Great but heart-breaking films that leave you in tears with each watch.

It's not something that happens easily to me but Twenty-Four Eyes ‘二十四の瞳’ Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita (1954) gets me everytime.

https://letterboxd.com/film/twenty-four-eyes/

No spoilers but its quite a melancholic film about the lives of a school teacher and her pupils in rural Japan pre-WW2 and takes them through to being adults post-war.

You would need to have a heart of stone to not have a wee greet. It's a cracking film though. It does get you right in the guts though.

If you want to know more but with no spoilers then this review is worth reading
https://letterboxd.com/evilbjork/film/twenty-four-eyes/

So what's your favourites that get you every time?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODA1MjMxMmItNWY5Yy00YWY0LWJiNGUtNjYzMDdiMTkzNDE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjMwMjk0MTQ@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

THE IRON GIANT (1999)

I dont really cry at movies tbh but the end of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest does get to me every time.

The grief-stricken chemist Dr Gower slapping Young George and then hugging him and crying after it in Its A Wonderful Life gets me too.

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Not tears, exactly, but the end of Day of the Dolphin is always extremely upsetting, a weird sort of reverse-bathos

Charlie giving back the gobstopper always kind of makes the world go quiet for me.

Sorry for being a corny fuxor but Into the Wild.

Land of Silence and Darkness is very moving, though I haven't seen it since learning of Herzog's 'ecstatic truth' thing and how some of it is scripted, which I still haven't made my mind up about.

well mine are Fiddler on the Roof and the Wizard of Oz so nobody needs to worry about being corny after that. also henry s otm, Charlie making the choice in the heat of his uncle's wrath is so beautiful

I Am Love, every time. The penultimate plot development always makes me cry, and the final sequence makes me feel like a cannonball has just hit my stomach

I cry all the time at movies tbh.

Little April Showers scene from Bambi.

Jacob's Ladder, when the guardian angel rescues him from the hospital and mends his back injuries.

A multitude of moments in documentaries, if that counts. One standout is in Wild Combination after Arthur Russell has passed and they play Mimi Goese singing 'Time to go home now' over shots of a cornfield in slow motion, which utterly breaks my heart.

I also am a chronic crier at movies, in the cinema especially it takes very little to get me going. Would like to say commercials have never done it but alas.

I cry all the time at movies tbh.

same, i couldn't even make a list

don't even start on me on video games

Yeah, I cry at everything. Sometimes just seeing a good movie makes me weepy.

Me too, tbh. Not sure what it reveals about a person.

It makes you be like my mum.

Au Hasard Balthazar

The Two of Us

"No man is a failure who has friends"

Turn on the waterworks.

both times I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once, but the first time it caught me by surprise, because I never cry at movies. my SNRIs really dull that part of me.

the part about Ke Huy Quan where he says kindness is how he fights. just hit me that particular day based on something I was going through

not to mention it was nice to see a character that gentle and sensitive, given how many male heroic roles are basically turned into hypermasculine, lip-biting brooders on screen these days.

Honestly can't think of any feature-length live-action films that make my cry; but Chuck Jones' "Feed The Kitty" brings the tears just by my thinking of it, even as I know it ends happily

In terms of recentish films, Coco always leaves me a bit of a wreck.

Serial crier here as well. Last thing that properly broke me, is a look Richard E. Grant's character gives at the end of *Can You Ever Forgive Me*.

oh man, when Paris Texas gets to Harry Dean Stanton's "I knew these people" speech... (which just doesn't have the same impact on its own, I know it's on youtube etc)

Letter to an Unknown Woman

*From

Letter to an unknown woman would get lost in the mail probably, a tragedy of a different kind.

The Seventh Seal
A Canterbury Tale
Only Yesterday

Have only dared watch Grave of the Fireflies the once for this reason.
Twenty-Four Eyes (mentioned in the first post) is indeed a tearjerker du jour, but I felt the emotion was being wrenched from me by force of sentiment and waved around a bit.

