Movies don’t make me cry, ever. You think you saw some welling up of water in my eyes after a film I just saw? Yeah, no, didn’t happen. Just your imagination. For example, I just now watched the Tom Hanks film, A Man Called Otto. Blew my nose a couple of times afterward. Nothing to do with the film, just coincidence.
But two movies I’ve seen made me sob uncontrollably, to the point that I didn’t even try to hide it: The Ninth Configuration and American Beauty.
I’ve mentioned Carrie Snodgrass and Ray Milland in the made-for-TV The Attic mostly in threads where people recomment their fave horror flicks. But it’s also an intense tear jerker.
I think that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a much under appreciated movie. It is frequently genuinely funny despite the the subject matter. But a tearjerker indeed.
Joey (1974) Based on a true story of a boy with cerebral palsy unable to communicate until adulthood, when he met another patient who could finally understand what he was saying.
A movie that not only makes me cry, but that packs a tremendous emotional impact.
As the movie ends, the boy and his dog had both been transformed by time. The boy had grown up and moved out on his own, and the dog, feeble and disabled in its advancing years, huddled sadly in the boy’s empty bedroom. It’s such a powerful allegory on the ravages of time that I can barely manage to watch it any more.
The great Roger Ebert, reviewing that film, said that it hit such emotional notes that it was impossible to review objectively.
I weep buckets at ANY animal movie. 'The Incredible Journey: Homeward Bound ’ (even with a happy ending) - tears are welling up even as I type…‘Babe’ - That’ll do, Pig, That’ll do… ‘Milo and Otis’… …‘My Dog Skip’ - actually don’t remember that one.
Then don’t watch Harry and Tonto. By all accounts it’s a five alarm weepies. I’m afraid to get to close, so I’ve never seen it.
And by all means don’t EVER watch Futurama “Jurassic Bark”.
If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you’re back beside me, till I’m holding you
Till I hear you sigh here in my arms
I think that final sequence of Shawshank Redemption, when Red gets released from prison and narrates over the search for Andy, etc., is some pretty powerful.
“Get busy living or get busy dying. Damn right.”
and
"I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
That final “I hope” gets me. I’m glad they filmed the moment they meet instead of leaving it hanging.
Definitely An American Werewolf in London (1981). I like the characters individually and the very quick set-up and resolution at the end is overwhelming. The whole film is a roller-coaster. And I think the quick cut to the final song and credits puts a perfect period to the scene.
TL;DR: My wife is always ready to hand me a tissue with two minutes to go.