Call me cornier, but “Dark Victory” always does it for me. When Bette has her hands in the grass and is pretending to plant bulbs as George Brent drives away … and then the walk upstairs to the bedroom. Oh forget it - I’m a weepy puddle of tears.
Hah. I was thinking of Eve the whole time I was watching this last night. One of my favorite movies by my alltime favorite actress, Bette Davis. I’m more likely to tear up, though, when she’s talking to Tina, than over the love-lost bits at the end.
*Ladybird, Ladybird * gets me hardcore sobbing every time. Ditto Dancer in the Dark, and some spots of The Singing Detective. And The Champ–man, lay down the tarps for that one. Lots of early King Vidor in fact: Street Scene, The Crowd.
I’m kind of surprized these haven’t been mentioned yet.
My favorites:
- “Captains Courageous” (Spencer Tracy’s Manuel - the ending scene)
- Charlie Chaplins’ “City Lights” (after she regains her vision)
and of course
- “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (Spock’s funeral scene)
And a guilty pleasure:
- “Armageddon” (when Bruce has to say goodbye to Liv)
The movie that immediately comes to mind is Pay It Forward; the very end scene. I simply cannot keep it together.
I also cried copiously at the theatre while watching The Nutty Professor, but I was pregnant and couldn’t stand all the people making fun of Professor Klump’s size.
I saw “Born Free” when I was in the sixth grade. There were two sceens that got people in the theater crying their eyes out. They researchers, or whatever they were, have to send back Elsa, (I think that was the name) the lion that they were tracking, and that was sad.
But they went back a year later to look for her to see how she was doing. There was some concern that she would be OK, because she was out of her natural habitat, or something, while they were tracking her. So when they find her, they just showed her, and it was good. But then several little lion cubs followed her, and at that moment the audience was crying so loudly that you could barely hear the diaolgue. I have never heard a movie audience so emotional before or since.
I did everything I could not to cry in the theater. I guess I was trying to be a little butch guy. But when my father picked up my brother and I from the theater, once the doors shut we both started crying almost uncontrollably. My father was dumbfouded and thought that some older kids beat us up or something. By the time we got home, we had stopped crying. But when we walked thought the door and our mother asked us how was the movie, we couldn’t say anyhting and we started crying again.
To this day, I choke up slightly thinking about those lion cubs. It was one of the most beautiful movie moments of all time.
Fast forward to the 90s. The short film “Trevor” about a gay 13 year old boy chokes me up evertime I see it. And “Sling Blade” too.
When I saw “21 Grams” I finally sobbed after holding it back (with difficulty) twice. I even started crying in the kitchen at work the next morning making a cup of tea. I should have known, after my friend told me that “21 Grams makes ‘Mystic River’ seem like a screwball comedy.” No more sad movies for me after that. I just refuse.
Since I lost my mom eighteen years ago, making me cry at a movie is like shooting fish in a barrel. All it takes is some kind of parent/child reunion scene, or a redemption of some kind/chance to live again. Death, obviously, does it as well.
Empire of the Sun - At the end, with all the parents searching for their lost kids and vice versa, I literally broke down in hysterical tears in the movie theater at Jim’s reaction. I had to sit there with my friend hugging me for some time after everyone had left. It was only a year or so after Mom died, and I hadn’t really cried until that movie.
A Christmas Carol - The Alistair Sim version. Any time “Barbara Allen” starts playing, usually when Scrooge is thinking of/remembering his sister – such as during the “Christmas Past” segment when Fan visits young Ebenezer at school and tells him she’s taking him home, “and you’re never to be lonely again…” But especially at the end, when Scrooge enters his nephew’s home and hesitates before revealing himself to the guests. SOB
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Almost any interaction between Francie (Peggy Ann Garner) and her father, Johnny (brilliant James Dunn) will get the waterworks going, but it’s hard to beat Johnny sitting down and singing “Annie Laurie” – unless it’s at the end when Francie is surprised by a graduation bouquet and reads the card… “Then he really is dead…” When she breaks down, so do I. Every. Single. Time.
To Kill a Mockingbird - “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. You’re father’s passin’.” and “…and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”
Contact - Elly discovering her dad on the beach after her trip.
City of Angels - Okay, this one I’m kinda embarrassed about, since it’s such an obvious tearjerker. But what the heck. 
