# Movie that makes you cry, every time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546 "2002-05-17T13:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sidle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/1 "2002-05-17T13:32:50Z")
Off the top of my head, the end of _The Great Santini_, and the end of _She’s Having a Baby_ make me bawl every time. Seen both of 'em upteen times, know what’s gonna happen, still like Pavlov’s dog with the tears. The end of _Empire of the Sun_ will do this to my SO. Didn’t even see the re-release of ET, because I cried so hard in the theatre as a kid. And-oh my God-I saw this movie once-_It’s My Party_, with Eric Roberts as a guy who’s dying of AIDS, and has a last party with all his friends and his boyfriend. Practically floated out of the theatre. Never cried so hard at a movie in my life. That, I’m scared to see again. You? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@bibliophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophile)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/2 "2002-05-17T13:35:08Z")
I completely lose it every time I see Philadelphia. And it doesn’t even have to be the whole movie. It’s been on TV a lot lately, and if I catch even 20 minutes of it, I’m a sobbing disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/3 "2002-05-17T15:35:08Z")
I cry at a lot of movies. Two I can think of off the top of my head are _The Power of One_ and _Dances With Wolves_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/4 "2002-05-17T15:36:52Z")
The scene in Cinema Paradiso when all the censored kisses have been lovingly spliced together in one huge, romantic, liberating, schmaltzy orgy – like time has stood still for our hero and the painful, unfulfilled years past melt away for one moment. I should know better. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/5 "2002-05-17T15:59:36Z")
_Pride of the Yankees_ _Field of Dreams_ _Brian’s Song_ Gee, I’m sensing a pattern here! _The Joy Luck Club_ : sniff : ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/6 "2002-05-17T16:01:05Z")
These boards are anonymous, right? Okay. The end of _The Miracle Worker_, when Helen, blind and deaf and without language since infancy, somehow achieves the conceptual breakthrough necessary to understand that the symbols being pressed into her hand stand for real things, and that everything has a name. Helen Keller is one of my heroes. (And she had a very interesting adult life as a radical; somebody should make a movie about that.) _The Iron Giant_. I’m not apologizing for this. _ET_ – Not! Don’t care for that movie. I kept wanting to shout, “Kill the monster!” just to break the mood. _The Music Man_. Hey, come on… we’re all a _little_ gay. If they made a movie of Robert Silverberg’s story “To See the Invisible Man”, it would make people cry. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/7 "2002-05-17T16:06:42Z")
I was thinking of starting this thread but with a twist: scenes in movies you _know_ shouldn’t make you cry but make you cry anyway. For me, without fail, there are two scenes: 1. In **An American Tail** (that’s right, There are no Cats in America and all that jazz) when Fivel is about to get reunited with his family (Fivel?..Papa?..Fivel?..Papa?). I lose it every time. 2. In **Forrest Gump** when Forrest is speaking to the crowd in D.C. and Jenny sees him and starts running to him through the reflecting pool. The last time I watched this movie, I missed the beginning and had only been watching it for ten minutes before this scene took place. I _still_ cried. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![WIGGUM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WIGGUM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WIGGUM)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/8 "2002-05-17T16:54:59Z")
_The Color Purple_ This was the first movie that ever made me cry. I still do when she is reunited with her sister in the end. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/9 "2002-05-17T17:01:09Z")
Second for _The Iron Giant_. _Lion King_. _Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon_. And by far the weepiest a movie has ever gotten me: _Grave of the Fireflies_ ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/10 "2002-05-17T17:01:36Z")
_Always_ with Holly Hunter, Richard Dreyfus and John Goodman. Sometimes all it takes is hearing “Smoke gets in your eyes” to start the waterworks. And while not a movie, there have been episodes from _Buffy_ have made me blubber like a baby. (In a good way). When I first saw _Pet Semetary_ I alsolutely sobbed. Our 2nd child was about the same age as the kid in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/11 "2002-05-17T17:30:39Z")
Ack! I completely forgot about the **Iron Giant**. When he flies to intercept the missile, I’m no more good. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/12 "2002-05-17T17:35:01Z")
Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List. I always end up sobbing on the floor at the end of Schindler’s List, when he’s about ready to flee, and he starts to wonder if he did enough, if he couldn’t have done more…talk about gut-wrenching. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/13 "2002-05-17T19:36:32Z")
**Fly Away Home**. At the end, when the geese have successfully finished their journey. Heck, I’m tearing up as I type this. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/14 "2002-05-17T19:52:24Z")
_Man of La Mancha_ I can forgive the presence of “The Impossible Dream” – everything else about that movie works for me. _187_ – The snot flies during the graduation ceremony. Bah. Too many to list, I’m easily emotionally manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/15 "2002-05-17T20:12:40Z")
Do my eyes deceive me? Did I just read through an entire thread about movies that make you cry and see NOT ONE MENTION of Old Yeller??? Duh. Maybe that just goes without saying. Also Schindler’s List. There are more, but I can’t think of them. I’ve never seen the movie, but every time I read Where The Red Fern Grows, I…uh…pretend to cry, yeah, so that women will think I’m…um…sensitive. Yeah, that’s it! _sniff_ ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/16 "2002-05-17T20:16:57Z")
This might sound weird, but **The Elephant Man** gets me every time. I don’t know if it’s his humanity in the face of inhumane nature or what, but I weep throughout this entire movie. And don’t even get me started on the pillow scene at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/17 "2002-05-17T20:18:00Z")
Gone with the Wind Schindler’s List It’s a Wonderful Life (hush, don’t you laugh at me) I’m sure there are more, but I can’t remember any thing else off the top of my head. I’ll post again if my memory is jogged. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/18 "2002-05-17T20:32:05Z")
I cry at one scene in E.T. Not when he dies, though. It’s the scene where the kids have to reveal the alien to their mother. She backs out of the bathroom in horror, making them come with her. ET reaches out and cries. He’s all alone, sick, dying, and now he is being abandoned. Another was from the corny period flick, _Barry Lyndon._ The spoiled little boy who has been thrown from a horse lies dying, and as a last wish asks his quarreling parents not to fight anymore. Cuts to the next scene of his funeral procession, with his little coffin being borne on a toy cart he had loved to drive, drawn by two goats(he was still to young for ponies, and had ridden the horse against orders.) I sobbed my eyes out at that one! ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/19 "2002-05-17T20:50:19Z")
There’s one that always gets me, though it probably sounds odd : In _Jean de Florette_, the rabbits hopping around, in the darkness, and the rain … that’s where I lose it. I’ve seen this movie more than 20 times and it still gets to me. (The ending of the second one in the series (_Manon des Sources_) makes the entire first movie just that much more tragically sad – though I haven’t seen it as often, I always remember in my mind which makes it worse when watching either.) ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546/20 "2002-05-17T21:00:05Z")
Okay…Sophie’s Choice, Barbara Streisand’s version of A Star Is Born, Savannah Smiles, Forrest Gump, This Property Is Condemned, there’s more…I’ll think of 'em. Great list for a sleepover movie fest! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-that-makes-you-cry-every-time/109546.md?page=2)