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I wanna cry! Help me find the touching movies.

post #1 of 196
6/12/02 at 8:43am
Thread Starter 
Ok, I ahve to admit that only two movies have touched me deeply (in my adult life): SCHINDLER'S LIST and DANCER IN THE DARK. These movies left me sobbering on the couch.

But NEVER have I found another movies that moved me like these. (well, the end of LOTR somewhat also managed to shed a tear)

So which movie do you recommend?
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post #2 of 196
6/12/02 at 8:50am
"Dancer in the Dark" certainly does it for me. So, too, does "Breaking the Waves". Same director, part of the same trilogy - might do it for you, too!

"The Passion of Joan of Arc" is another one, and a film that very directly influenced the above two (von Trier's a Carl Dreyer fanatic).
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post #3 of 196
6/12/02 at 8:59am
Schindler's List is the only one which has ever managed that. Practically anything on the Holocaust can have this effect on me, however.

All the classic weepies have zero effect on me, I'm afraid.
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post #4 of 196
6/12/02 at 8:59am
Too bad Harry & Tonto isn't on DVD. I'd snap that one up in a heartbeat. The last scene with Tonto the Cat leaves me misty-eyed every time. A lovely, bittersweet film.
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post #5 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:04am
If you like anime, Grave of the Fireflies will have you in tears. The one time I watched it, I had to stop several times, as it was just too much. Very moving.

John.
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post #6 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:05am
Well, call me a softy but "The Story of Us" usually elicits a tear or two.
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post #7 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:09am
I really get choked up by the end of Life Is Beautiful. It's just so powerfully simple and touching.

The Shawshank Redemption - One of the best uses of music to evoke emotion, and just a poewrful film all-around.


And I second The Passion of Joan of Arc.
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post #8 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:18am
Phenomenon gets me everytime; the story of someone special who was rejected by (nearly) everyone because he wasn't like them.
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post #9 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:19am
Though I've never cried, or felt like crying during a film, I recommend Nights of Cabiria.
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post #10 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:20am
City Lights and Saving Private Ryan are very powerful movies. There's also Old Yeller...
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post #11 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:25am
Paths of Glory
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post #12 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:26am
Life as a House and Riding in Cars with Boys both made my wife cry.

DJ
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post #13 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:37am
My all-time favorite: El Norte

Unfortunately, not on DVD yet


The endings of It's A Wonderful Life ("no man is a failure who has friends"), Yellow Submarine ("all you need is love"), and The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy saying goodbye) ALWAYS choke me up. I'm such a wuss.

Other movies that move me:

The Black Stallion
The Elephant Man
Ordinary People
Harold and Maude
Moulin Rouge
The Sweet Hereafter
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post #14 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:45am
Peter, great call on Paths of Glory! Perhaps one of the greatest endings I've ever seen for a war film.
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post #15 of 196
6/12/02 at 9:58am
Thread Starter 
I've seen Grave of the Fireflies. Very touching indeed (but not enough).

I remember crying over Jesus of Nazareth when I was a kid also.

Anyway, I'm gonna rent Breaking the Waves.
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post #16 of 196
6/12/02 at 10:04am
Quote:
"The Passion of Joan of Arc" is another one, and a film that very directly influenced the above two (von Trier's a Carl Dreyer fanatic).

Von Trier's 'take' on the Joan of Arc story is a lot more voyeuristic and exploitative IMHO. His films do possess a power, but they don't hold a candle to Dreyer's masterpiece.
Von Trier is working from an entirely different 'set of blueprints' with his perception of 'woman as martyr.'

Some Weepers:

Yi Yi
After Life
Brief Encounter
Lantana

All three of these films are slow and understated. They take their time on the viewer. With the exception of Brief Encounter's melodrama (although Noel Coward's smart, literate script hurdles major cliches), these films are weepers without being shamelessly manipulative, a la Von Trier.

Just my opinion, not trying to start a flame war.

Joseph
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post #17 of 196
6/12/02 at 10:06am
I would agree with Grave of the Fireflies.
The Iron Giant
A.I.
Madadayo
It's A Wonderful Life
Edward Scissorhands
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post #18 of 196
6/12/02 at 10:14am
Not one of you cried at the end of "Terms of Endearment" wow I hate to think I was the only one. I remember all 4 of us weeping.
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post #19 of 196
6/12/02 at 10:38am
Try October Sky and Field of Dreams if you are into Father-Son bonding flicks.

