Was That Supposed to be a Sad Ending?

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Yesterday I was made all sad by Singles. What movies make you cry?

-- Kymm Zuckert (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), August 10, 2000

Answers

Under the right circumstances, any movie will make me cry. I can cry at Die Hard, for goodness' sakes!

I will rarely get visibly upset about things in real life, except in front of those closest to me, but put me in front of a movie and I will weep until my eyes fall out. (Not all the time, obviously, but often enough to be embarrassing.)

I'm sorry to say that I'm a total pushover for every stupid, over-the- top Hollywood tearjerker plot device ever invented. Plus some.

Basically, I'm a wuss.

-- Dawn (amgraffiti@superplin.com), August 10, 2000.


The Bridges of Madison County.

Not just cry. Weep. Great hysterical sobs. If I actually think about the movie too much, I can get depressed. This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime indeed. And a person is supposed to be happy how?

Recently I'm just crying over and over again at Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. Therapy or torture? You decide. :-)

-- Melissa (centerbeth@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.


I recently re-watched Shakespeare in Love, and I was left curled up in a fetal position.

William Shakespeare:You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die.

I mean, shit! I don't know if I am just moved by the beauty of the fine Joseph Feinnes or what, but this movie makes me lose all composure. (I could go on, but I won't, because this post will get all slobbery, and because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who maybe hasn't seen it. What are you waiting for, you fool?)

-- dora (dora_525@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.


I've seen One True Thing a couple times, and I don't weep when Meryl Streep dies, but when she says to her daughter something along the lines of:

You are so cold, and so hard, and if you don't learn to love what you have, you are going to have such a difficult time in this world.

I completely fall apart.

-- Anne (annegrrl@chickmail.com), August 10, 2000.


I hate, hate, hate being manipulated by Hollywood, but the movies that make me cry are usually of the schmaltzy, overly sentimental variety. Yes that's right - I saw "Stepmom". In a movie theater. And paid $9.50 for my ticket.

-- Sarah (scampbell@frankfurtbalkind.com), August 10, 2000.


I'm a big mooshball, so I'll cry at any number of movies, from When Harry Met Sally to Inherit The Wind to Casablanca to even The Full Monty.

Given the theme here of late, I thought I'd recommend a wonderfully bittersweet movie to everyone and make you feel even better. (wry smile)

It's called A Summer Story (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0096189) - I first saw it on The Movie Network here in Canada about 10 years ago and fell in love with it. I'm a sucker for both the period of the movie (turn of the last century Britain) and the whole unrequited love theme. Sadly, it's now out of print, but you might be able to find it at your more reputable video rental places. I snagged my copy of the movie recently from an eBay auction.

-- Ron Collings (dragon@crescentschool.org), August 10, 2000.


Casablanca. When the "bad girl" who was sleeping with Nazis joins in the singing of the "Marseillaise." Solidarity restores self-respect. Gets me every time.

-- john burke (john.burke@mindspring.com), August 10, 2000.

Ahem..."Say Anything," "Steel Magnolias," and "Chasing Amy." In no particular order.

Let the chants of "Wuuusssss" begin! :>

-- roe (metrocake@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.


Two movies turn me into a big blubbery mess, yet I still deliberately watch them, probably for that very reason.

"Braveheart" - as Murron is tied to the stake, her throat about to be slit, the look on her face is so achingly sad, so full of everything that was supposed to be, I absolutely can't stand it. Then, of course, there's the execution scene. Kiss the family-sized box of tissues goodbye...

"Last of the Mohicans" - practically the same look on Uncas' face as he's about to go over the cliff. Then the total loss of hope in Alice's eyes when she follows.

Gets me every time.

But I'm like Dawn, in that I'll fall for the most obvious Hollywood plot devices. The worst part is I'll see them coming a mile away, and start weeping BEFORE they happen. Like "City of Angels." Dummy Meg (and I feel comfortable calling her that here ;-) rides a bike with her eyes closed after her night with Nik Cage. Happy moment, right? Wrong. "She's gonna get hit by a truck." I started bawling the instant she put her arms out.

By the way, I loved "Crossing Delancey," too. :-)

Jennifer

-- Jennifer (jennifer@callrsi.com), August 10, 2000.


I just wanted to say that _Singles_ was shot at the Coryell Apartments at the corner of 19th and E John, which is three blocks away from the building in which I was living at the time, at 19th and E Republican. I thought it would be exciting living so close to a movie set, but what actually happened was that they displaced a bunch of parking in the neighborhood by setting up trailer after trailer along 19th, and we weren't allowed to walk on that side of the sidewalk. And except for Matt Dillon, none of the people in it were particularly famous at the time.