I cried during A Serious Man because it was so Jewish

Like, the first (and probably last) film I've ever seen with a Jewish experience that vaguely resembles my own

Winter Light

Some previous threads in the archives:

Boo-Hoo: Film Scenes That Make You Well Up
Draining Movies
recommend me some tearjerkers/melancholic films

Microhabitat

oh man, when Paris Texas gets to Harry Dean Stanton's "I knew these people" speech... (which just doesn't have the same impact on its own, I know it's on youtube etc)

― StanM, Monday, June 5, 2023 3:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, that's a heart wrenching scene

A multitude of moments in documentaries

There's a scene in the documentary 'Moog' (2004) where Bob Moog plays 'Old Man River' on a theremin while standing next to a river. It must have seemed hilarious when they filmed it - old man plays 'Old Man River' by a river! - but Moog passed away the following year.

the obvious scene in manchester by the sea

i also cry all the time during movies

Kinda proud of the men of ilx itt being open about feelings

I cried when Superman came back to life during Justice League.

because i wanted that fucker dead

ian otm

oh, fuck...the death scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. forgot about that one. actually a reason I didn't do a rewatch recently because Yeoh's dialogue woulda been too much for me

I have a peculiarly lachrymose relationship with the ageing Sylvester Stallone. He only has to appear on screen in the Creed films and I want to bawl.

Even bits of Last Blood made me tear up. Although that might have been how awful it was.

im beginning to think we might need a thread about how honest and natural an actor stallone has been in great roles throughout his career tbh because his being great is not a one-off nor a new thing

Would absolutely contribute to that. He's always carried extraordinary pathos; watching him age is shattering for me.

everybody in this thread is my people, man. when my older son was small I'd take him to these rot-your-brain kids' movies because he enjoyed going to the theater and I enjoyed taking him and I'd just cry at the most maudlin stuff. Smurfs 2 made me crying. fuckin Smurfs 2.

may actually need a poll at where you are *most likely* to cry during its a wonderful life, tbh

I cry basically anytime the director or editor wants me to cry unless I can see it coming from a mile away. Then I proudly don't cry and say "try again, motherfucker."

whole opening sequence of A Matter of Life and Death. Telegram to my mother + (above all) 'you're life and I'm leaving you', oh and then 'I always hoped there would be dogs'. Fuck I just looked at the script and I've basically cracked.

Good enough for me!

https://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2013/10/this-was-lous-town.html

One weird one that always gets me is the look of hurt on Annie Wilkes face after Paul finally kills her. For a brief moment, a much better movie about mental illness peeks through Rob Reiner's dreck

― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:48 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes!

goes without saying that she elevates both reiner and (especially) king's efforts

caan ofc is possibly easy to underrate in the role too, not least because of bates being a force of nature in hers

Agnieszka Holland's 1993 version of The Secret Garden: went with one of my closest friends, and we both teared up at the end, having recently lost our fathers, and I'd pointed out to my friend that she'd probably looked like the lead (Kate Maberly) as a child. We even shared a Kleenex, then a larf when eyed by child in audience who def resembled 8-year-old KM: she was like, wtf old people?

fashion show at the end of gentlemen broncos

The scene in Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence when the men are about to be executed and Bowie's character storms up to the general and plants kisses on his face. I dont know if its the music, or the gravity, or what but it did for me.

I don't think I cried the first time I saw Parasite (too busy rapturously soaking it all in) but the second time, after reading about how the whole set for the house was designed around Bong's vision for that final scene, I was a wreck

Grave Of the Fireflies
Parts of 400 Blows.
Kes

I don't think I cried, but the last movie to make me really emotional was Passion of Joan of Arc - the scene where she recants her confession

a tree grows in brooklyn

The Passion of Joan of Arc was one of those things that 100% lived up to its reputation. It didn't hurt that the first time I saw it was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opera house with Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light oratorio score performed live.

"Kes" definitely.

Ikiru, on a recent re-watch.

(embarrassingly - Mr Holland's Opus)

Yeah., Opus usually did me in too the few times I watched it

opus always struck me as trying too hard but missing the mark, the fact the the opus is rubbish doesnt help at the critical moment

and its not like im commenting from immmunity to the easy-target because i caught the end of a dogs tale a few weeks back and had to lie down ffs

Many xp but yes to A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I’m also a sucker for Margaret Sullavan’s role in Three Comrades.

Yes, I saw A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on TCM late one Christmas Eve---also, speaking of Margaret, this one hasn't quite made me cry yet, but could happen:

Arguably her most memorable role was in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar in 1944.

Margaret and June Allyson were known as "The Town Criers" of MGM. "We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. The way my mother got me to cry was if I was having trouble with a scene, she'd say, 'why don't we have the make-up man come over and give you false tears?' Then I'd think to myself, 'they'll say I'm not as good as June,' and I'd start to cry."[4]

Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Bad Bascomb (1946) with Wallace Beery, and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949).

The bit in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul when Emmi visits Ali at work and he totally ices her out...and also the bit where her colleagues do the same to her on the staircase when they eat lunch.

The bit that gets me is when they're sitting outside at a restaurant with everyone stating at them and Emmi breaks down and Ali comforts her.