Iron Giant kinda gets to me as well.
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post #20 of 196
6/12/02 at 10:39am
Some that always make me cry:

Wings of Desire
After Life
The Harp of Burma
Autumn Sonata
A Little Princess (Alfonso Cuaron version)
The Secret Garden
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post #21 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:06am
If you REALLY want to cry, try Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias, or The Bridges of Madison County. I dare you. Oh, and The Man in the Moon, the 1991 film with Reese Witherspoon. Serious Kleenex flick.
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post #22 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:19am
The real challenge is to find a film where someone doesn't die at the end that still brings tears.

For instance, throughout the entirety of Amelie I had a lump in my throat because the look, feel, and mood of that movie fit me like a glove. It was almost like 'falling in love' with a film that had been made to please my every aesthetic sensibility. I wasn't merely 'charmed' (as in sweet natured guffaws) but emotionally seduced and brought to tears by what a good movie it was (apart from the few too 'precious' moments).

I felt the Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
videotaped footage of the horse running with the marathon runners, the man with the wooden leg, and even the dog and man leapfrogging around
was a lot less contrived than American Beauty's precious 'floating bag' sequence.

Joseph
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post #23 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:28am
well, i cry at the drop of a hat so my list is pretty lengthy and most are pretty recent. usually its the music that gets me and the fact that i more than likely have had a few beers in me. yup, i'm one of those drunks.

A.I.
Best Years of our Lives
Braveheart
Dances with Wolves
Field of Dreams
Forrest Gump
Gandhi
Ghost
Gladiator
Glory
Last of the Mohicans
Legends of the Fall
Mr. Holland's Opus
Moulin Rouge
Philadelphia
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Titanic
Thelma and Louise

oh yea, and Highlander. yup, i said Highlander.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
the whole part of the movie where we see Connor and his wife falling in love and then how she gets older while he never ages and then she finally dies. i'm pretty much a soup sandwich after that.
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post #24 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:42am
I think stepmom was the last one that did it for me.
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post #25 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:43am
I'd like to add:

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942)
CAROUSEL (1956)
THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962)

and an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE from 1963 that gets to me every time: "In Praise of Pip" with Jack Klugman

--Bill
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post #26 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:46am
I have to agree with Paul on Philadelphia. Big law fan, thought it had a very strong ending. Even though we knew he was going to die, the end where they showed the old home move when he was a kid sent me over the edge.

Also, the Green Mile got me when the officers lost it right before they executed him.

Steel Magnolias I refuse to watch. My (ex)-fiancee was a hypersensitive diabetic exactly like Roberts' role, and I had to live through the pain of seeing that on a daily basis.

I also felt a throat lump at the end of Harry Potter when Harry got the picture book of his parents from Hagrid.

Autumn in New York has a classy feel to it. Pretty predictable, though.

Being in the Navy, I had stong emotions over the hangar scene in Pearl Harbor where all of the coffins had flags draped over them.

Finally, the end of Black Hawk Down gets me as well since they honored the men who died, and the entire movie was created around a tribute to them.
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post #27 of 196
6/12/02 at 11:53am
“Green Mile” did it for me! There are also movies that are so bad that make me cry but I will not mention them!
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post #28 of 196
6/12/02 at 12:19pm
ummm.......

Braveheart
AI
Saving Private Ryan
Backdraft
The Green Mile
Ghost(com'n you know you did)

and the big whopper for me?............
The Champ(Ricky Schroeder and John Voight)-(completely lost it on this one. Had been bed-ridden at home for two weeks after a skin graft surgery from a motorcycle accident in junior high. I was in a messed up frame of mind. UhHmm!

For non-movies...every year that they recap the Iron Man triathalon on TV. Especially this last year when the 60 year old man that pulled his son(with muscular distrophy)in a raft for the swim, biked his son in a chair on the handlebars and pulled him in a cart for the marathon and finished the race. Big sobbing gop of gue I was. That was one of the most inspirational things I've EVER seen. Sorry to get off topic.
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post #29 of 196
6/12/02 at 12:34pm
- Life is Beautiful
- Braveheart
- Ghost (12 years later, it still makes me bawl like a baby :b)
- Imagine: John Lennon (I dare you to watch the vigil and not cry)
- Saving Private Ryan
- A.I.
- The Green Mile

SLightly off topic:
- Queen: Live at Wembley '86 (When Freddie says "We're gonna stay together until we fuckin' die, I'm sure" and then launches into "Who Wants to Live Forever?") I'm not sure if the scene is in the video release, but it gets me whenever I play the CD
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post #30 of 196
6/12/02 at 12:51pm
Batman and Robin

Take care,
Chuck


















Not tears of rage and hatred?!?!

E.T. still works
Black Hawk Down
Titanic (it worked my first few viewings...always at different spots)
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (admit it)
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