A then-co-worker of mine, Ron, was an extra in the club scene where Kyra Sedgewick yells to her friend over the noise of the bar, "WE WILL ALWAYS GO OUT DANCING!" and has to repeat herself because the friend doesn't catch it the first time. According to Ron they had to do about forty takes, and it got to the point where every time Kyra's friend yelled "WHAT?" after Kyra's line the hundred or so assembled extras would scream in unison, "WE WILL ALWAYS GO OUT DANCING!" Cameron Crowe was really pissed off and threatened to fire everyone.

I almost never cry at movies. The last time I can remember doing so was when Abbie and I were watching _Marvin's Room_. During one scene I started snuffling a bit, but I didn't want to embarrass myself because the scene was so obviously designed to reach out from the screen and grasp and squeeze my tear ducts until they gave in and started shedding copiously, but THEN I heard snuffling coming from my left, and I turned and Abbie was also trying to contain her snot, and she looked at me and I looked at her, all four of our eyes brimming, and we started laughing and crying at the same time.

Once I was watching _West Side Story_ with a girlfriend and she started sobbing when Tony was shot and Maria starts wailing, "How many bullets, Chino? How many can I kill and still have one left for me?" This might have been understandable had she [and I] not already seen _West Side Story_ approximately three hundred times already. I mean, when you can sing and dance in synch with every musical number, you'd think that the film's emotional impact would be somewhat dampened through repetition.

-- Kim Rollins (kimrollins@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.



Well, I'm gonna get flamed but good for this one...

remember the scene in Start Trek II, when Spock's dying, and he asks Kirk what he thinks of his solution to the Kobayashi Maru scenario? That gets me every time; I always think Kirk's line should be, "I think it sucks, Spock..."

Okay.

I'll leave now.

-- Colin (ethilrist@prodigy.net), August 10, 2000.


Oh, the end of STAGECOACH (1939), when the ammunition has run out and the Indians are just about ready to close in on the stagecoach and scalp everybody, and John Carradine (the rogue gambler with a secret past who has offered his protection to the Virginia gentlewoman traveling alone (played by Louise Platt, who must not have made another movie, but she's fabulously memorable) shows the camera that he does, in fact, have one bullet left in his pistol. We see him raise the pistol to his head when the camera pans to Louise Platt, crouching on the floor of the coach and praying fervently, when suddenly the gun is pointing at her head! Carradine is prepared to kill the woman he loves to prevent her from being tortured or "outraged" by the Indians; this was considered the honorable thing in those days, you know, "death before dishonor." This extreme gesture of love makes me weepy nearly every time I see the movie.

Then the cavalry sweeps in for Truth, Justice, and the American Way, and I cry even more.

And I absolutely agree with the earlier post about singing the Marseillaise in CASABLANCA, but the character who does it for me is Corinna Mura, the Spanish singer, robustly strumming her guitar and lifting her voice in the joyful chorus. Gets me every time.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), August 10, 2000.


I can't believe you just gave away the ending of STAGECOACH. Fuck! I was going to rent it this very night.

-- Dave Van (davevan01@hotmail.com), August 10, 2000.

An honest answer to this question is-which movies DON'T make me cry?

Actually, I'm not THAT much of a wimp. Movies in which things blow up don't usually make me reach for a Kleenex, but even if the movie is totally predictable and I can see the manipulation and the schamaltz(sp?) from a mile away, my emotions can betray me. The ending of "Ghost" made me cry. "The Green Mile" made me cry. There were a number of others, but I can't think of them right this minute.

Vena

-- Vena (ladyv_39@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.


-Angel at my Table- makes me cry every time I see it. No, I don't know how to underline...I'm computer illiterate! :)

-- Poppy (ithesky@aol.com), August 10, 2000.


A good cry is the best anti-depressant (and a free one also!) I know, so I like to cry for release... My own life I see as essentially absurd, nothing sad in that, so I need to look for triggers elsewhere.... As I react to visual mostly, movies do work as best tear-wringers for me.

The problem, and big one, is to find the right one.

To keep clear from getting boring, I will only mention my most embarrassing cry lately.

"Air Force One" - The Evil Russian General walks down the prison aisle to be released and other prisoners sing Internationale...

I surprised myself by singing along and bawling!

