Which are the Saddest Movies you've seen?

[huxley]

what are the saddest movies you've seen. and what was sad about it.

please could you explain why you found the movies sad. thanks

 

[Dave]

I can't help myself during It's a Wonderful Life. When I was a child Ring of Bright Water had the same effect.

Why are they sad? Why do they have more of an effect on me than other films? I have no idea, maybe they are just well produced.

 

[BookStop]

First thing you have to know about me before I can answer this is that I'm a crier. I find this weirdest things sad, but I'll try and limit this to movies I know are sad.


A.I. - I know he was just a robot, but...but...sniff....

Steel Magnolias - obvious tear jerker, but Sally Field's outburst at the cemetary....makes me want to well up now.

The Notebook - complete girly thing, but I cannot watch it without a whole mess of tissues for eye dawbing and nose blowing.

As to why these movies are sad...anytime you feel a connection to a character and then they feel pain, it makes sense you'd share in the feeling.

 

[SpaceShip]

Finding Neverland - just adore Johnny Depp anyway. SPOILER ALERT Because

Spoiler

she dies

 

[j d worthington]

Requiem for a Heavyweight is high on that list, for me.

Why? Brilliant script by Rod Serling, and brilliant performances by everyone from Anthony Quinn to Jackie Gleason to Mickey Rooney to Julie Harris. And while, yes, "Mountain" is a pug fighter and a not particularly bright individual, he's right -- he's not a stumblebum. He's a man who's losing everything but his dignity -- and *spoiler alert* then he sacrifices even that to pay what he sees as an old debt to a friend... even when that friend has sold him out. He has pride, and he has dignity... and in the end, it destroys him and makes him a mockery, and that's what makes it hurt so: because he really does do the right thing, and it costs him even his own last shred of self-respect. That film will break your heart, and oh, what a beautiful work it is...

There are lots of others, but I'll have to get back with some of those.....

 

[UltraCulture]

Shawshank.

se montegnegro

 

[kythe]

The Color Purple. I cried all the way through.

 

[ravenus]

Grave of the Fireflies - Japanese animated film about 2 children, a brother and sister, trying to survive in post WW2 Japan. Makes you empathize completely with its innocent lead characters and you end up feeling gut-punched with every bad thing that happens to them. Saw it once, can't bear seeing it again simply because it's so powerful.


Picnic at Hanging Rock - Not perhaps a conventional choice, but I find myself very emotionally attached with this story of unspoken yearnings and Victorian-era repression of feelings in the name of propriety.

 

[Nesacat]

Like BookStop I cry at a lot of movies. I cried my way through Lord of The Rings and still do. Same with Beauty & The Beast. And they all had happy endings. And I cried when Predator died in Alien vs. Predator.

So for movies that are actually sad I'm going to agree with Ravenus on Picnic At Hanging Rock and for the same reasons Age Of Innonence. They are both powerful for the undercurrent of yearnings and all the imposed rules and restrictions of the era.

I've seen Grave of Fireflies and it's gut wrenching every single time. I feel the same about Raise The Red Lantern.

And I always cry through Edward Scissorhands and Bicentennial Man.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Well, I don't know about the saddest movie, but when the Zefferelli version of Romeo and Juliet came out (oh, about 1968 or so), the first time I saw it in the theater, I started crying at the first line and didn't stop until the thing was over. So, I didn't actually see it very well...but I went back twice that week to see it again. Fortunately, those times, the waterworks didn't start quite so soon. As to why it is sad...if you don't know in regards to this one, I'm not telling.

I am another one, like Book Stop and Nesacat, who cry during lots of movies, tv shows (I don't think there was ever an episode of The West Wing that didn't get me going at some point or other), while reading books, listening to music, and so forth. But it also depends on my mood. Still, there are some movies that make me cry every single.

The example that comes to mind first is A League of Their Own. Yeah, I know, not really the saddest film in the world. But every time it gets to the part where the girl who was raised by her father leaves home, I just lose it. See, I'm tearing up just writing about it here. Then again, at the end of the film, when they have the reunion at the Baseball Hall of Fame, it starts all over again.

 

[Nesacat]

Oh goodness yes. I've stopped reading at the restaurants near my office because the last time I did and cried the staff sent an SOS to my boss and I was suddenly surrounded by several worried colleagues. I think the culprit at the time was the chapter where Gandalf tells Aragorn and the rest about Ents.

And ummm yes I'm tearing up now too. The most recent movie I cried through was The Sinking Of Japan. They were all so foolishly brave and heroic.

 

[dustinzgirl]

Everytime I watch any of the following, I cry like a (insert anti-feminist word here):

Jersey Girl
ET (every time ET 'dies', I cry. even tho I know he isnt dead)
Happy Feet (where the penguin gets lost. Shut up.)
Short Circuit

Hmm I can't think of any others.

 

[Allegra]

La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful). It's more of a comic-tragedy than a tragicomedy. I cried my eyes out at the last part because the humour made it so much sadder. And the music, ooooooh.... Oscars well deserved!

 

[jackokent]

I'm a sucker for animal stories. Ring of Bright Water, Tarka the Otter, even the bit in Dumbo when he was talking to him mum through the bars.

Kes is probably the saddest movie of all time. Apparantly the main kid didn't even know it wasn't the actuall kestral that was killed. His tears were real cause he throught they film makers had actually killed the bird!! I think that's taking things a bit far.

As for people stories they tend to leave me cold, I did think the Last Emporour was sad though.

 

[Allegra]

I'm a sucker for animal stories. Ring of Bright Water, Tarka the Otter, even the bit in Dumbo when he was talking to him mum through the bars.

Kes is probably the saddest movie of all time. ..

Same here, Jacko. But I've never heard of those you mentioned. Will have to find them....and get a few boxes kleenex.

 

[Dave]

Yes, I want to add Kes too. I had forgotten that one.

There are some common themes appearing here to answer huxley's original question (which sounds like homework of some kind.)

- animals
- death
- hopelessness
- repression of feelings

 

[Culhwch]

I'd put a vote in for Finding Neverland, too. Million Dollar Baby is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. The ending of Stand By Me is quite poignant, and always makes me feel sad. And to keep up the animal theme, the parts in Dances With Wolves when Cisco dies and when the soldiers shoot Two Socks...

 

[BookStop]

The end of Last of the Mohicans is another one I simply cannot watch without tissues nearby.

 

[Nikitta]

Like some other in here, I cry a lot at the movie, even at scenes that are not sad, like the part of LoTR where the hobbits bow to Arragon and he says "My friends; you bow to no one" and bow to them, which all people follow by bowing to them too.

Sad movies? The first that comes to mind is Pan's Labyrinth or at least the end of it. That made me cry buckets.

 

[ravenus]

How could I have forgotten this:

George Romero's Martin: A dysfunctional youth who can't even bring himself to have a normal conversation with another human being and who thinks he's an 84-year old vampire. Completly heart-breaking gothic horror meets kitchen sink reality movie with an amazing lead performance by John Amplas.