Brief Encounter – the unconsummated love affair between two married, middle-aged people in so-so marriages that ends when the doctor is transferred to – gulp – Australia! The fact that the two leads (Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard) are not Hollywood-beautiful, youthful, or sexy gives the story added punch and makes their love all the more compelling. The score uses Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 throughout, to great effect.
Truly, Madly, Deeply – Live-in lovers (Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman) temporarily separated by the death of the boyfriend, a cellist, who returns as a ghost to help her get through the process of grieving. Several great tearjerking scenes: J.S. expressing the depth of her grief in therapy; the joyous reunion when A.R. returns from the dead; J.S. putting away the cello (clearly intended in the film, and understood by J.S.'s character, to be the symbolic body of her lost love); the scene where J.S. explains her recent loss to her new beau; and the scene where the new couple walks away from her flat, with the ghost of her lost love watching from the window. BTW, this movie tips its hat to Brief Encounter in a scene where characters are watching that classic tearjerker.
Carrington – Bloomsbury painter Dora Carrington loses the love of her life (Lytton Strachey, a gay writer and critic) to tuberculosis, pines, and shoots herself in the heart. Gets me every time.
Awakenings – the scenes where Robert DeNiro, in clear decline, struggles with his convulsive shakes, only to find a moment’s respite when his lady friend dances with him; and at the end of her visit, when he watches her walk away.
AI – when the boybot finally finds his angel, and when he has his one glorious day with his “mother”.
I don’t cry that often, but what sometimes does it for me are noble sacrifices or desperate last stands. In LOTR: The Two Towers, the Last March of the Ents gets me every time. It’s a mix of pride and bit of sadness, I think. Another scene that makes me tear up is when Connor’s wife, Heather, is dying of old age in The Highlander. By association, the Queen song “Who Wants to Live Forever” always makes me feel, at the very least, introspective and a bit sad. Parts of The Green Mile get me too, especially when Coffey chooses to die rather than keep living with his Gift.
Tearjerkers, for some reason, don’t really do it for me. I don’t know why. For instance, I never cried when the boy had to shoot Old Yeller, and even though my mother died of cancer when I was still in my teens, Powder, Boys on the Side, and Steel Magnolias did almost nothing except depress me; not a single tear.
A weird one (and one of the few that makes me cry): Silent Running - when he’s sitting there with the crippled robot as the camera pulls out. Does me in every time.
The Green Mile - the electric chair scene. I cried HARD.
PotC. I’m not Christian, but the intense suffering, and especially the scene with his mother’s recollection of her nurturing when he fell as a child… the theater was completely silent the whole film, but tears were just rolling down my face almost the entire time.
Glad this thread came up when it did because I was just watching The Outsiders today and thought of such a thread. I really shouldn’t like that movie because some of the dialogue is so hit-you-over-the-head trite which usually immediately turns me off, but I can’t help but love it.
But in particular, the scene where the soc (sp?) takes Ponyboy into his car to tell him that after the rumble life will still go on with each of them forever relegated to their respective roles as soc and greaser always wells me up.
Also, Johnny’s “stay golden” letter at the end. I’m a sucker for the old “innocence lost” theme.
What’s this? No mention yet of Fried Green Tomatoes?
Every damn time I get so caught up in the welling tears, that for at least a minute or two, I forget to fume about the blatant under-rug-sweeping of their lesbian relationship.
After watching every Lord of the Rings movies, my lady friend crys her eyes out at the beggining of Fellowship when Gandlaf is coming down the road to the shire.
Damn you Peter Jackson
I have been known to tear up at commercials, and almost anything sentimental will bring me to tears in record time. Some of the posts above made me swallow hard - I’m that soppy. That said, I usually just sit there and sniffle quietly - but It’s My Party with Eric Roberts made me completely fall apart. I had never heard of it, and found it at Blockbuster while I was browsing, and the cast looked interesting. It took about three minutes of watching for my eyes to start leaking, and at several points I had to pause the video because I was sobbing so hard I couldn’t hear anymore. After it was over, I cried for an additional half hour. Just thinking about the story still makes me cry.
I never understood why, but my teacher in first grade showed us The Red Balloon. I was so glad that I was sitting in the back row so no one could hear my muffled sobs. That movie just so reflected my life at the time, and I remembered being stunned that other little kids experienced what I’d experienced. For the rest of my life, I’ve recalled that film and known at least somewhere someone understood.
I ALWAYS cry at the end of “The Black Stallion,” when Alec is riding The Black in the horse race. The race starts out all exciting, with Alec’s false start because he sees the horse is injured. But the horse wants to run, and somewhere in the middle of the race it gets all dreamy… and I just cry and cry. I’m not even sure why. It has something to do with the horse’s desire to run, and just the absolute beauty of the running horse.
If the movie “Ghost” doesn’t make you cry, nothing will. I can’t watch it at all, just too much for me…that and “All Dogs go to Heaven”…
Also, “What Dreams May Come”–makes my face soggy.
And, I know we all cried at the end of Return of the King, no matter how many times we read the books–we all knew what was gonna happen, cried anyway. Even some of the guys, I heard them! (Well, I cried the first time I saw it, that is…)
When I was very young, I cried the first time I saw the Disney version of Peter Pan (Peter, don’t leave, take me with you!)
In Day of the Dolphin, the two married scientists have to convince the two dolphins, who are like their children, that they don’t love them any more so that the dolphins will swim away before the bad guys can get them. Makes me cry right now just typing it.
Equipoise: Moulin Rouge! - it’s not about Satine’s death, it’s about Christian’s reaction** that leaves me in breathless tears.
Me too. I only watch this movie when my SO is out of town because I cry like a baby. Mostly because it reminds me of his story of losing his wife and how it affected him. Sigh. I’m nearly in tears just thinking about it. LOL! Where’s my chocolate?