny knowing Bud’s whereabouts, but when her previously ineffectual father, seated in the background, speaks up and tells Deanie what she needs to know, she goes over to him, leans down gently, kisses the top of his forehead, and tweaks his chin.
What can I say? Elia Kazan had a way of triggering my tear ducts.
One movie that I'm not sure I could sit through again because of one particular scene is THE OFFICIAL STORY. An Argentian movie about a woman who slowly discovers that there is a connection between her and the "mother of the disappeared," the scene where she confronts her husband had me sobbing in the theatre.
The Magdalene Sisters.
The Afghani film, Osama.
The Squid and the Whale.
I always cry at some point during How The Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I always feel silly for weeping while watching these cartoons, but I can't help it. I'm not even particularly sentimental about Christmas, but those two get to me for some reason.
And don't forget "Stella Dallas" when Barbara Stanwyck stands in the rain, gazing through the church window at her daughter's wedding--doing right by her daughter by leaving her to a better world.
The moment that gets me in The Sweet Hereafter is when the bus driver says of one of the kids, "He would have made a wonderful man." I just lose it there.
And Wings of Desire--most amazing thing ever put on film. I cry for some reason when Peter Falk is drawing the extras on the movie set. And when he talks to the angel he can't see, calls him "cumpañero." And always, always at the end, when Damiel is spinning Marion on the rope. *sigh*
That'll do, Pig. That'll do.
I might add, in honor of Alan Rickman (yes, TMD is one of them), a Christmas movie from England called Love, Actually in which Emma Thompson realizes that her husband (Rickman) is considering an affair if he hasn't had it already, excuses herself, goes to her bedroom and for 1 1/2 min Thompson holds us spellbound without actually saying anything as she goes through all the stages of grief. Oh, yes, tears, dears.
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