bonds with Wakinyan I love this post, to read that the movie has that impact on someone else besides me. I first saw it on video but have since seen it several times in the theater. Small screen, big screen, it gets me every time and the tears flow at the end. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s very atypical Kurosawa in that there’s no violence, no wars, no Major Moral Conflicts. It’s just a simple story of a decades-long friendship between two men, a Russian explorer/surveyor and a Mongolian hunter who becomes a guide for him. When the friendship ends, it’s because one dies of old age, not because of any clashes they have. It’s a very beautiful film, in look and in spirit. The tears flow naturally from the parting of two good and decent men you’ve come to care a great deal about. Dersu Uzala is considered “minor” Kurosawa, I think, but it is and will always be my favorite.
I’m pretty sure I bawled during The Fox and the Hound, which I think is the first movie I can remember seeing in theaters. I know I was terrified of the witch in Sleeping Beauty, and we had to leave the theater.
The first movie I can clearly remember crying at was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. God, I bawled when that little turd got sick. I’ve been a movie bawler ever since. I mean, er, those movie theaters sure are dusty!
The most traumatic movie experience for me, however, was indeed Transformers: The Movie. Optimus Prime!!! It took me twenty years to watch the rest of that movie. Sniff!
So, it’s not just my brother and his friends in that age-range, then? They told me a few years ago how horrified the movie left a bunch of them.
Bambi.
See my spoiler. 
“The Good Earth.” I saw it on TV when I was a kid. I had no idea what was going on most of the time, but when O-Lan got trampled by the crowd it really got to me somehow.
Castaway. when Wilson was floating away from Tom Hanks.
Was the the only one that found this really sad?
wiiilllllsssson!
I remember seeing that movie in the theater for the first time. When Optimus Prime died, there was a moment of silence, then I heard the collective wail of a generation being scarred for life.
“It’s only a model.”
Mine was Gandhi.
The first movie I cried at was Barry Lyndon, and I was an adult. It was the funeral procession scene, with the music swelling up, and that little coffin being borne along on the goat cart.
Sniff.
I forgot to mention The Trouble With Angels.
I cried when King Kong died. Damn, I loved that big monkey.
Yes, I know he was an ape, and apes aren’t monkeys. It’s a term of endearment.
I cried and cried and cried. A few years ago, when remembering this to my children, I rushed delivery a copy from Amazon.com. We all sat down and immediately watched it. I teared up again and they laughed at me.
Kids these days…
Charlotte’s Web
Some Pig
Monster Squad.
What, am I the only one?
Bambi