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What film scenes really make you cry?

Claus Harding

over 3 years ago

….and I don’t mean from laughing. What have been/are scenes that hit you that hard? And do they still do so on repeated viewings?

The original “King Kong” killed me when I saw it first, when he dies at the end. It took several more viewings before I would just feel sad and not have tears on my face.

Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. When he is chained down in the plaza and beaten, there is a moment where he looks at Esmeralda, and it is as if time stands still and all the pain in the world is concentrated in his face and posture. Very hard to watch.

Michael Redgrave in “The Browining Version.” After this cold, controlled man gets his little gift from his pupil, he is left alone and for the only time in the film, his feelings overwhelm him momentarily. Turning away from the camera, his heaving shoulders say as much as his strangled sobs. Incredible work by Redgrave.

So, which scenes kill you?

rsarao

over 3 years ago

The scene in I’M NOT THERE where the Dylan/Robbie/Ledger character is playing in the park with his wife and kid and “A Simple Twist of Fate” begins to play. The pains of divorce fly off the screen in that brief sequence .

Tom Wilson

over 3 years ago

I’m such a blubberer sometimes that it really doesn’t take much to cue the Kleenex: a father and son playing catch in Field of Dreams, E.T.‘s promise to be “right here,” Helen Keller and Annie by the water pump in The Miracle Worker, Oskar Schindler tearfully wishing he could have saved one more, the end of Au Revoir Les Enfants, and when Debra Winger’s sons visit her in the hospital in Terms of Endearment. See?

christo​pher sepesy

over 3 years ago

… When Gena Rowlands gets to hold her kids in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

… That final glance in AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS

… Burgess Meridith’s pleas to Stallone in ROCKY, and his rejection, only to be followed by his acceptance moments after on the street

… James Stewart praying at the bar in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

… “Here’s looking at you, kid”

Rob Frenay

over 3 years ago

Most of DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER

Maziar Dehghan​i

over 3 years ago

ending of Dancer in the Dark
ending of The Mist (I think it was because of the music!)

Nate the Movie Mate

over 3 years ago

When I was a child I cried when Lassie fell over the waterfall. I cried for a long time.

The final scene of Schindler’s List touched me in a way few films have…

Adam Lee

over 3 years ago

The Peter Jackson King Kong made me cry. I’ll admit it.

Chris Martind​ill

over 3 years ago

In Requiem for a Dream, when the older woman is explaining to her son the importance of her red dress.
In The Passion of Joan of Arc, that crying scene is sooo SAD
The vigil at the end of Pay it Forward
final scene of Schindler’s List

bristol​caprist​o

over 3 years ago

@ Maziar

I cried at the end of The Mist too! But it was because the movie was extremely terrible.

I cry when Forrest Gump learns of his son and he gets that sobby face and asks Jenny, “Is is… is he smart?”. I also cry when I watch that one movie with Denzel Washington and the kid that grew up with a broken family in the Navy. I cannot remember the title though. Reminds me of my grandfather.

bristol​caprist​o

over 3 years ago

oh yeah, and Marley and Me. You will cry like no other if you like dogs.

aoaijea

over 3 years ago

How the father helps his children reconsider their shitty situation of possibly all being from different men in dodeskaden. Her Name is Sabine when Sabine watches her vacation video to America. Red Beard patiently giving the uncooperative kid medicine without changing his attitude toward her anger. The entire ending of Secrets and Lies. Falconetti telling the jury that her mother taught her prayer.

Bill H

over 3 years ago

First of all, I don’t cry I weep, so often when watching some films, it would be very difficult to pinpoint at which scenes. So here’s a list of films that make me cry, I mean weep.

In America this one started early. in the very fist scene, after the father explains to the border patrol agent that they “lost the one” child it starts. And right after when the older daughter makes her first wish, it’s full on. After that it doesn’t take much, but the most pointed scenes are when Djimon Hounsou’s character dies, and the very end when the father finally cries saying goodbye to his son.
-I cried several times in The Darjeeling Limited
-at the end of The Royal Tennenbaums
-often during Amelie, particularly when she takes the blind man for a tour the neighborhood
-of course It’s A Wonderful Life
The Motorcycle Diaries-When they meet the couple going to find work at the mine, and Ernestos birthday swim
I’m going to stop here before I embarrass myself, but I’ll leave you with what is for me, the most emotional film I’ve ever experienced.

