I was fortunate enough to be working as an usher in a cinema when it was showing As Good As It Gets, Titanic, and Good Will Hunting (and Flubber, but let’s not go there). Titanic only played on the biggest screen, I saw it five times when working there and I noticed the cinema cut has a soundtrack that doesn’t feature on TV or DVD - an undercurrent of weeping.
AGAIT showed in a smaller, more intimate screen, and evoked lots of emotions which changed from day to day. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays people tended to be more serious, Thursdays they lightened up somewhat and Fridays it was a laugh riot.
That’s where I differ from most humans I guess. That’s a good scene but I don’t get any strong emotions from that. But I’m crying at the end when Babe is competing.
The scene that simultaneously shows Ethan blasting off and the guy whose life he has been impersonating commit suicide in the incinerator.
This one took me totally by surprise. It wasn’t sadness because of his death.
It was the statement it made. All throughout the movie the privileged character
just wallowed in self pity because of his crippling accident. While Ethan went to
incredible lengths to achieve his goal despite his imperfect genetics.
The privileged guy took his own life because he realized that Ethan deserved his life
more than he did because of what he did with it.
I think this movie is generally under rated. But it may just be that it resonates
very strongly with me, personally.
This may be one of the most perfectly realized scenes in any movie I have seen.
No dialog, but it communicates so much.
In retrospect, not so surprising, but going in I thought Up was a fun animated kids movie with balloons. And it is a fun kids move, but the opening scene was, um, well some dust or something got in my eye there.
Toy Story 2 - Jessie’s Song - When Somebody Loves You
For reasons I can’t even fathom, abandonment get me every time. I can’t even play the sheet music without tearing up so bad that I can’t even see the page.
The Incredibles - “I’m not strong enough.”
Heck, I can’t even type this without getting uber-misty.
My Dog Skip
I’ve never seen the whole movie. I flipping through the channels when I happened on the scene where Willie just learns that his dog, Skip, died. I was sobbing so hard that my wife came in to see what was wrong with me. (When I was in the Marines, my dog that I got when I was 11, died.) I will NEVER watch this movie.
Bicentennial Man
The final scene, when the near human/robot, Andrew Martin, lay dieing next to his human wife, and congress grants him the status of Human, and then he dies.
… aw crud…
Along these same lines, Star Trek: First Contact caught me off-guard during the meeting between Cochrane and the Vulcans after the former’s first warp flight. After the Vulcans greet Cochrane with their standard split-fingers gesture and “live long and prosper” utterance, Cochrane tries to reciprocate, but isn’t physically able to match the gesture, and is at a loss for words; after a few seconds of fumbling, he says “thanks” and offers his hand for a traditional human handshake. At first blush, neither action on his part seems appropriate to the profundity of the situation, i.e. the first meeting in history between human beings and extra-terrestrials. But in the middle of a campy science-fiction comedy-drama, the simple, unadulterated purity of what those actions communicated - gratitude and friendship - ultimately seemed very profound and left me in tears.
The scene at the end of the Futurama episode “Jurassic Bark” where Seymour is lying on the sidewalk in front of Panucci’s, waiting for Fry to come back after so many years and he closes his eyes. Without the context of the later movie Bender’s Big Score, this is a very heart-ripping scene that brings on the waterworks as I type this. Anyone who has loved a dog can relate to a loyal pooch waiting for his master unto death. Of course we now know Seymour’s life turned out differently because of Lars, but it still was a very moving scene.
I tend to get misty at “man’s inhumanity to man” reveals: Mozart’s corpse being dumped into the paupers’ pit in Amadeus; the reaction of the Biergarten crowd to the boy singing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” in Cabaret; even the “Russians love children, too–we can get along” climax of the old 1960s comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.
A more individual example that got me teary-eyed was the moment in Defending Your Life, in which footage of the protagonist as a toddler is being shown as part of an afterlife trial. The little kid, about a year old, is looking on in fear and distress as his mother and father scream at each other–it’s very upsetting to watch, for some reason.
Oh, yes–that’s devastating. And the use of the Connie Francis rendition of “I Will Wait For You” is a big part of the impact, I think. (The Wikipedia article says that a well-known adagio by Khachaturian had been the first choice, but Francis’ just-short-of-camp passion was so perfect.)
Ah, you beat me to it. I didn’t look as deep into it as you did; for me, it was the mere fact that the first race to come to earth was the peaceful Vulcans, not Klingons or some warlike race.
Moving on: Full Metal Jacket, when the recruits are in their bunks reciting the rifle credo. Their intensity is almost frightening, knowing that they will indeed live and die by their rifles.
Band of Brothers: After the cease-fire, a German general tells his men that they’ve fought well and bravely, and should be proud of themselves. Being American, I haven’t heard much about what it’s like to be on the losing side…
Another for The Muppet Movie. Kermit and Fonzie are driving west, and pass Big Bird, who is walking east. “Hey there. Want a lift?” “Oh, no thanks. I’m on my way to New York City, to try to break into public television!” Sigh.
In* Awakenings*, when Leonard first wakes up and sees his mom for the first time in years… Damn.
In *Homeward Bound : The Incredible Journey *when all 3 animals reunite with their owners at the end.
Also in* Mask*, although not a reunion, but still … when Rocky graduates with honors. Also when Gar threatens the carnival ride operator for not letting Rocky ride. That one makes me cheer more then anything.
There is a scene from Indian in the Cupboard where Little Bear is telling Omri that he has to go back to his people. I’ve seen the movie more than once and didn’t think much of it, then I saw it again 10 or so years ago after I had a daughter. Yep, that’s when it hit me.
I was watching a rerun of the Simpson’s episode Lisa’s Wedding several years ago and at the very end Lisa and Homer have a sweet moment as he music and dialog fades while he tells her about his day at the fair. My Dad had been gone for years at that point but for some reason it triggered a flood of my own memories and I lost it.
To this day that episode makes me think of my Dad and there really is no reason why other than the episode is about Lisa’s feelings for her father.
The Star Trek reboot movie. At the start when the USS Kelvin with Kirks’ dad at the helm makes it’s final run and he hears is son cry - I’d been a father for just under a year at that point with another kid due in about 7 months. The whole scene ruined me in a way it wouldn’t have a year before.
The movie Highlander, in which the semi-immortal protagonist and his kind are engaged in a long-running tournament of swordfights that end in decapitation, gradually winnowing their numbers down over the centuries to a single final winner: “There can be only one.”
Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) is being trained by another of his kind, Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez (Sean Connery), in preparation for an expected battle at some time in the future against the evil Kurgan (one of the more awesome movie villains BTW, portrayed well by Clancy Brown). Connor’s swordfighting skills improve, and one day during a sparring match he successfully disarms Juan, who lays defenseless on the ground with Connor’s sword poised at his neck. Connor gloats for a moment, enjoying his hard-earned victory, but Juan is experiencing an “oh shit” moment: Connor could take his head right here and advance in the tournament. Instead, Connor withdraws his sword and extends his arm:
“Give me your hand, brother.”
Friendship, loyalty, and honor win the day, despite the fact that Connor may have to fight Juan for real in the future and risk losing his own head. Lambert delivers the line with perfect intonation that conveys ridicule toward the notion that Connor might ever take such a cheap shot at someone who has given him so much. Highlander is a hammy B-grade movie that didn’t quite turn a profit at the box office, but that’s a beautiful, worthy moment, and I tear up every time I see it.
