The poetry scene in **Four Weddings and a Funeral **gets me every time. I ran straight out from the movie theatre and bought some Auden.
The ending of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). If you’ve seen the film, then you know the scene. I’ve not seen Cinemania, a documentary about a small group of friends who spend every free moment at the movies, but I’ve read that when one lady saw Umbrellas for the first time at a New York City revival, she wandered through the streets crying afterward, it was so sad.
Forrest Gump talking to Jenny at the end of the movie.
You know, when she’s dead and all…God that was sad. Some great acting I might add too !
I would add:
[ul]
[li]The entire ending sequence of Thelma and Louise.[/li][li]E.T. being quarantined.[/li][li]Almost all of Once Were Warriors, but particularly the scene after Grace refuses to kiss her ‘Uncle’ Bully goodnight.[/li][/ul]
Many good examples up thread. I’m trying to type while I have something in my eyes. Sniff!
Another one is the end of an obscure movie I saw on PBS many years ago The Sailor’s Return.
In the very early 19th Century, a British sailor falls in love with a Dohomeian Princess, and smugglers her home to England. She was disguised as a man on the ship home. Sailor and princess settle on his home town and buy an inn. They face massive prejudice from everyone. They have one son who survives childhood, but another who dies in infancy. About the time their infant died, the Inn gets in deep financial trouble. He gets robbed and killed on his way to the horse track to try to win enough money to get by.
Now here’s the sad part:
The Princess tries to book passage back to Dahomey, but the ship captain won’t let a woman on board. She buys her son passage back by himself. She has no idea if he’ll ever get where he’s going. The next scene is of her crying, alone, between the graves of her husband and infant child.
Wait - there’s still more!
The final scene shows her washing dishes in the Inn she used to own, and fades into her still doing dishes, as a grey haired old woman.
Saddest thing I ever saw on screen.
I had completely forgotten about this one. This was one of the first movies I ever saw in theatres, I was five or so. I was not in good shape after that scene.
To Live, where
The oldest daughter dies giving birth, because the medical students had kicked out all the doctors in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, then had no idea how to stop her bleeding.
Nobody Knows, where
The little sister dies, and they bury her in a suitcase out at the airport.
One of the saddest scens I’ve seen lately is the one with the Dutch assassin in “Munich”
She’s just been shot, and while she dies, she goes to her cat for one last hug. That touch of humanity is what makes you see her as a real person. And okay, yes, she’s also real hot. Waste of talent, indeed.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Then Steven Martin sees John Candy sitting alone in the train station…
You find out John Candy’s wife (Marie) has been dead for 8 years and he’s been homeless and alone. 
This is going to sound ridiculous, but Kung Fu Panda gets me teary. There are so many good messages and poignant moments throughout the entire movie.
In Batman Begins, Thomas Wayne is actually portrayed as something other than a corpse to avenge. He is actually a caring father, and when he is shot he tries to tell his grieving son something but he doesn’t manage it. It was a recounting of the Batman origin story in which for the first time I was actually moved (no spoilers - his origin has been known since 1940).
The ending of Million Dollar Baby, where:
not so much when she dies, but when you realise exactly what the narrative to the movie is - a letter by the assistant trainer to Clin Eastwood character’s estranged daughter
was really unexpected and made me catch my breath.
It was actually the ending that got to me.
:eek::eek::eek:
You have now confirmed for me that I am NEVER going to watch that movie.
Which one? The Kubrick ending or the Spielberg one?
Both are sad- the first is the saddest. But it may be matched by the capture of Gigolo Joe.
The wife and I just watched Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo. The ending’s a heartbreaker.
Another vote for The Joy Luck Club, with “We have a sister!” That scene makes me tear up, and it’s been nearly a decade since the only time I saw it.
Saving Private Ryan, with the old man at the Normandy cometary begging his wife to tell him he was a good man.
We Were Soldiers, after Mrs. Moore bites the Taxi cab driver’s head off for coming to the wrong address with a death notice telegram: “I don’t like this job. I’m just trying to do it.” Even sadder when you realize that that sort of thing actually happened, and many cabbies even suffered severe depression problems from it. I’m told that the soldiers and Marines who do the same job today often suffer similar problems, but at least have support set up to help them deal with it.