# The Saddest Movie Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2002, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515 "2002-12-23T10:32:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![esmeralda2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@esmeralda2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/esmeralda2)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/141 "2015-09-03T10:45:39Z")
I cried several times during this movie, which I watched recently on YouTube. Deep in My Heart (1999) A white woman who was raped by a black man gives the baby up for adoption. The film follows the life of the child as she grows up and has children of her own. The rape takes place in the 1950s. The white woman is Catholic and doesn’t consider abortion, though it wasn’t legal then anyway. She doesn’t keep the baby because she thinks it would have a better chance at life with a black family. The child stays in foster care until she is about eight, when, in the early 60s, she is adopted, ironically, by a white family. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/142 "2015-09-03T12:51:58Z")
My answer was taken in the OP, but in an attempt to add to this thread I’ll mention _part_ of a film. There’s an Italian parody of Disney’s _Fantasia_ called _ **Allegro non Troppo** _, featuring animated segments set to classical music with some live action scenes as a framing device. One of the music segments is set to Sibelius’ “Valse Triste” and features a cat wandering through the ruins of a old house, remembering happy times in the past. If you ever want to see me as a soggy sobbing wreck, make me watch this because it gets me every time. I recommend the whole film, actually - it’s 1970’s-style Italian dark satire but for all that it’s worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/143 "2015-09-03T12:58:17Z")
\*World Trade Center \* had me crying the entire time. It hit way too close to home. I don’t know if I will ever be able to see it again. The end of _Brasil_ hit me like a brick. > [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Can you tell me why? It seems to me that film was not even particularly well done. Because some of us would do anything to be able to have one last catch with our father. ---
**Author:** ![Gothic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gothic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gothic)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/144 "2015-09-03T13:06:59Z")
Fail Safe. > **[Fail Safe (1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/)** > > Fail Safe: Directed by Sidney Lumet. With Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Edward Binns. A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted? ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/145 "2015-09-03T13:35:08Z")
**Pay It Forward** In the scene after the boy dies when all of those cars drive up to the house, hundreds of cars headlights in the dark. Coming to tell the mother how much her boy meant to them. I cry just writing that. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/146 "2015-09-03T13:50:41Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I really believe there should be two threads for this. One for men and one for ladies. > > What can I say? I am the big, bad, sexist bastard. Why? Just curious. Grave of the Fireflies was bad, but Turner and Hooch pissed me right off. DON’T do that to me. Platoon doesn’t make me sad, it breaks my heart, but in a different way. ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/147 "2015-09-04T05:17:11Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I think music has a lot to do with it. While **Serpico** has its sad parts, it’s not a weepie. But the violin theme does drive home his isolation. > > There’s also an Australian movie, **The Highest Honor,** which is a low-budget actioner, but has a pretty bleak scene where the condemned commandos sing “Waltzing Matilda” as they resign themselves to their fate. > > Several movies have been made about the Carmelite nuns guillotined by Robespierre. As it actually happened, they started singing their initiation vows as they were lined up, which, with a “you can’t write stuff this powerful” quality, one by one the song was reduced to the last voice until everything was silent. This. Music. My vote: “I Heard The Owl Call My Name” Near the end "Amazing Grace " is played on the flute. I haven’t seen the movie in more than 40 years but that tune is one of the very small number of things that can get me weepy. And all because of this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/148 "2015-09-04T17:48:29Z")
I see **Schindler’s List** appear on a lot of people’s choices and while I agree, the subject and scenes are horrific and sad, the ending, showing all of the descendants that are alive today because of the list gives a somewhat upbeat and “happy” result. (I know it’s not happy, but I think you see what I’m trying to say. For a **really** sad ending for a film that also deals with the horrors of the holocaust, I dare anyone to watch the film _ **The Boy In The Striped Pajamas** _ and not have your heart ripped out by the end of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![leschulz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@leschulz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leschulz)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/149 "2015-09-04T19:25:27Z")
