Magnolia
Terms of Endearment
Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring There’s 3 or 4 spots that get me every time (starting with the look on Gandalf’s face when Frodo volunteers).
The very underrated Beautiful Girls. The Pooh/Christopher Robin scene breaks my heart.
I’ll go along with To Kill A Mockingbird & The Man In the Moon (another underrated movie) too.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Sally’s song, and the song’s reprise at the end.
From Hell: “Goodnight, sweet prince…”
And, this is a TV movie, so I hope it counts…Gary Larson’s Tales from the Far Side, (possible spoilers ahead) the part, set to a recording of “I’ll be seeing you,” where a Wolf is watching old home movies of his (her?) mate, ending with the footage of her getting caught in a steel trap, a hunter walking up, the camera dropping to the ground…and the film runs out, and the camera turns back to the wolf, slumped in his chair, head buried in his paws, as the camera pans up to a full moon, with the last line of the song (“I’ll be looking at the moon, but I’ll be seeing you”) accompanied by a wolf’s howl. I first saw that scene when I was 11 years old, and it still chokes me up.
Ranchoth
Digging this up because I recently, and independently, compiled a list of ten:
Private Ryan. First it was the opening and closing battle scenes, and it still is. But on a subsequent viewing, I also teared up when Tom Hanks’ character abruptly starts telling about himself. It is kind of a reworking of guy-shows-photo-of-his-sweetie-he’s-toast, but that scene is what turns his character, after it’s been established.
A.I.. “Mommy loves Martin because he is real, and when I am real, mommy’s going to read to me, and tuck me in my bed, and sing to me, and listen to what I say, and she will cuddle with me, and tell me every day a hundred times a day that she loves me!” That may not work on everyone, but I had the same bitterness and desperation at one time.
Fried Green Tomatoes. What HelloKitty said.
Beauty and the Beast. The whole thing, practically. I identify with Beast almost as much as Belle.
Snoopy Come Home. It’s only been recently that I’ve been able to watch beyond the farewell banquet. The kids’ fake-crying doesn’t affect me, but Charlie Brown out at the dog house under the full moon…Plus the song. And I don’t mean the “Snoo-oo-oopy” song. If you don’t remember it, you’ve blocked it out.
Deep Impact. From the montage sequence (wedding, mom’s overdose) till the end. I’m not kidding. I couldn’t even suck it up after the credits. And it wasn’t just me: the women’s room was awash.
Speaking of which, Mr. Rilch reported some damp-eyed men after Private Ryan.
Babe. “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” But also the scene where Farmer Hoggett stops at the last minute from killing Babe, and Fly’s telling of Rex’s story.
First Contact. James Cromwell is in two of my crying scenes. A person in a robe steps out of the ship and lowers his hood to show that he is not a vicious (at the time) Klingon or a flaky Romulan, but a peaceful Vulcan. “Live long. And prosper.” Indeed.
Toy Story 2. Jessie’s song. And when Woody tells Buzz he won’t leave. How could that song not have gotten the Oscar?!
Rudy. Only the very end. Well, maybe a little when the guys all turn in their jerseys, but definitely the last scene.
To Kill a Mockingbird
You can stand up, be courageous and make a difference
It’s a Wonderful Life
You’ve already made more of a difference than you’ll ever know
what’s the name of that movie…help me out here, you guys…
It has Brad Renfroe in it, quite young, and he makes friends w/ this other young kid, who has AIDS…they go on a trek to find this obscure “cure” they read about…and Refroe’s character even gives him a likely-looking plant, in his effort to cure…
Oh come on, what’s the NAME of that movie?
(I’m snapping my fingers, like an idiot…)
Well anyway.
The scene at the end, with the shoe.
His shoe…WAAH!
Anyone who’s seen it will know what I’m talking about.
I hope.
(exits message board, still babbling incoherently)
I’ve become much more of a wuss as the years go by. I think it’s healthier.
I’m boggled that no one’s mentioned Grave of the Fireflies here. It just builds and builds.
In The Thin Red Line (Malik’s version) there’s a scene about midway through of the marines taking a small village; the battle starts out with a paranoid advance through a completely fog-shrouded bamboo forest. The ocasional bullet whizzes by, worse psychological torment than sustained fire would be; bamboo creaks all around. Then all hell breaks loose and is quickly resolved. It’s the integration with the musical score that really gets me.
