# Movies You Didn't Expect To Make You Cry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098 "2009-08-20T17:39:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/21 "2009-08-21T01:57:45Z")
_Interstella 5555_. For those who haven’t seen it: It’s an animated film with no dialogue, drawn by Leiji Matsumoto to go along with the album _Discovery_ by Daft Punk, which constitutes its soundtrack. It is generally a very bizarre and downright silly cartoon, but I couldn’t really help loving the characters. For those who have: I cried at the scene of Shep’s burial. ---
**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/22 "2009-08-21T02:03:38Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Two things for this thread, the former being the main course. The latter being secondary, as it’s a topic that gets done now and again. > > **2) Movies that make/made you cry, with a little hint that you just might.** “Breaking Away”, during the final lap of the little 500, followed by the close-up shot as he crosses the finish line, sits up in the seat, stretches out his arms, and the music kicks in. ---
**Author:** ![Anglachel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Anglachel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anglachel)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/23 "2009-08-21T02:39:05Z")
Shallow Hal, when he returns to the hospital. It hit me hard. That movie was not what I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/24 "2009-08-21T04:11:35Z")
Well, the **X-files** actually made me get teary once. I mean the show, however, not the two movies. It’s the episode(2-parter I believe) where Mulder learns that his sister is, indeed, dead. He goes out and sees these ethereal ghosts of killed children running around. He look, sees his sister’s ghost, and realizes for sure that she is dead and gone forever. It’s the music, the acting, and the ghost effects. It’s so perfect and even though it is actually ridiculous that he would see “ghosts”, it worked for me and made me teary. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/25 "2009-08-21T05:12:05Z")
The Iron Giant. When he says “Superman”. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/26 "2009-08-21T05:48:17Z")
_Finding Nemo_, hands down. Our son had just died and we wanted to head out to the movies for some diversion. We didn’t even know what the story was. We just knew it was Pixar and must be great. Damn. It was great, but was so not the story I needed that day. The part where the dad says “I’ll never let anything happen to you” and then something bad does happen. Shit. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/27 "2009-08-21T08:05:55Z")
I gotta say that I went to see Gran Torino knowing nothing about the film at all, at the end I looked over my shoulder and pretty much the whole audience was shuffling awkwardly and pretending they had something in their eye. I definitely had a lump in my throat anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/28 "2009-08-21T08:19:22Z")
The Wrestler. I saw it twice (love it)–first time was sad. But it was even worse the second time, knowing what was coming, and it hit me like a ton of bricks–I was weeping like a baby for a good 5-minutes, which never happens. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/29 "2009-08-21T08:43:42Z")
_The Muppet Christmas Carol_. I’ve seen dozens of Christmas Carols and remained hardened and cynical but something about the Muppets makes me tear up every time. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/30 "2009-08-21T10:34:01Z")
_Strictly Ballroom_ Me and my brother decided to watch it one evening for want of anything better to do. At the end of the movie we both sat there unable to speak, tears streaming down our faces, until he sniffed and said “think we’d both better turn in our Man Cards now”. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/31 "2009-08-21T12:54:56Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > _Finding Nemo_, hands down. > > Our son had just died and we wanted to head out to the movies for some diversion. We didn’t even know what the story was. We just knew it was Pixar and must be great. > > Damn. > > It was great, but was so not the story I needed that day. The part where the dad says “I’ll never let anything happen to you” and then something bad does happen. Shit. Damn. ☹ So sorry to hear that… ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/32 "2009-08-21T13:35:57Z")
_The Color Purple._ The first teary scene–Shug Avery’s reconcilitation with her father. Wow. The waterworks–when Celie recognized her sister. From the moment she threw back her head and yelled, “Net-tieeeeee!” until the credits rolled, I was a complete mess. In fact, that’s the first time I can recall actually bursting into tears. Not sniffling and tears welling up–literally _bursting into tears_. Oh, and **Drum God** –if we could count thread posts, yours would be right up there. I’m so sorry for your loss. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/33 "2009-08-21T14:04:44Z")
> [@4everkid](#): > > “Cry” does not even begin to describe the flood of emotional outpouring that ensued after the final scene. I WAILED and BAWLED full force, for at least a half hour. Then I cried. I was a mess for days. Dancer in The Dark was a cruel, cruel film - I felt utterly traumatized by the end. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/34 "2009-08-21T14:24:16Z")
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I rented it because I thought it would be a silly teenybopper movie one summer day a few years ago and I bawled. I cried so hard I gave myself the hiccups. The scene where America Ferrera’s character is trying on bridesmaid dresses and none of them fit her. I yelled at the TV in support of America Ferrera because I’m fat too! I understand your pain, America Ferrara! \*“And you know what, Lydia? Just forget about the dress. We can tell everybody that Carmen’s Puerto Rican. And it never occurred to you she might be built differently. Or that, unlike you and your daughter, she has an ass that the tailor didn’t have enough bolts of material to cover, or better yet, just tell everyone there is no Carmen. Carmen doesn’t exist!” \* ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/35 "2009-08-21T14:56:28Z")