Sense and Sensibility - Elinor (Emma Thompson) waits through the night as Maryanne (Kate Winslet) suffers through a terrible fever. Staid, reserved Elinor’s desperate, whispered plea to her sister gets me going.
I know I’m missing dozens more! But these are the biggies.
I was watching Toy Story 2 the other night and I knew it was coming. The scene where Jessie sings as she describes how her owner loved her then left her. Just thinking about it makes me misty. Any scene of abandonment has the same effect on me.
Imitation of Life, Annie’s death scene. I’m left dehydrated after watching it.
I cry cry cry whenever I watch The Last of The Mohicans…especially the part where the younger sister throws herself off of the cliff…omg…I die everytime!!
First of all … I am a big, dumb sucker. I can cry at almost anything, for no clearly apparent reason. That being said …
The Little Mermaid. Particularly when Ariel and Flounder are in the grotto, and Ariel just got done singing “Part of That World,” and her father comes in, and Ariel blurts out, “But Daddy, I love him!” and King Triton goes batshit and blows everything up. It’s probably the stupidest scene in cinematic history to get weepy over, but I can’t help myself. Tears for weeks.
Four Weddings and a Funeral. Especially when Matthew is reading “Song: Stop All the Clocks” at Gareth’s funeral. I am completely useless for days afterwards.
La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful). All of it.
Also, another vote for E.T., especially when E.T. says “I’ll be right here” in his cute little alien voice as he reaches out to touch Elliot’s heart-al area. Always makes me think of my great-grandmother, who died the year the movie came out.
I tend to cry more often than not in movies, but the one that gets me every time is Disney’s Mulan. I’ve seen it dozens of times now, but still every time I reach the end and hear “The greatest honor of all is having your for a daughter,” I’m crying like an infant.
…because they’e telling REAL stories. For example, the scene in “Bolwing for Columbine” where the frantic 911 call placed by the school libraian is playing over security camera images of the shootings. TO this day, I don’t know if the kids hiding under the cafeteria tables were among those who made it out okay or not, but just the thought that they might not have bothers me.
The other is “The Brandon Teena Story.” It came out before the other film based on those same events, “Boys Don’t Cry,” came out. Its one thing to see her rape, interogation by the police (like it was all HER fault) and murder reenacted, but quite another to witness, for example, the actual tape of the actual interrogation. Freaky stuff.
Patty
My Dog Skip - When I watched it the first time with my partner and his family, I just about suffocated trying to choke back the tears. I’m a sucker for dogs and dog stories.
Hell, I’m getting a little choked up now just thinking about it.
The Full Monty makes me cry every time. Just the pain the main character is going through in trying to maintain a relationship with his son. It makes me relive the pain I feel in knowing that my son and his father have no real relationship now because of our divorce, and because my ex didn’t even try to maintain contact, no matter what he excuse he gives.
Absolutely agree with you on this one. I am not one to cry very easily. But when I saw Life is Beautiful with my sister we both just bawled. I actually haven’t seen it since then because it made me ache.
Well, thank goodness I’m not the first one to mention this.
“I never took the Kobiyashi Maru test. What do you think of my solution?”
I think it sucks, Spock.
I can attest to the power of Franco Zeffirelli’s The Champ to bring me down every 5-10 minutes.
Also, the final ice-sculpting scene in Edward Scissorhands.
And, yes, I was manipulated shamelessly by I Am Sam, especially in the shoe-shopping scene.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS
I bawl every time I see it, no matter what. I own it and yet if it is on TV, I am totaly drawn to it. Sally Field is incredible, and knowing the outcome makes me cry even more. The part where she’s arguing with Julia Roberts because she’s having the baby, is so emotional because she knows in her heart that she is going to loose her daughter. I found out after the umpteenth time seeing it, that it was a true story, and that the doctors and nurses were the real ones to pull the plug. I cry even harder at that scene now. But that is only what I heard. The burial scene is so heartwrenching that I still loose my breath. To loose a child must be one of the worst.
As you can see, children push my buttons. My next is MY GIRL where she comes downstairs for the wake, and starts screaming about how he can’t see without his glasses.
And my last good one is I AM SAM- I really cry through THE WHOLE MOVIE!!!