In Black Hawk Down, I started bawling when they were doing leg surgery on that one guy and he dies anyway. I didn’t stop for the whole rest of the movie. I had already watched something on the making of the movie and if I hadn’t already known the end, I would have freaked out even more.
Passion of the Christ, which others have mentioned
There was a movie on TV that I saw when I was a kid (mid 80’s) but I can’t remember the name. It was about a little girl with a chronic lung disease. She dies in the end and I was inconsolable.
Kill Bill I, oddly enough. If I remember correctly, I think I was researching poverty earlier that day or something, and on the way home I started crying because I was horrified at the amount of money spent making that movie that could have gone to better causes. I’m over that now and I actually can appreciate the movie, but DH freaked out at the time, and still insists that I hate the movie.
There was a movie with Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman called My Life , where he’s dying and she’s pregnant and he’s making videos for the unborn baby. Dude, I cried throughout. I was supposed to have coffee with my friend afterwards but was too wrecked. I’m sure the people on the subway were debating whether to call a cop I looked so bad.
Seconded on that scene, one of the most powerful I’ve seen on film, and seconded on “Superman” from Iron Giant. I never thought an animated kids’ movie would choke me up, but that bit makes me weep every time.
Schindler’s List- I pretty much had a nervous breakdown throughout the movie and for 4 hours afterwards. You couldn’t pay me to sit through that again.
A scene in the Billy Bob Thornton flick Chrystal where Chrystal is just wandering through the house crying with this most sorrowful moan. I really lost my shit for the rest of the movie after that.
One movie that really does an emotional number on me is “Life is Beautiful”. I mean, it’s the ultimate cliche, but I laughed, I cried… I think for the banner of “excruciatingly emotional”, Life is Beautiful has to be the number one movie on my list.
I now have any number of movies on my Do Not Watch List–thank you all.
I cannot handle movies. I can read something awful (and I will cry and even try to skip sentences), but the whole visceral experience of movies is overwhelming for me.
Heck, I cry at romantic comedies. I cannot watch the scene in Love Actually where (dam forgot her name) and the hot Italian (Spanish?) guy start to make love and then her cell phone goes off and he leaves. I can’t bear that she didn’t tell him, EVER (or tell anyone) and it makes me wonder how many lives out there are cut off from joy due to such obligations etc. It’s horrible and it makes me cry.
Some films that have made me cry:
Terms of Endearment , Remains of the Day, Liam.
End of Gone With The Wind --Scarlett is never gonna get that man back, she’s delusional. <sob>
Confrontation scene in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder totally betraying the character and Charlie. Gut wrenching for me at 9.
I ahve cried at the Sound of Music (Rolph’s betrayal of the family), Moonlight Mile --an excellent film about love and relationships, too many movies to count.
I can’t handle violence or gore either. Yep, I’m a pussy. I can cry at TV, for heaven’s sake! Six Feet Under has me bawling at times.
was Pay it Forward. It was doing all right untill the candle light vigil.
I want to second Schindler’s List, I lost it during the scene when he counts the number of people he could have saved with the pin.
Also, What Dreams May Come. I liked it enough to buy it on DVD, but I have only watched it once. It was so emotionally draining, I haven’t watched it again.
Oh, and Braveheart. I could help tearing up when he sees Murron at the end.
I cry at that scene too, but mostly because of the sheer beauty of that man’s body (and I don’t typically really admire men’s bodies, despite the fact that I am a straight female).
The scene from Crash involving the locksmith’s daughter, the locksmith, and the Persian store owner, affected me immensely. The father’s grief, everyone’s relief, and the little’ girl’s naive/innocent/sweet reactions, each individually worked to punch me in the emotional gut.
The scene from The Squid and The Whale where the parents announce the divorce to their kids–specifically, one of the smaller brother’s reaction shots, where he’s trying to keep up a brave face but completely failing. I encountered this scene, and that shot, as utterly heartbreaking. Makes me form an absolute resolve never to divorce. (Not that I even thought there was a possibility, but still…) (And of course clear thought after the movie helps me recall that cases of abuse and so on can justify divorce. But still… I’m just reporting the feeling I get when watching the scene.)
My wife started sobbing uncontrollably when Leonardo DiCaprio died in Titanic and kept crying through the rest of the end of the movie, through the credits, and all the way out the theater back to the car. My friends and I were a little mean to her about this–we teased her, saying things like, “It’s called ‘Titanic.’ Did you think it was going to have a happy ending?” She laughed, but kept crying. She reports she simply had no inkling of a clue that maybe the romance might not turn out with a happy ending. The rest of us, of course, had called it from the first instant the romance began.
In The Incredibles, there is a scene where Mr. Incredible believes that his wife and children have been killed by the bad guys and he is helpless to do anything about it. The audience knows they’ve survived, but seeing that character go through it just breaks me every time.
Ah yes, that reminds me: Hotel Rwanda was the textbook definition of a movie that was painful to watch. It was so outrageous and terrible that I sometimes had trouble breathing.
I was thinking Hotel Rwanda. It’s pretty excruciating.
I normally don’t get all misty eyed watching a movie/show, but the scene when Angel is dying in Rent (the movie) and the subsequent funeral made me choke up a bit.