The scene in “_Philadelphia_” where Tom Hanks translates the aria “La mamma morta” (They Killed my Mother) being sung by Maria Callas, from the opera “Andrea Chénier” by Umberto Giordano, to Denzel Washington, thus showing Denzel what it feels like to be dying of AIDS. It filled me up, tightened my chest, nearly brought me to tears, which is hard to do. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/36 "2009-08-21T15:05:52Z")
_Million Dollar Baby_ - I saw it on TV a few years after it came out and had avoided all the spoilers, so I expected it to be a standard sports movie with a gal boxer… Not quite. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/37 "2009-08-21T15:06:27Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > _Finding Nemo_, hands down. > > Our son had just died and we wanted to head out to the movies for some diversion. We didn’t even know what the story was. We just knew it was Pixar and must be great. > > Damn. > > It was great, but was so not the story I needed that day. The part where the dad says “I’ll never let anything happen to you” and then something bad does happen. Shit. Ouch. Not nearly as bad, but soon after my friend was told by her husband of nearly a dozen years that he was leaving her, she went to see relatives for the holidays. They decided to take her to see what they all thought looked like a heartwarming goofy movie about a big, stubborn dog. **Marley and Me**. They hadn’t read the book. Didn’t know that it was not a happy ending; the dog dies. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/38 "2009-08-21T15:44:49Z")
> [@Loisseau](#): > > The scene in “_Philadelphia_” > > where Tom Hanks translates the aria “La mamma morta” (They Killed my Mother) being sung by Maria Callas, from the opera “Andrea Chénier” by Umberto Giordano, to Denzel Washington, thus showing Denzel what it feels like to be dying of AIDS. > > It filled me up, tightened my chest, nearly brought me to tears, which is hard to do. Slightly off-topic, but I once unexpectedly burst into tears during a (live) performance of _La Boheme_. By the end of Act 4 I was heartily sick of Mimi and happy to be rid of her but “Vecchia zimarra”, Colline’s farewell aria to his beloved coat, caught me completely off-guard. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/39 "2009-08-21T16:24:14Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I rented it because I thought it would be a silly teenybopper movie one summer day a few years ago and I bawled. I cried so hard I gave myself the hiccups. The scene where America Ferrera’s character is trying on bridesmaid dresses and none of them fit her. I yelled at the TV in support of America Ferrera because I’m fat too! I understand your pain, America Ferrara! Find her debut film [Real Women Have Curves](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1065229/). It’s one of those small films that never got much attention, but it’s a well-acted and moving story about a girl wanting to go off to college and her garment worker mother not understanding. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Dancer in The Dark was a cruel, cruel film - I felt utterly traumatized by the end. hat would describe every single one of Lars von Trier’s films. I don’t know if he’s more misanthrope or misogynist, but he’s a right miserable bastard and I absolutely hated Dogville, walking out of that one spitting mad. > [@Drum\_God](#): > > _Finding Nemo_, hands down. > > Our son had just died and we wanted to head out to the movies for some diversion. We didn’t even know what the story was. We just knew it was Pixar and must be great. > > Damn. > > It was great, but was so not the story I needed that day. The part where the dad says “I’ll never let anything happen to you” and then something bad does happen. Shit. I read your post and was sobbing. I’m so, so sorry for your loss. Few things in this life more awful than a parent having to bury a child. I had a similar experience after my father died. He was a powerful, brilliant, larger-than-life character and a workaholic, doing multiple jobs at the same time. A few months after he died of cancer, my mom and I went to see a film that we thought would be a diverting musical - [All That Jazz](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078754/) **Not** the film you need to see shortly after burying a charismatic workaholic. > [@Shodan](#): > > _Toy Story 2_. The sequence where Jesse sings “When She Loved Me”, as her owner grows up, and forgets her. If we never agree on anything else, we share this. I get goosebumps just recalling this scene, and get all weepy watching it on YouTube. The part that destroys me is Woody saying “Jesse…I didn’t know.” and Joan Cusac’s brilliant acting as Jesse saying “Just go…” The film that utterly came out of left field and emotionally wrecked me was [Crumb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109508/) Learning that Charles succeeded in killing himself. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098/40 "2009-08-21T16:44:14Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Ouch. Not nearly as bad, but soon after my friend was told by her husband of nearly a dozen years that he was leaving her, she went to see relatives for the holidays. They decided to take her to see what they all thought looked like a heartwarming goofy movie about a big, stubborn dog. **Marley and Me**. > > They hadn’t read the book. Didn’t know that it was not a happy ending; the dog dies. [Insert “Fail” picture for comparing a breakup to the death of someone’s child] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-didnt-expect-to-make-you-cry/507098.md?page=3)