# Which movies or novels make you cry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838 "2009-09-28T12:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/1 "2009-09-28T12:44:49Z")
I just watched “9” and it was very close. One thing I noted was that I haven’t had a strong emotional (vs intellectual) response in a very long time. So which movies/stories put you over the edge? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/2 "2009-09-28T12:57:14Z")
Octavia Butler’s **Wild Seed**. The final scene was one of the few times I cried tears of joy. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/3 "2009-09-28T13:31:32Z")
I usually don’t go for sentimentality – usually it doesn’t get past my cynicism and eye-rolling. But two movies have, enough to make me teary. **Up** is one (especially the opening part), and **Edward Scissorhands** is the other. On the other end of the scale, not much short of **Hotel Rwanda** will get me choked up. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/4 "2009-09-28T14:04:26Z")
The closing scene in the courtroom of ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ always gets me. As Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) dejectedly walks out, the Reverend Sykes says to Finch’s daughter “Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing.” And all the black population in the segregated balcony silently rise to honour Finch (who doesn’t notice them). This has so many overtones of honour, heroism, racism, justice and fatherhood. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/5 "2009-09-28T16:20:20Z")
Movies: Peter Jackson’s King Kong Saving Private Ryan Alone Without Her Charlotte’s Web Yep, those’ll do it. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/6 "2009-09-28T16:48:25Z")
Charlotte’s Web and the Shawshank Redemption I can wring out a few tears for the Trumpet of the Swan, too. ---
**Author:** ![Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ec9cab/32.png) [@Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/7 "2009-09-28T16:51:08Z")
Good Bye Mr Chips, the original version with Robert Donat. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/8 "2009-09-28T17:16:09Z")
The end of the “Diary of Adam and Eve” segment of **The Adventures of Mark Twain** usually chokes me up. And it’s a story told in plasticene! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/9 "2009-09-28T17:24:15Z")
Movies: _Up_, which did it twice, once at the beginning that was unexpected, and once again at the end that I saw coming a mile away, but I still couldn’t help it. and _Marley and Me_, which again I KNEW it was coming. Books: only one, _Where the Red Fern Grows_. Every copy of that damned book should be shrink-wrapped with a box of Kleenex. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/10 "2009-09-28T17:29:06Z")
I’ll be the one to mention [Grave of the Fireflies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/) in this thread (someone always does!). Usually when I say a movie made me “cry”, I mean I teared up a bit, maybe one escaped the eye or something like that. This movie literally had me sobbing. It made me far more emotional than any other movie I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/11 "2009-09-28T17:49:47Z")
_Mr. Holland’s Opus._ Stop laughing at me. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/12 "2009-09-28T17:50:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The end of the “Diary of Adam and Eve” segment of **The Adventures of Mark Twain** usually chokes me up. And it’s a story told in plasticene! “Wherever she was, there was Eden” I think that’s close, isn’t it? Twain could combine humor and poignancy like nobody else. Oh, and I cried at _ET_(the bathroom scene) and _Barry Lyndon_(the funeral scene of the little boy) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/13 "2009-09-28T18:15:07Z")
Fictional books and movies don’t make me cry. Period. It always bugs me when people say stuff like “if you didn’t cry when you saw \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, you have no soul!” Bah. I have a soul and am actually fairly sentimental. Fiction doesn’t engage me to that extent, though, apparently. Even historical fiction doesn’t upset me much - for instance, _Schindler’s List_ didn’t make me cry. Documentaries and memoirs of really horrible experiences often upset me, so if you want to include those, the memoir _First They Killed My Father_, which is about surviving the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, made me cry a LOT, as did the documentary _Into the Arms of Strangers_, which is about the [Kindertransport](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindertransport). That had me absolutely _bawling_. Reading the newspaper or watching the news often upsets me to the point of tears, too. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/14 "2009-09-28T18:23:14Z")
The Time Traveller’s Wife (the book) did it for me. J. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/15 "2009-09-28T19:42:55Z")
It’s embarrassingly easy for things to get me to cry. I once cried at Finding Nemo. Recently, _The Road_ made me cry. That’s not embarrassing at all. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/16 "2009-09-28T20:02:26Z")
I teared up several times during **Ladyhawke**. ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/17 "2009-09-28T23:39:38Z")
the fountain ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/18 "2009-09-29T00:24:10Z")
I recently read “A Fine Balance,” which didn’t make me cry exactly, but it left me stunned for an entire afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/19 "2009-09-29T00:37:03Z")
_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_. That bit toward the end. Racked with heaving sobs, I was. Scared the dog to death. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838/20 "2009-09-29T00:39:59Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > I’ll be the one to mention [Grave of the Fireflies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/) in this thread (someone always does!). Usually when I say a movie made me “cry”, I mean I teared up a bit, maybe one escaped the eye or something like that. This movie literally had me sobbing. It made me far more emotional than any other movie I’ve seen. This is the one I came in to post. I saw this in the theater, as part of a Studio Ghibli film fest. Many, many people in the audience (Seattle hipsters, at that!) were openly sobbing at the end of this film. I will not see it again. I am not sure I’m glad I saw it the first time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-or-novels-make-you-cry/511838.md?page=2)