Saddest Films You've Ever Seen

[Guttersnipe]

It doesn't need to make you cry, but it at least made you feel drained or depressed by the end. Can either be sad throughout or be heartbreaking in the final act.

Me:
Schindler's List (1993)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Mask (1985)
The Dead Poets Society (1989)
La Bamba (1987)
The Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
The Green Mile (1999)
Room (2015)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Saddest (in more than one sense of the word) film I've never seen: The Day the Clown Cried - Wikipedia

 

[Danny McG]

Got to be the last four minutes of 'The Champ' (1979).

Here is the clip, get tissues ready:-

 

[Danny McG]

And I know this one was only television , but who can forget when Half-pint's dog died in 'Little house on the prairie'?

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

On the Beach -- it profoundly traumatized me after, unsupervised at home, I caught a TV showing of it one afternoon when I was ten.
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001). I'd also list here Lynch's third season of Twin Peaks (2017).
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964). It also strongly influenced La La Land (Chazelle, 2016), which has a very similar downbeat ending.
Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollock, 1972)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Peckinpah, 1974)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958)

Also, I imagine many will understand if I list here Pretty in Pink (surprisingly -- as I've just learned -- NOT directed by John Hughes, only written by him, 1986) for its ending. Test audiences suck.

 

[Boaz]

My Sister's Keeper (2007) - After dealing with terminal illness in my family, this film is a crusher.
Glory (1989) - How do you keep integrity when you lose your innocence? How do you find glory when all you've known is shame?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - Nicholson, Fletcher and Dourif turn in the three best performances I've ever seen in one film.
The Green Mile (1999) - Every time I thought the movie was deep, it went deeper.
Courageous (2011) - Emotional first scene. When the son shared his feelings and when the dad danced... forget about it.
Life is Beautiful (1997) - How far would you go to keep hatred from becoming a cancer in your child?
The Joy Luck Club (1993) - My mother was a refugee from China. I was raised on hope and sorrow.
Ordinary People (1980) - What form will your grief take? Who will you blame?

Movies I have not seen, yet suspect are terribly sad... The Passion of the Christ, Bang the Drum Slowly, Schinler's List, The Color Purple, The Killing Fields, The Grapes of Wrath, Not Without My Daugther, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Three Colours: Blue, and Dekalog.

 

[Droflet]

Never let me go. Brilliant but oh so sad. Warning: Stick with the British version which is far superior to the American.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Never let me go. Brilliant but oh so sad. Warning: Stick with the British version which is far superior to the American.

Aren't British versions always superior?

 

[Coops]

The Bridges at Toko Ri 1954 starring William Holden.
Maybe the only movie I cried. The first time I learned the Hero does not always make it. Addmittedly, I was but a wee lad at the time

 

[kythe]

I cried through The Color Purple.

 

[Astro Pen]

Storm Boy

 

[Paul_C]

Grave of the Fireflies.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Boys on the Side. One minute I’m Becky laughing, the next I’m bawling.

Paris is Burning.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Aren't British versions always superior?

I had no idea there's an "American version," and I can't find any reference to it. Looks like there's a 2016 Japanese TV movie, but that's about it.

 

[Foxbat]

Silent Running

 

[AlexH]

I've seen a few films that were so bad they left me drained and depressed, but I won't mention those. Just the good ones...

Still Alice
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
The Kite Runner
I, Daniel Blake
Incendies
Joker
Princess Mononoke
Leave No Trace (heartbreaking but beautiful)
Into the Wild
Bridge to Terabithia
Shooting Dogs
Million Dollar Baby
Mommy (2014)

Pretty much all of those are great films in my opinion.

I haven't seen over half the films in the opening post, and most of those are films I would like to see.

 

[Mouse]

Fluke. I own it, but can't bring myself to watch it again.

 

[Overread]

Grave of the Fireflies.

This by a long shot. It's one of those films that I'm very glad I watched, but I probably won't watch it again for a very very long time.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Not many but —- don’t laugh! — Mamma Mia 2 made me bawl.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'm not sure that Threads and 1984 are sad so much as relentlessly depressing, although the last scene of 1984 is sad. Heavenly Creatures always strikes me as very sad, as does the ending of Brazil, for quite similar reasons. Both are quite charming films, in a strange way, which adds to the effect.

One film that should be sad and isn't it Labyrinth. There's a bit at the end where it looks as if the heroine is going to "grow up" and bid all the creatures good bye - but no, stuff that, they all appear and dance around. That's the spirit.