There was a 2 part episode of the live-action “The Incredible Hulk” called The First. There is a scene in part two that is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes ever captured on TV…
The scene where Banner is seeing the cure to becoming the creature dripping down the wall. He weeps just as his transformation starts. It makes me cry, too.
And my ex-wife once had me read her “The Littlest Angel” one Christmas. I was gushing tears at the end.
The original “King Kong” when, having set Fay Wray down after trying to fend off the aerial gunners, he slowly loses his grip and topples from the Empire State Building.
Oh, and “Saving Private Ryan”.
I’m surprised that no one, including me, has mentioned Finding Neverland yet.
Especially this scene.
It was always that kind of song anyway, but ever since Sarah McLauchlan performed “In the Arms of the Angels” at the 9/11 tribute concert, I can’t hear it without choking up.
That, and when my daughters tell me “daddy, how come we never see you cry?”, I always reply “I cried when Spock died…”
Speaking of Sarah McLachlan and “Angel”, how could anyone not be reduced to a puddle by watching this. I’ll posit that a person who remains unmoved by this is a person lacking a soul.
I absolutely love Babe… One of the best movies ever made… and I do get choked up at the end, but the part that really gets me is when the mother sheep dies and babe looks up to sky and starts bleating like a sheep…
damn I’m tearing up just thinking and writing about it now…
The only part of Saving Private Ryan that chokes me up is the beginning… When Ryan walks up to Captain Miller’s grave and falls to his knees and the camera begins to zoom in on his eyes… that always gets to the point of tearing, even the first time when I saw it in the theatre…
When Kermit sings “Rainbow Connection”
The book Love You Forever.
The song Puff the Magic Dragon.
Oh, and I cried last night watching the show on TLC about the 2005 Tsunami.
When I was pregnant, I cried every time I saw a billboard for a local baby-factory hospital (they were cute, dammit!).
That part near the beginning of Boogie Nights where Eddie’s mother throws him out in a drunken rage while his father watches helplessly. His humiliation,hurt, and confusion just chokes me up every time.
Also, Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Match Girl” has been making me weep since I was a small child.
Say what you want, but the book The Dirt by Motley Crue. The parts about Skylar and Razzle got me…
This. It’s quite ridiculous.
Also:
[ul]
[li]Footage of any police or fire funeral procession[/li][li]Most ceremonies (graduations, weddings, military ceremonies, christenings, etc.)[/li][li]Melissa Etheridge’s song “Scarecrow” (“I can forgive, but I will not forget”)[/li][li]Phil Vassar’s song “American Child” (pretty much all of it)[/li][li]The US national anthem (“our flag was still there” gets me every time)[/li][li]Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “The Body”[/li][li]The West Wing: “In The Shadow of Two Gunmen (Part 1)” and “Noel” (along with several other eps)[/li][li]The Minnie’s Boys song “Mama, A Rainbow” (“mama young and beautiful, always young and beautiful, that’s the mama I’ll always see”)[/li][/ul]I’m sure there are many more, but these are what come to mind right away.
Ditto the Sarah McLachlan song Angel. Which kind of sucks because I really like that song, but the images from those commercials have become to ingrained with hearing it.
The scene in Watership Down that gets me every time is when they tell Fiver that Hazel’s been shot, the look on his face and the way he finally finds him alive, all with Garfunkle’s song Bright Eyes playing.
But for me, the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, soul-crushingly sad thing I’ve ever scene is the Feline Fantasy segment from the animated film Allegro Non Troppo. And, like with Angel, the piece of music, Valse Triste (Sad Waltz) which its set to. Crying just typing this…
I cry at the end of just about every episode of Cold Case. Justice, righting wrongs, looking at the past… when the characters in the story morph from their young selves into their old selves. And when they play the music from the earlier era. Yikes. There was a rerun on yesterday about the death of an AIDS activist in 1983. At the end, after the crime was solved, one of the principal figures from the story in 83, now a mature man, stands and watches a present-day gay couple with their baby… something that was completely beyond his reach 25+ years before. Also the stories about civil rights- they always get to me… I tape the show because the reruns are on in the middle of the night and watch two or three in a row the next day. My big old doggie sees me wailing at the end and comes an licks my elbow.
[How did I live without my DVR?]
Has anyone ever read the Oscar Wilde children’s book The Happy Prince? I stood in the library (where I worked at the time) and read it all the way through and cried and cried at the beautiful, poignant ending.
I agree with many examples that have been cited.
ETA: oh, yeah, the song “Memories,” from Cats. That song makes me cry in a painful way, not a cathartic way, so I avoid it.
The wife also cries like a baby when Captain Miller dies after telling Ryan to “earn this.” Especially since earlier he had revealed himself to be a humble high-school English teacher in real life and just wanted to get back home to his wife. We’ve watched this movie many times, and she loves it. Thailand largely sat the war out under Japanese occupation and has never been in a situation where able-bodied men from all walks of life clambered to join up. Most Thais know nothing of WWII. She’s truly impressed.
Call me a sook, but I heard a Bing Crosby song called the Littlest Angel on a Christmas record once. I presume it’s the same story. “Worn out strap of his faithful dog”…whoah. Utterly manipulative sentimental hogwash - and I go the blub like a little girl.
Annie Lennox singing “Into the West” from LotR. My sister had it played at my dad’s funeral. Kills me, just kills me.
The Last Post played on Anzac Day.
And this inscription on a war memorial by Housman:
*Here dead we lie because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life to be sure, is nothing much to lose, but young men think it is, and we were young.*
When Jim Henson died, the evening news showed part of his funeral service and “Rainbow Connection” was playing. I cried harder than at my own father’s funeral.
Without a doubt in my mind, the saddest movie in the world is “Paris, Texas” starring Harry Dean Stanton (who should have not only been nominated, but given an Oscar for his performance). It makes “Splendor in the Grass” look like a comedy. I bought it on Blu-Ray recently, but I haven’t been able to make myself watch it again, as it does make me cry like a bitch at the end, and I have enough to cry about in real life. It is a great work of art, so I’ll see it again sometime, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to work up the strength.
AllFree
Has anyone mentioned On Golden Pond yet?