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The saddest movie I have ever seen (1 Viewer)

Dick

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For a 60+-year-old male, I cry with embarrassing regularity watching certain movies. IRIS and AWAY FROM HER did this to me, as they are about aging and, and so am I! I am sure that AMOUR will have the same effect on me. The biggest heartbreaker for me, though, was an animated film from Japan: GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. I completely lost it. What incredible skill the Ghibli Studio animators invested in this production. The little girl's slow death by starvation and exposure brought about by U.S. firebombing is just so devastating -- her innocence and love of nature dying away because of man's relentless pursuit of power and destruction. I just can't imagine anyone watching this and not being left rather speechless afterward. And it's a cartoon! (which just happens to capture the human passion for life better than 99% of live-actions films being made). The new Blu-ray is quite beautiful.
 

Steve Tannehill

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Most depressing movie I have ever seen. Once was enough.
 

Hanson

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When I saw the subject line, the first movie that came to mind was Grave of the Fireflies. The first time I saw it, it was on VHS. I bought the DVD and watched it with my sister, and she was a wreck afterwards. I haven't brought myself to watching it again since.
 

TonyD

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I haven't seen Grave yet so I'll go with What Dreams May Come and any version of Les Miserables. My Dog Tulip might be or any movie about a Dog and his master like Hatchi for example.
 

Citizen87645

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It's been some time since I've watched Grave. Strangely enough, there was a sale tag at Best Buy for the title, but it was in the horror section of all things. Apparently the databaser/stocker had no clue what the movie is about (no sign of the actual Blu-ray either).
 

Dick

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TonyD said:
I haven't seen Grave yet so I'll go with What Dreams May Come and any version of Les Miserables. My Dog Tulip might be or any movie about a Dog and his master like Hatchi for example.
Your titles bring to mind MARLEY AND ME, which, for about 80% of the running time, is a slapsticky, typical puppy-wreaks-havok-but-becomes-a-very-beloved-part-of-the-family comedy, but during its final fifteen minutes turns into an incredibly realistic and very sad end-of-life story that I imagine most dog lovers (myself included) would have a hard time sitting through without at least sniffling a lot.
 

Hanson

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Grave isn't merely sobby sad, it's despairingly bleak and hauntingly depressing.
 

David Norman

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In my best Tom Hanks "The Dirty Dozen -- y know when Jim Brown near the end is running and dropping the grenades and he's running and then the Nazis start shooting ........" The Day After Silent Running - a really odd choice but ever time I see it I just lose it near the end. Les Mis certainly gets things churning in a real hurry. And who could forget Old Yeller.
 

TonyD

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Agree on Silent Running. I can't watch any dog movie anymore.
 

Patrick H.

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As with many above...Grave of the Fireflies, by a wide margin. I think I went through all the stages of grief after I saw that, and doubt I could watch it again...
 

Ruz-El

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Dancer in the Dark for me, though I've not seen Grave. I'll have to check it out.
 

James David Walley

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Actually, Dancer... didn't leave me so much sad as filled with a burning desire to hunt down the director and beat him to death for making me sit through that. If my defense team showed the DVD in court, there's not a jury alive who would convict me. ;-)
 

Aaron Silverman

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There is an interesting view of Grave of the Fireflies, where it is seen as intended to symbolically show the childlike Japanese being crushed by the monstrous US as a revisionist metaphor for the war itself. I have only seen part of the film, but, being fairly knowledgeable about the war and Japanese revisionism, I can understand that view.
 

Bryan^H

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UP the first 15 minutes or so. Brutal Pixar.....just absolutely brutal. The rest of the film was fun though.
 

MatthewA

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Originally Posted by Bryan^H
UP the first 15 minutes or so.
Brutal Pixar.....just absolutely brutal. The rest of the film was fun though.

The first 12 minutes of Up could be a short film unto itself, and it's the perfect portrait of every stage of a lifelong marriage, both the "for better" and the "for worse" parts. The emotional effect is devastating. It's brutal because it's emotionally honest in a way few other American animated films I've ever seen are.
In the canon of "sad movies about dogs," Snoopy Come Home certainly belongs in the top 10.
 

bujaki

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Matthew writes: "It's brutal because it's emotionally honest in a way few other American animated films I've ever seen are." Take away the word "animated" and his statement about UP is true as well. I'll add to the mix Forbidden Games and Come and See, films showing the devastating effect of war on children.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Come and See is an insanely violent-feeling movie that doesn't actually contain much violence. It is really draining to watch.
 

ChristopherG

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Well, thanks for the warning about Grave of the Fireflies. I will avoid that at all costs. I find that life itself can be so depressing, difficult, and well just ugly, that I simply refuse to have my "entertainment" put me in that emotional state. I want escapism and fantasy and joy. And the odd zombie apocalypse.....
 

Edwin-S

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MatthewA said:
In the canon of "sad movies about dogs," Snoopy Come Home certainly belongs in the top 10.
My number 1 on that list is "The Plague Dogs". I wish that one would come out on Blu.
 

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