And my throat lumps just thinking of one of the lines of closing inner voice: “If I do not meet you in this life, then let me feel the lack. One glance from your eyes, and my life is yours.”
Sling Blade got me at several points, most especially when Karl is telling the boy about what would have been his little brother.
Of course, who doesn’t cry at Schindler’s List? I made the mistake of seeing it – get this – in an attempt to cheer myself up by going to the movies.
But did anyone else here cry at the end of Like Water for Chocolate? All those unfulfilled dreams…I bawl every time.
Seconds for Babe and Rudy :
But, the all-time tear-jerker for me is Last of the Mohicans .The first time I saw this movie was in 10th grade American History. It was a room full of adolescent posturers, full of bravado and machismo. I was always trying to fit in and fully aware of the social implications of showing “sensitivity”. Yet, I bawled during the scene where Daniel Day-Lewis shoots the Englishman (his arch-nemesis) in the head to save him from the agony of burning alive. Man.
Thank you, Drastic, I was getting ready to add Grave of the Fireflies myself. The film opens with the 10-year-old main character dying alone and ignored in the middle of a crowded train station, and just gets worse from there. A masterpiece, but man is it a downer.
It did cause a funny moment in another movie, though. In Trouble Maker (a Hong Kong comedy), a meek schoolteacher is training in martial arts at a Shaolin temple. When the time comes for him to leave, the master and his assistant are sobbing uncontrollably. The student thinks they’re upset that he’s leaving, but then the camera cuts to show they’re actually watching Grave of the Fireflies on TV!
Thank-you!
Lots of ones mentioned so far get me bawling. One scene unmentioned is the scene in “Forrest Gump” when Forrest tells a dying Jenny of the beautiful things he’s seen in his travels; when she says she wishes she had been there with him, he replies, “You were.” A perfect, simple expression of love.
A recent addition to my bawl list: “The Rookie,” with Dennis Quaid, during the scene where Quaid/Jim Morris has finally made it to the major leagues, and his wife reaches down into the bullpen before the game and they touch hands, and the looks they exchange tell you all you need to know. Beautiful scene.
Quite welcome!
Alot of the films already mentioned.
Two more
They have been showing Breakfast at Tiffinay’s all the time lately on cable and I keep catching the bit at the end when she runs back to find the cat in alley and, and,
(give me a second)
Forget it
and of course when Kevin says “Dad do you want to have a catch?” in Field of Dreams.
Ditto. I’m still dehydrated from it, after 20 years.
The comic relief for ME in that movie was watching Gregory Harrison try to cry in that movie! He looked so comically ridiculous to me (and the two friends who were watching with me) that it completely broke the dramatic tension.
Mask - With Cher and Eric Stoltz, of course the scene where he dies, but also when his voice-over is reading the lists of his likes and dislikes, and both lists end with “And the sun shining on my face.” Boohooing like a baby.
Selena - True story, so I already knew how it would end, but the scene with the family in the hospital, especially the husband…Ack!
My Girl - At the funeral, and in the poetry class at the end. 'Nuff said.
Green Mile, Man in the Moon, Forrest Gump, Steel Magnolias, Fried Green Tomatoes, hell I cry at nearly every movie that has a touching scene or deals with death. It’s Always Something (the Gilda Radner story that was on ABC a few weeks ago) had me blinking back tears.
I always cry at the end of Braveheart. I’m an easily manipulated sucker.
I also end up crying during military movies - Glory, Band of Brothers and Blackhawk Down all make me tremble and bawl like a baby. Didn’t affect me quite as much until I married an Army man…
**Ah, it’s good to see don Bluth’s work similarly affected someone else here. I always cry (or cried) when watching The Land Before time. That one scene where Littlefoot is chasing the cloud shaped like his mother. He chases it shouting “Mama!” and the music kicks in and he realizes it’s not her and- and… :(! **
There are so many…
Edward Scissorhands for one. I have seen it twice, and each time not only did I cry, I was depressed for a week afterwards and attempted to craft a happy-ending sequel in my head (it didn’t work).
Forrest Gump when he’s talking to Jenny’s grave and crying at the same time.
The Land Before Time at the same place Vince said.
Toy Story 2 at Jessie’s song, which also strengthened my desire to thwart my mother and keep everything I have ever owned (But it’ll be lonely!)
The end of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast
The picture of me sobbing to it in Juxtaposition to my username is pretty funny.