There are certain movies/TV show episodes/books/songs/etc. that, no matter how many times I’ve experienced them previously, reduce me to tears. What are yours?
Here are some of mine:
It’s a Wonderful Life
Dances With Wolves
Gladiator
Up
Finding Nemo
Monsters, Inc.
Toy Story 2
“The Whores Can Come” (Deadwood, season two)
“Kalends of February” (Rome, season one)
“De Patre Vostro (About Your Father)” (Rome, season two)
“Where’s Johnny?” (The Sopranos, season five)
ETA: How could I forget?: “The Spoils” (Rome, season one)
For me, Christmas isn’t Christmas until I see A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
And yes, I get a catch in my throat at the appropriate times. I admit it.
Mind you, for a few years, I couldn’t bear to watch The Grinch because I had seen the Ron Howard movie (damn kids made me take them to it), and that kind of screwed it up for me, but I could finally watch it again this past Christmas.
There have to be dozens of them, but the two that leaped to mind when I saw the thread title are the songs If by Bread and Alone Again, Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan, both from the 70’s and still able to get that tear to turn loose.
A Charlie Brown Christmas for me as well; it’s a happy kind of melancholy, reminding me of childhood happiness and love.
The Garbage album Beautiful Garbage is the sad kind of melancholy. I bought it shortly after my ex-wife left me, and listened to it a lot while breaking down crying; it was a very prominent part of a very dangerous depression. Listening to it now conjures up loneliness and despair, and I usually end up crying when I hear the song “Cup of Coffee.” I may have to dig it out, as I’m now going through a similarly harsh break up of an engagement. (Similarly with Foo Fighter’s “Everlong” and The Chemical Brothers’ “Where Do I Begin.”)
Three lovely children’s books:
-The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, a Caldecott winner about Philippe Petit. I always read it to my second-graders on September 11, and reading the last couple of pages is always hard to do without tearing up. It’s a good, gentle lead-in to a discussion about why the day is meaningful.
-Coming On Home Soon, a wonderful story about a girl whose mother goes to work in another city during World War II. When it gets to the lonely bedraggled kitten who shows up and who externalizes the girl’s loneliness, I’m just about bawling.
-Where the Wild Things Are. This is possibly the most perfect prose poem I’ve ever read; it just gets better with each reading, as a depiction of one particular part of childhood. Here the catch in my throat is from the sheer beauty of the book.
Schindler’s List: Most of the time,I can make it through until the very end when they’re placing the rocks on his grave.
It’s a Wonderful Life: Guaranteed I’ll need a box of tissue. Every. Damn. Year.
The Box: Randy Travis’ song about the things found that meant a lot to the singer’s dad. I can’t hear that without thinking about a box of similar connections to my dad’s past, although my dad is still alive.
Teddy Bear: Red Sovine song that’s glurge to the nth degree, but when they get to the part about the trucks lined up for three city blocks, there’s always water under my eyes. I’ve worked with a lot of rough and tumble men in my life and I can imagine most of them doing something similar.
I just watched Marley and Me, and I must admit to blubbering up, then hugging my dog (a black Lab) and begging him to never grow old. It hit me worse than Jurassic Bark.
The song By My Side & its segment in the movie GODSPELL- the women are all promising Jesus that they’ll stick with Him no matter what, meanwhile Judas is plotting his betrayal.
Agreed on “This Woman’s Work”, especially after seeing how it was masterfully utilized in the Extras “Extra Special Christmas Special”. Got a lump in my throat just thinking about it.
The writing in Twilight.
Hayden Christensen’s acting.
The number of big budget roles Shia LeBouf (and before him, Chris O’Donnell) get.
R Rated films like Gamer that are deemed “failures” because teens bought tickets to “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and snuck in.
How badly the Beatles and Michael Jackson have been pimped out.
Latoya Jackson.
Transferring films into “3-D” format to make an extra buck (I’m looking at you, Clash of the Titans remake.)
Remakes in general (I’m looking at you again CotT.)
Fake I-Max theaters.
Sequels to horrible movies (Are We There Yet Again? Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.)
I just wrote in another thread about this, how the montage of Carl and Elly’s life together functions as a sort of Voight-Kampf empathy test for sorting out the Replicants.
The fine folks at Pixar not only know how to push my emotional buttons, I’ll pay good money to have them do so.
Yeah, every time. That and the one with the bees.
I’ve actually sought that clip out on YouTube when I need a bit of emotional catharsis. But the real kicker is Jesse saying “…just go”.
I don’t know whether or not to recommend My Dog Skip.
I’ll have to search for that one. But the late John Hughes gets points for directing the film in which it first appeared,and inspiring Kate to write it. And putting up with her slow work habits and delaying to film for her to deliver it.
Agreed. A wonderful choice by Rick Ruben, of great song by Trent Reznor, made into something for the ages by Johnny Cash and a truly great video. Everything came together perfectly.
In addition to these, the films The Elephant Man (“Am I a good man? Or a bad man?”) and The Princess Bride (“I want my father back, you son of a bitch!”)
Every single time I watch Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix I tear up when Trelawney reacts to being fired by looking lost and saying that Hogwarts is her home, and McGonagall comforts her. Every time.