I’m really not all that sniffly in movies for the most part. Return of the King slaughters me. The sniffles start about, oh, half an hour in. Pippin’s song makes me shake a little bit.
But the scene that I think one person’s mentioned is where he’s sitting with Gandalf and they can hear the armies outside the walls and the battle is going… badly, to say the least. They know the forces out there are overwhelming, they haven’t heard a word out of the only person who can save them, and you see this little guy who’s maybe in his twenties sitting there completely out of his depth, this completely unsoldier-y guy dressed up like a soldier, a kid whose heart is out there eating three breakfasts and smoking a pipe and playing pranks who walked hundreds of miles out of friendship and loyalty and is realizing more than any other time that he is going to die. And he looks for comfort to a mentor and the wisest person he knows – someone who died and came back and knows what’s ahead –
Has me in racking sobs when I’m watching it. Has me tearing up just thinking about it.
Two Towers is good for that, too. Theoden keeps me sobbing. “Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.”
Eight Below and that film which starts out with a Dad and his son and daughter mountain climbing, and something happens and they have to cut Dad loose to save themselves.
Now, I may have it missed it, but surely this list won’t be complete until Where the Red Fern Grows is included. I mean, this movie is why man-sized Kleenex was invented.
Came late here, but i’ll echo the sentiments of all that spoke of Edward Scissorhands and Big Fish … these’ll put a lump in my throat quickly and efficiently.
I’d like to add Toy Story 2 which had the scenes that were sung by Sarah McLachlan. Talk about an unfair double-whammy … “When She Loved Me” went so far beyond just a girl outgrowing her toys… it spoke to everyone. Very, very well done. How could you not tear up on that one?
Platoon, Silkwood, and Mississippi Burning will put a lump into my throat each time I watch them as well.
I’m pretty thick-skinned when it comes to this stuff. But there’s a couple themes that really grab me.
Friday Night Lights - The ending, being so close and so spent and that eerie music playing over them players spread out across the field. Great scene. Sports do it to me.
Titanic - It’s pretty cheesy and all, and I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been mentioned, but the ending of that movie is pretty dusty. It’s that whole sacrifice for love thing that gets guys I think.
Glory - There’s a bunch of fantastic scenes in there, the whipping scene and the final charge rate near the top. I could probably pick a half dozen misty spots. And I’m not even a black guy!
We Were Soldiers - When the telegrams of all the dead soldiers starts coming to the Colonel’s wife’s house, that’s a doozy too. Some of the rougher battle scenes are powerful, and when Snakeshit the chopper pilot lands after that first long night…damn. Again the eerie music is a key.
Miracle - The last game works for me, though largely because I can remember the first time I watched the real game and felt the energy in the crowd. The movie does a pretty good job or recreating it and evoking that patriotic vibe.
JFK - I love Garrison’s closing arguments. Probably not so much a tear-jerker but the idealism of the scene has a vague Mr. Smith Goes to Washington vibe to it.
But the scene that I think one person’s mentioned is where he’s sitting with Gandalf and they can hear the armies outside the walls and the battle is going… badly, to say the least. They know the forces out there are overwhelming, they haven’t heard a word out of the only person who can save them, and you see this little guy who’s maybe in his twenties sitting there completely out of his depth, this completely unsoldier-y guy dressed up like a soldier, a kid whose heart is out there eating three breakfasts and smoking a pipe and playing pranks who walked hundreds of miles out of friendship and loyalty and is realizing more than any other time that * he is going to die*.
Has me in racking sobs when I’m watching it. Has me tearing up just thinking about it.
:([/QUOTE]
Thank you for that lovely description. I found it even more emotive than when I watched the actual scene.
One that snuck up and surprised me last night: Bruce Almighty.
It’s where God asks Bruce to give him a prayer
Bruce:“Grace…”
God:“You want her back?”
Bruce:“No. I want her to be happy, no matter what that means. I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me. I want her to meet someone who will see her always as I do now, through Your eyes.”
I dunno, maybe it was the sudden change of mood and pace, but that really got me.