Amusing, how nostalgia moves ones feelings. As Internationale IS part of my past, even if I would prefer to forget it.

Of course, the situation would have been even more "amusing" if I had watched the movie in company of humourless Americans...

-- Lelu (lelulugu@diaryland.com), August 11, 2000.


Jennifer, I did the same thing with Meg Ryan. As soon as she put her hands up, I started saying, "Put your arms down, don't do that, you're tempting fate, you're gonna get run over!"

I think this mostly means that we are intimately familiar with how the tearjerker formula works, like it or not.

-- Dawn (amgraffiti@superplin.com), August 11, 2000.


I'll cry at almost any Chick Flick. Last weekend it was Stepmom.

Biggies are : Bridges of Madison County (cried my eyes out over the book too), When Harry Met Sally -- the end where he runs all the way across town for her and says something like, "When you realize you want to spent the rest of your life with someone you want it to start right away."

I'm a big movie boo-hooer.

Colleen

-- Colleen (triggirl@yahoo.com), August 11, 2000.


Terms of Endearment

Augh! Bawled my eyes out on this one. I was sitting next to a friend that had just beaten cancer and we had to sit in the movie theater for 10 minutes after the movie just to compose ourselves.

I also cry at anything...even sappy commercials! What a wuss I am!

-- Anne (annejeff@mediaone.net), August 11, 2000.


Answer: When Harry Met Sally.

Question: What movie is the best one to bring down a roomful of happy single women previously having a light hearted movie night..

When Harry Met Sally is a lovely movie, and when I order anything in a restaurant, Jeffrey calls me Sally, as I have specific instructions as to what and how I'd like my food, but if you see it when you're feeling mournfully single, not a good thing.

I try not to cry in public, and when I feel a movie manipulating me into doing so, I become stoic and "go Ahead, matey, give it your best shot!". I did however have a quiet weep over "Schindler's List". And Russell Crowe's final scene in "Gladiator" gave me a lump the size of a golfball and eyes that were suspiciously damp.

The best quote over crying or not crying about movies I've heard recently, was on a recent episode of friends. Joey says "Surely you cried when Bambi's mother died!!!", and Chandler says "Yes Joey, I cried when the cartoon character wasn't Drawn anymore!".



-- Amanda Page (amanda@amandasprecipice.com), August 11, 2000.

Dead Poet's Society is the worst, but almost anything. Count me in with the wusses. Just reading the posts in this forum got me a little wet-eyed. (And Anne, unless you cry at the igloo Yahoo commercial when they let the dogs get in the hot tub, I don't think you're the worst.)

-- Amanda (missdufour@hotmail.com), August 11, 2000.

I too will cry at almost anything. Unfortunately most of my closest friends are insensitive bastards... er, normal people, that is... who don't cry when the Saturn-buying man notices the baby seat in the backseat. "Are you crying, Joanne?" "Shut UP!"



-- Joanne (joanne@pericardial.com), August 11, 2000.

"Surely you cried when Bambi's mother died!!!"

Remember Oscar Wilde's observation that "Anyone who could read the scene of Little Nell's death in "the Old Curiosity Shop" without laughing must have a heart of stone...

-- john burke (john.burke@mindspring.com), August 15, 2000.


Movies? Pfft. I don't need movies to start crying - sometimes just the trailer can do it! I saw a triple feature this weekend, and before each movie, they showed a trailer for the movie Pearl Harbour. As soon as the shot of the sailors lined up on the boat in their bright white uniforms comes on, I am toast.

My ultimate de-stress movie is Steel Magnolias - my husband laughs at me, but when I am in real need of an emotional break, I watch it. By the time Shelby is out on the back porch with her son, and tries to lift him up, I am sobbing like a baby. A wedding, a baby, a disease, a coma, a funeral, some great friendships and a crabby old woman. Perfect forumula.

-- Kristin Thomas (kristin@sperare.com), August 15, 2000.


Armageddon and Hope Floats.

Both of them had heart wrenching father-daughter scenes.

-- Linda (linda@healingstar.org), August 15, 2000.


I'm most likely to cry over any movie where an animal dies. Dances With Wolves had so many animal deaths I finally stopped watching.

And when I used to watch afterschool specials, if the family had a pet, I immediately stopped watching, because the only pet in an afterschool special is a soon-to-be-dead pet.

Those movies like Singles, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, While You Were Sleeping, You've Got Mail, make me feel depressed about my singlehood, but I usually get angry instead of crying.