Was flipping around last night and came across Smoke, which I once put on a list of my favourite films ever. (Should rewatch it soon.) I landed right on the scene that most fits this thread: where Augie (Harvey Keitel) shares his photo album (and life's work) with William Hurt, which ends on a surprise--devastating--that I won't describe here. Incredible scene.

I don’t know about “great” but

Philadelphia
The Wrestler

― brimstead, Thursday, June 8, 2023 1:52 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

And now, I'm an old broken down piece of meat and I'm alone. And deserve to be all alone. I just don't want you to hate me.

― Alba, Thursday, June 8, 2023 2:17 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^^^

― brimstead, Thursday, June 8, 2023 2:33 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I said this upthread!

I have never cried harder in a theater - full on sobs. I was crying at home hours later! I haven't dared watch it again but I will eventually. I don't even really remember much about it except that it absolutely destroyed me.

The Florida Project and its Magic Kingdom ending.

^ yes

I specifically haven't watched that yet because I know it's going to be a tear jerker. It's on my list though.

a lot of people criticized the 'illogical ending' but I read it as the kids' imaginations and not that they literally snuck into Disney

The Florida Project and its Magic Kingdom ending.

Yes, cried over it in the cinema, then cried even more when describing it to someone afterwards.

There's a kitchen table scene in Moonlight that caught me completely unawares and I started just properly crying (so that other people heard and looked round) and basically had to deploy the sleeve throughout the rest of the film.

Still can't watch ET in a room with other people. I was 12 when it came out over here, absolutely smack bang in the middle of the target age group, and the build-up, the hype, the endless queuing, the fact that we didn't get in the first time we tried, the enormous, packed cinema, it all packed on the tension to the point where I was probably a nervous wreck before it even started. I had never wanted anything as badly in my life to that date as I had wanted to see ET.

Awwww! <3

I still have my original doll from 1982.

I saw The Flash last night and briefly broke down when Barry broke down and said goodbye to his mother for the last time, saying "I love you mom". really hit me when it wouldn't usually since dad has been so zoned out lately that he doesn't react to us when we visit, and we don't know why.

wish I still had my ET plush. that thing was badass.

my husband brought his ET doll to that screening we went to :)

not in sob category but I still like to respond "It was nothing like that, PENIS BREATH" to people.

the house party I watched it at as a kid erupted at that part (the kids, the adults were annoyed)

I thought I'd mentioned the short Bao already, but I guess not! Anyway, that one turns on the waterworks for me.

https://letterboxd.com/film/celia/

Two scenes in The Return of the King

"You already did... Eowyn. My body is broken. You have to let me go. I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed."

"My friends, you bow to no one."

I get choked up typing those lines out.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood: the ending w Sharon talking to Rick through the intercom & then the slow pan up to overlook the garage & driveway the aerial shot as Sharon & Jay & Abigail & Frykowski come outside & the Maurice Jarre music is playing

seen this movie like 10 times & i’m a mess everytime

it makes me cry so much

xpost -- both solid. On our podcast we just did the film ROTK the other month and my cohost Oriana noted that the Theoden/Eowyn relationship as acted through the films is really remarkable. The film version of their parting isn't the books, but it absolutely works in its own right.

the ending w Sharon talking to Rick through the intercom & then the slow pan up to overlook the garage & driveway the aerial shot as Sharon & Jay & Abigail & Frykowski come outside & the Maurice Jarre music is playing

Yeah. It's such a nice quiet 'what could have been.'

VegemiteGrrl, have you seen Celia I assume you have as its an Aussie film? I don't want to create a spoiler for those who haven't seen it, but if you have, you will know exactly what I mean.

Can't believe Make Way for Tomorrow isn't in this thread! Messed me up but good.

cracking film.

So Long, My Son

deleted post re lotr ppl can react how they like to peter jackson

sam and theoden prob the two /performances/ that can wrench a tear through gritted teeth tho

i know the thread title says great films and i am opening myself up to all manner of ridicule here

but when the little girl breaks and runs calling for her daddy in the patriot i got got

the fuckin patriot lads

there’s a couple of scenes in BROKER (2022) that just ended me

I've been trying to think of any movie that has made me cry and I finally remembered.

The Plague Dogs

I am pretty sure that I cried during my second viewing of Audrie and Daisy too.

Which I think qualifies as a great documentary because it does not hold back and tells the grim stories of these two young women unflinchingly. And they have both died from suicide.
;_; to infinity

One that particularly struck me recently was Okja. Just describing the final scenes to people got me emotional !

River Phoenix's campfire scene in My Own Private Idaho ("I really wanna kiss you, man").