In the Name of the Father Again, several scenes reduced me to tears yet none so much as the trial at the end when the Guilford Four are finally vindicated. Emma Thompsons emotional plea, the four of them "walking out the front door’, Daniel Day-Lewis’ speech at the very end. Gets me every time.

cineast​e

over 3 years ago

i seldom cry at movies. the few times i have, though, are completely memorable for being so rare.

in “the elephant man” when he’s given that gift of combs and brushes.

most oddly, at the end of “watership down” when the credits rolled, i started crying. this was when i first saw it and i was a grown man. what triggered my tears was seeing the dozens and dozens if not hundreds of names of the people who’d worked to bring this “cartoon” to life. i’ve never been and still am not a fan of animation. however, i’d read the novel before seeing the film and … what can i say. the credits made me cry.

the corduro​y suit

over 3 years ago

When Kenji is singing “Life is Short, Fall In Love Sweet Maiden” in Ikiru

Balthazar’s death scene in Au Hasard Balthazar

Shinich​i

over 3 years ago

I like everyone’s opinions here. I don’t cry ever really, but i recently saw David Gordon Green’s George Washington, and the scene when George is visiting his dad after he accidentally had a hand in killing his friend, is fucking intense. He grows to sympathize with his father (who the movie doesn’t even bother to explain really) and that is some powerful shit right there.

SOYBEAN

over 3 years ago

The ending montage of “Cool Hand Luke” with that Luke smile of his. “He’s a natural born world shaker, that’s what he is.”
Olivia deHavilland and Errol Flynn saying goodbye just before he leaves for Little Big Horn and she collapses to the floor in "They Died With Their Boots On’. The ending in “Rainman”. The ending in “Gunga Din”. The ending in “Phenomenon”. When they give Lucas a jacket in “Lucas”. And the documentary “The Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino” when, after finally winning it all in 2004, all those Red Sox fans visiting gravesites of their loved ones. ( have to be a sox fan! )

Matthia​s Galvin

over 3 years ago

The final scene to Ordet

marcelo reis

over 3 years ago

The scenes from “Do-desu-kaden” (Kurosawa, 1972) which shows the homeless father and son dreaming about their house. Too sad for a movie…

Mister Dob

over 3 years ago

I very rarely show any emotion outside of my rugged manbearface but Requiem For A Dream left me sad afterwards for a while.

craig Boone

over 3 years ago

i replied to an earlier posting …. AWAY FROM HER.. I literally was choked up and had tears from (almost) frame 1. And in Brokeback Mountain, the last scene with Ledger and that shirt.

Bob Stutsman

over 3 years ago

Having just seen it again, the scene where James Mason walks into the water at the end of A Star is Born. Just saw the end of Humoresque, where Joan Crawford does the same thing (on the opposite coast!), and didn’t shed a tear. Was it something to do with her character in the film or Mommie Dearest?

Phil Smith

over 3 years ago

Two scenes from P.T. Anderson’s ‘Magnolia’: When Claudia (Melora Walters) runs out on Jim (John C. Reilly) with the ultimate heartbreaker line, “Now that I’ve met you, would you object to never seeing me again?”

The aftermath of the frogs, where Donnie (William H. Macy) explains himself to Jim and breaks down crying saying “I really do have love to give! I just don’t know where to put it!”

Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’: The ending. Always gets me as a romantic.

Justin Galvin

over 3 years ago

Do The Right Thing – Radio Raheem’s death
Elephant Man – John Merrick’s death at the end
Requiem For A Dream – Pretty much the entire last half hour (especially the scene where Marlon Wayans is looking at the mirrors he bought)
E.T. – Death scene in the bathroom
Yi Yi – Stop light scene
Benjamin Button – takes his old man to watch the sunrise (After this and Zodiac Fincher is working on a whole other level)
Titanic – Leo dying at the end got me. If you didn’t cry the first time you saw Titanic you’re fucking liar
Children of Men – Clive Owen walking out of the building with the baby

I could go on but this is what I remember of the top of my head.

Stephen Day

over 3 years ago

in bruges – the scene with the kid in the church
schindlers list – the end sequence
titanic – NOT leo dying, but when those musicians play, and say their last words to eacother
fallen angels – when the mute is remembering his dad to that one up beat song

gah, a lot more than i care to remember

Walter

over 3 years ago

The scene in “Lolita” where Humbert (Jeremy Irons) has finally found Lolita but she doesn’t seem to understand that he is in love with her.

Adam Forrest​er

over 3 years ago

“Amelie” when she walks the blind man down the street and describes the happenings.

“The Savages” when Wendy is standing in the hospital room, a very familiar scene for my family and I.

Chuck Moran

over 3 years ago

“Days of Wine and Roses” with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick – The final scene where Lemmon watches helplessly as the woman he loves walks off into the distance without really knowing what her fate will be………a stunning ending especially for a movie made in 1962……..

Mr. King

over 3 years ago

“Goodfellas” – When De Niro finds out Pesci was whacked.. I mean, come on.. that’s emotional stuff there..:P

several scenes in “All the Real Girls”

Actually a lot of stuff lately has gotten me choked up.. I don’t really cry, but hang there on the edge for a few.. I may have issues ;)

tros

over 3 years ago

Amazing Grace and Chuck has always left me crying after a certain characters death.