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), August 16, 2000.


Generally, I don't cry at movies. I don't know why, really. I get my back up about Hollywood manipulation, and then I'm sitting dry-eyed while those around me are wiping off the tears and sniffling.

I didn't cry when Bambi's mother died.

However, "The Fox and the Hound" really, really gets to me. Not those pretty tears that you always see on TV, either. Big, ole, red-eyed nose-streaming sobs.

I'm undone by cartoon characters...

-- Laura (windmills@diaryland.com), August 16, 2000.


"An Amarican Tale" whenever Fival criesout "Papa Papa" I do the whole runny nose and chokeing thing like a child.

-- Daniel (truth60@yahoo.com), August 17, 2000.

I think that typical tearjerker films are silly. I have a tendency to roll my eyes. Once in awhile the scenes are so overdramatic that I have to stifle myself so I don't laugh while the theater is full of the sounds of people sniffling into Kleenex.

But The Purple Rose of Cairo gets me every time. Go figure.

-- Jette (jette@rootaction.net), August 18, 2000.


"Steel Magnolias" will do it. When Jenny dies in "Forrest Gump." Hell, the end of "Saving Private Ryan."

But the movie that gets to me the most is "My Life" with Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. There are a number of points in that film that do it, but his estranged family coming at the end to be with him and getting him the circus he wanted as a kid -- it's corny, yes, but extremely cleansing in an emotional way.

-- Charlie (jovi775@yahoo.com), August 18, 2000.


'When a Man Loves a Women' with Garcia and Ryan. I can relate to that movie from almost every character and just thinking about it could make me sob. But I think it's the concept of someone loving you and not giving up on you that gets me everytime.

-- krystyna (insidevelvett@usa.net), August 18, 2000.

I cry over war movies. I showed a bunch in class and had a hard time choking back the tears. All Quiet on the Western Front gets me every time. Saving Private Ryan, the scene from The Battle of the Bulge where all the (non-Nazi) Germans sing their hymn to the Fatherland, the conclusion of Das Boot (there were just so many elements of that film in The Perfect Storm), Derek Jarman's War Requiem (as much about AIDS as WWI, which is a double whammy). And the English Patient. Hell, I even cried over Mrs. Miniver, though I'm a bit ashamed to admit it.

Catriona

-- Catriona Richardson (catri696@purpleturtle.com), August 20, 2000.


I cried last Saturday at the trailer for "Billy Elliot."

-- smallkat (smallkat@hotmail.com), August 25, 2000.

Ponette. I started crying in the first five minutes, and didn't stop until the very end. And one moment in the whole of Titanic (I could happily have watched Leo and Kate drown without so much as a wince) - when the Irish mother, knowing they can't get out of steerage, puts her kids to bed. In my area, Office Depot has a series of commercials about helping schools, and *shameful admission*, I cry at the one where the husband, after lecturing his wife about spending all their money on supplies for her classroom, scoots off to Office Depot and buys a huge pile. I don't know why; I never used to be a sap.

-- Noel (noel0218@aol.com), August 29, 2000.

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES~ I thought this was a great movie with great acting, but a cried so hard when one of the kids Curly died and at the end of the film when Dr. Larch died even though, in away, it was a happy ending. Just the one line 'Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England'can bring tears to my eyes.I watched this movie with my mum and we both cried and she hardly ever cries at movies. Anyone who hasnt seen this film must!It has a lot to offer.

-- Kelly Winters (Kylie_bryony@hotmail.com), April 30, 2001.

The movie that made me cry for, lierally, days was "Dancer in the Dark." That movie depressed me for the longest time, and I thought it was a truly beautiful movie! It really haunts my memory, and if you want a good cry, you should watch it.

Another movie that I balled at each time I watched it was Moulin Rouge. I totally get caught up in the story line, and just weep in the theater!

"Mr. Holland's Opus" was another beautiful movie that I got caught up in...others include (my favorite) "Edward Scissorhands", "Pay it Forward", and Disney's "Tarzan"

Another movie that made me cry was "Titanic", because it was the biggest waste of my money that the movie industry ever created. I lost three hours of my youth watching that stupid movie. Could it BE any longer (or dumber)?!?

-- John Hannes (JohnnyH215@aol.com), August 01, 2001.


i was feeling low. i got misty at the end of _hedwig and the angry inch_. oh, and _the 400 blows_? every time.

-- chelsea (pxe2000@yahoo.com), August 29, 2001.

