The first one probably doesn’t make me tear up; the second one always does.
To add:
The Return of the King (book)
Are you in pain, Frodo? said Gandalf quietly as he rode by Frodo’s side.
Well, yes I am, said Frodo. *It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.
* Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured, said Gandalf.
I fear it may be so with mine, said Frodo. There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?
I’m some ways I’m a heartless bastard and scenes that are supposed to be sad generally annoy me unless they are very well done. I’ve never seen it but I’d probably be dry-eyed in Marley and Me. However, the opening montage in Up is so well done that I can’t help falling for it. The scenes that slay me are when the underdog has his day, like the final scene in the first Harry Potter book when Neville’s bravery nets Gryffindor enough points to win the cup.
The song The Little Drummer Boy gets me sometimes, and often Amazing Grace.
The opening montage in Up is supposed to be sad but is so well done that I can’t help falling for it.
The scene at the end of “Terms of Endearment” where the dying mother is talking to her angry son and then says something about it going pretty well just reduces me to sobs every time.
Billy Joel’s “Goodnight, Saigon” causes the tears to fall for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the ignorance I carried at the time of what all my brothers were going through. And the world weary sadness of political manipulation. And the enduring loyalty which men can develop for each other and are so seldom encouraged to express.
When I was a babe in arms my mom used to rock me to sleep singing “Red Wing” and “Babes in the Woods” and both of those songs bring tears of sadness. I think she was working on deveoping my sense of empathy, but I spent more than a few uncomfortable moments in my bed feeling sorry for the Indian maid and those poor little babes in the woods.
Funny story - I went with four girlfriends to “Steel Magnolias” one Sunday afternoon and there wasn’t a single man in the theater. By the end of the film the whole theater was sobbing - out loud! Hilarious. In a sad sort of way.
i didn’t think i’d have anything to add to this thread, but i remembered ‘A Pocketful of Miracles’. Bette Davis is about endure utter humiliation, exposed as a fraud. When Edward Everett Horton’s voice cracks as he announces the Governor of New York, my eyes still get damp. It’s a flawed but wonderful Capra movie, and remake of his delightful early effort, ‘Lady for a Day’.
The end of The Yearling where the boy not only has to kill his pet, but realizes that at age 13 he’s pretty much man of the family (due to his father’s accidents and illness) and that adult life will be about loneliness and privation and life relentlessly playing dirty tricks.
Makes Old Yeller look like a zany laff riot by comparison.
I second: Band of Brothers, Why we fight. Also the interview with Winters, when he tears up when he quotes a buddy of him saying “I wasn’t a hero, but I fought I fought in the company of heroes.”
And episode 10 of the first season of West Wing, when the homeless veteran is buried and Toby and Mrs. Landingham attend.
No, I am not a military fetishist, by the way…
Music: Springsteen: The River, My hometown, Youngstown and quite a few others when i am in the right mood. “The Partisan” by Leonard Cohen.
Another vote for Beauty and the Beast. I just watched it and I’m still in tears. The Beast trying to learn empathy and compassion before it’s too late… Then there’s that song in the middle of Shrek, all about broken hallelujahs… And the movie Bicentennial Man, where Andrew the robot’s goal it to become human and feel love, and he does on his deathbed, for he has to learn how to die. I bawled outside the theatre after that one.
All of these have a common denominator, methinks… All about striving to become human and find love, something I’ve never quite managed in my real life, and it hurts…
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card - the section near the end where Ender is writing Human’s story, and then has to take him into the third life himself gets me every time.
Musically, perhaps I’m strange, but I love Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut album, specifically “The Gunner’s Dream” and the title track. Also, Matthew Good’s “Lullabye for the New World Order”, “Weapon”, “Strange Days”, and “Prime Time Deliverance”. I’ll second Annie Lennox for “Into the West”. Her “Love song for a Vampire” from Bram Stoker’s Dracula kept me glued to my seat through the credits.
And say what you will about Hayden Christensen’s acting, I fell in love with Life as a House, probably as much for its soundtrack as for the subject matter.
Juno
Beat
Stranger Than Fiction (the end bit)
Life is Beautiful
The Legend of 1900
The Royal Tenenbaums (and by association, the song Needle in the Hay)
Second for Big Fish and Finding Neverland. In fact, I clicked the link for Finding Neverland, just to confirm that is was the scene I thought it was, and couldn’t watch it. The first time I saw it, I was with my mum, and I was sobbing uncontrollably. She kept asking me what was wrong, and I couldn’t explain the deep sense of loss that scene inspired in me.
A few books too:
The Last Unicorn, Microserfs (well, almost anything by Douglas Coupland), the introduction and forward to The Salmon of Doubt.
Titanic always got me since my teenage self completely ate it up.
The opening scene of the 2009 version of Star Trek, I’m due in no small part to the fact that my wife was pregnant at the time. The fact that our baby turned out to be a boy makes rewatching the film even more emotional for me now.