Not so much a sad movie, but I cannot watch City Lights without a box of tissues by my side! ---
**Author:** ![Windchaser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/windchaser/32/294_2.png) [@Windchaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windchaser)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/150 "2015-09-05T14:23:25Z")
My top ‘saddest ever’ is Grave of the Fireflies, same as so many others here. But two TV bits can always make me cry. One is Lonesome Dove. It’s overall a rollicking adventure, but the miniseries format lets you get to know the characters well, so it hit me hard when Augustus McCrae died. I think especially because he went slowly, and was more pissed off that he was dying when there were still things left to enjoy. The other one that always gets me, believe it or not, is Garfield: His Nine Lives. Specifically: his (her?) sixth life, when Sara (her owner) realizes Diana is dying and plays an entire piano concert just for her, and then Diana steps down onto the keyboard and dies quietly during the night. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/151 "2015-09-05T15:00:43Z")
“Missing” was he first one that mad me cry. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/152 "2015-09-05T15:33:38Z")
Sophie’s Choice was one of the saddest movie I seen , I am not sure if I could watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/153 "2015-09-05T19:44:10Z")
Pay it Forward. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/154 "2015-09-05T19:53:03Z")
> [@Baron\_of\_Graymatter](#): > > _Pride of the Yankees_ …Gherig’s farewell speech still breaks me up. > … My choice too. The only movie I can think of that really makes me tear up. Lou Gehrig’s speech is heart wrenching. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/155 "2015-09-05T21:15:31Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Because some of us would do anything to be able to have one last catch with our father. Just reading that made me tear up… ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/156 "2015-09-05T22:21:06Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > Sophie’s Choice was one of the saddest movie I seen , I am not sure if I could watch it again. Ditto this one. I saw it in the theater, and during the scene referred to in the title, there were loud, gut-wrenching sobs all over the theater. Someone else mentioned **Avalon**. I cried all the way home from that one at the way TV ruined the close, connected family life of the characters. A destruction that smartphones and social media have pretty much completed. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/157 "2015-09-05T22:37:32Z")
I did not quite cry at the end of _ **My Sister’s Keeper** _, because it was both sad and not sad – there was no good way for it to end. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/158 "2015-09-05T22:47:15Z")
> [@Fazhoul](#): > > While all of these are sad movies they can’t hold a wet kleenex to Lorenzo’s Oil. I had to stop the video tape at least six times because my wife and I were crying so much. I would like to watch the movie again but I’m not sure I can handle it. Hell, I’m tearing up now just remembering it. > > The most heart wrenching scene: > > Susan Sarandon’s character is holding her son Lorenzo who is suffering from a disease that is destroying the protective coating on his nerves. He is having seizures, burning up with fever and suffering greatly. Since the whole ordeal started she’s been telling Lorenzo to keep fighting. When she sees how much he is suffering she tells Lorenzo that “If the pain is too much you can let go. Just let go and go be with the Baby Jesus.” > > If you don’t cry at this movie you’re just not human. > > Fazhoul I fixed your tag. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/159 "2015-09-06T00:54:52Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Ditto this one. > > I saw it in the theater, and during the scene referred to in the title, there were loud, gut-wrenching sobs all over the theater. > > Someone else mentioned **Avalon**. I cried all the way home from that one at the way TV ruined the close, connected family life of the characters. A destruction that smartphones and social media have pretty much completed. I have to watch movies at home b/c I need to have CC but if I had been at the theater I would had let out a gut-wrenching sob too , I did while watching this at home. One of my BIL said he would never watch it again . ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515/160 "2015-09-06T01:43:29Z")
“It’s such a beautiful day.” The final film is a combination of three separate shorts: “Everything will be OK” “I’m so proud of you” and “It’s such a beautiful day.” Hands-down the most life-changing stick figure animation out there. After watching it, I walked around in a daze for about a week. It wasn’t _sad_ exactly - not the kind of thing that makes people cry - just horribly, beautifully depressing, followed by this moment at the end where - well, no spoilers. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-movie-ever/144515.md?page=9)