'Boys on the Side' always gets me, particularly the scenes between the mother and daughter, the hospital scene between Mary Louise Parker and Whoopi Goldberg, and the final singalong scene. Every time. The pure desperation of Bjork's character in 'Dancer in the Dark' bowled me over, and I ended up thinking about it for days. 'Steel Magnolias' used to summon the tears, but its effect has lessened over the years, for some reason. The final scene of 'Gypsy' (Bette Midler version) although not tear- worthy, is heart-breaking in it's own way. 'The Last Unicorn', the eighties cartoon is a work of pure genius and so sad, reflective and inspiring that it doesn't deserve to just be labelled as a 'kids' movie. In a weird way, 'A Chorus Line' saddens me, whe you think about the desperation of the dancers, the wasted talent of the older ones, and the tragic faces of those who are ultimately rejected. The Australian film, 'Radiance' is beautiful and it's characters are so driven and developed that they are heart-wrenching. The script of 'Blade Runner' always gets to me, and the extended deaths of the Replicants shows their desire to live, and are the saddest parts of the movie, espcially the death of Rutger Hauer's character. 'Georgia', starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mare Winningham, shows pure desperation in Leigh's pathetic character, combined with tear- worthy music by Winningham, which, if it doesn't make you cry, will no doubt affect you. The canadian film 'Last Night' has the most beautiful final scene, simple but heart-wrenching, and everyone should cry at this one. And finally, 'Edward Scissorhands' is an old favourite...

Visit my site at www.geocities.com/the8thgoony as it has lists of my favourite movies, books, songs, etc...as I am a big fan of the tear jerker-tragedies (in the form of books, songs and films).

-- Grant Leis (thelastgoony@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.


Each and every time I see The last of the Mohicans I cry my eyes out over the lost first love of Uncas and Alice. The way he looks at her as if he is saying "What have I done I'm going to lose this." And the way she is looking like "why are you here alone? Do I mean so much to you, as he continues to fight for her. And what a rejection she gives Magua I would rather die with him that live with you!

-- Rosalyn Mack (Mackhican@yahoo.com), February 17, 2002.

My Father's Glory An ironic look at a moment of triumph for Maurice Pagnol's father.

I saw the (mainstream movie) 60's radical memoir Running on Empty in a theater, and at the end a viewer was literally wracked with sobs. The individual just kept repeating to friends, presumably about the rest of the unaffected audience, "They don't understand what it was like."

( mfisher@ABSOLUTEMULTIMEDIA.COM ebay@bargainland.net webmaster@bargaintown.com matthew@NFUSION.COM spettit@CONVERGENCEENTERPRISES.COM rsmith@wset.com )

-- Mark Fisher (mfisher@ABSOLUTEMULTIMEDIA.COM), March 22, 2002.


i am a guy that does a lot of bawling at movie some of the best are i am sam i just sobbed. life as a house i can weep a river at this one.a walk to remember i was bawling the last hour. john q and angel eyes also had me bawling. i just cry easy at good movies

-- steve donaghy (rdwelder@aol.com), August 05, 2002.

The most recent tear-jerker was "Purple Rose of Cairo," which my husband whole-heartedly recommended. GEEZ ... could it BE more depressing?! Short of filming Mia Farrow swinging by a rope from the movie theatre rafter, I can't imagine Woody Allen writing a more morose ending.

Oh ... and has anybody seen Lilo and Stitch? Now THERE is a movie MADE to benefit the tissue industry! "You make a better sister than a mom ..." "Family means nobody gets left behind ..." "I'm lost ..."

Okay okay ... I cry pretty easily at movies. Toy Story 2 when they play the song "When Somebody Loved Me" ... Dumbo at "Baby of Mine" ... Stepmom when Susan Sarandon asks her ex, "Why will it it work with her ... when it wouldn't work with us?"

I do love a good cry ... :)

-- Irish Rogue (iteachart@yahoo.com), September 17, 2002.


"The Cure" I am still sad from watching it!

-- Jordan (uncrules30@hotmail.com), September 27, 2002.

This is strange, but the ending of "Godfather Part III", starting where Michael Corleone collapses in grief when his daughter is killed. It then leads into a flashback montage of Michael dancing with his daughter , first wife, and second wife, respectively. "Cavalleria Rusticana" plays throughout. It's embarrassing, but is the most powerful scene in an otherwise worthless movie (although I loved parts I and II).

-- M. D. Johnson (tessio75@yahoo.com), November 06, 2003.

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