Apologies for bumping; I didn’t have the chance to post mine over Christmas. I have two movies I can think of off the top of my head:
Hero:
[spoiler]
There is a scene near the end where Nameless (Jet Li) is on his way to assassinate the king, and is met in the desert by Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and his servant/protege, Moon (Zhang Ziyi). Broken Sword makes one last attempt to persuade Nameless to abandon his plan of assassination, instructs Moon to give his sword to Nameless, and then rides away. His plea is delivered calmly, but is packed with emotion nevertheless.
However, it is Moon’s speech immediately afterward that breaks me up every time:
“Master Nameless, even though I am only a lowly servant, please permit me a few words. I have served my master since I was eight. From him I learnt the martial arts and how to live with principles. My master is never wrong. What he wrote must be important. Master Nameless, please consider his advice carefully.”
She is probably illiterate and doesn’t know what Broken Sword has written. But her utter devotion to her master, which was demonstrated throughout the movie by showing her fighting to protect and avenge him, is really driven home in this utterly non-violent scene, with a few simple words. “My master is never wrong.”[/spoiler]
The second is the scene in (don’t laugh) Fantastic Four, on the bridge where the group makes it’s unintended public debut. Ben “The Thing” Grimm, the most decent guy in the world, has just saved the lives of several people. Hundreds of people are applauding and cheering his heroism, and in the middle of all that his wife, unable to deal with his mutated appearance, takes off her wedding ring and walks away. Every time I watch him trying unsuccessfully to pick up the ring with his big fingers, I’m close to bawling.
Keep in mind that both Merry and Pippin did great deeds that would have been legendary even if done by a elven or Numenorian warrior. In particular, Merry delivered the stroke that exposed the weakness of the Witch-King of Angmar, who was the most powerful of the Nazgul, and possibly Sauron’s most feared servant…and Merry nearly died from it. Pippin (in the book,) fought and destroyed the Troll King, which was far, far beyond facing orcs alone.
Not to mention that Merry and Pippin were more or less directly responsible for involving the Ents in the War, and the downfall of Saruman, who was a Maiar.
All the hobbits proved themselves incredibly tough, versatile, and resourceful…possibly far more so than anyone else on Middle Earth in the books.
The Abyss. The scene where Virgil is tapping out what he thinks will be his final message to Lindsey on the keypad of the deep diving suit. I will admit the whole movie was blatantly manipulative and unrealistic, but that scene reminds me of all the real people who risked and lost their lives trying to push back the darkness of ignorance just a little more.
Ohhh come on… he created the disaster he saved the people from. Personally I think they should have hauled his mutated ass to Jail for the damage he wrought!
I don’t think I’ve ever actually sobbed watching a movie, but I get awfully tight chested sometimes.
One memorable time when tears welled was watching Once Were Warriors with a flat-mate who was a mechanic and a bit of a man’s man. We were very quite during the last half hour or so and went to great pains not to catch each other’s eye. The silence and tension watching the end of that movie was suffocating.
A thought that occurred to me the last time this thread showed up (almost identical wording in OP): Would women not cry during these movies? Or are there that many movies where only women cry?
Ah, maybe so. There’s always “Beaches.”
Nobody has mentioned “Finding Neverland” and I, umm, you know, so much and so often during that movie I had a pounding headache for about two days.
There is a scene in “Empire of the Sun” (underrated tear jerker) where a young Christian Bale in near hysterics is dragged off a platform during an air battle and when he finally regains his composure bawls, “I can’t remember what my Mom looks like anymore.” Great stuff.
“Glory.” Colonel Shaw (Matthew Broderick) to a journalist before the final battle. “If I should fall, remember what you see here.”
I hear you on Terminator 2, but it was a scene from the original, when Kyle (Michael Biehn) says:
[Kyle Reese] John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn’t know why at the time. It was very old - torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve. I came across time for you Sarah. I love you; I always have.[/Kyle Reese] That one got me.
And you’ll never see it, it’s a French movie and the star is a 5-year-old girl, but “Ponette” is about a little girl who’s mom dies in an accident. The ending would wreck you. There is no way you wouldn’t bawl like a baby. No chance.
