Flickgrrl

The endings of "Moulin Rouge", "The Way we Were", "Miller's Crossing" and "Funny Girl". The sense of irretrievable loss is overwhelming. The end of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol" because of the joyous relief of difficulties surmounted and families united, safe and at peace. The end of "The Wizard of Oz" because it's finally over. Sorry, Carrie.

And I always thought that I was the only sap who cried during over the rainbow.

My tearjerker hall of fame movie is Brian's Song. I can't even watch the previews!

Any film about a young boy growing up to be a writer starts me on crying jag. If there's a father/son relationship (good or bad), forget it, I'm practically inconsolable. THIS BOY'S LIFE, and KING OF THE HILL (The Soderbergh film) were two film that started me balling, and it's been surefire waterworks ever since. I was at Telluride a few months back and saw AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER, and every time Colin Firth (the son who becomes a writer) was on screen I sobbed uncontrollably. Afterwords, I met up with some friends and when they asked me how it was, I just broke down all over again. It's not even that good a film, but it got me weeping instantly.

What about What Dreams May Come? Rates ten Puffs (out of ten).

I agree, What Dreams May Come was a hard one on me. Steel Magnolias also gets me every time.

I rarely get emotional at films, but for some reason the one that got to me was the scene in "Awakenings" when DeNiro is dancing with the nurse, just knowing that the medicine is no longer working and he will soon no longer be able to "engage" in life. Just brutal.

And I thought I was the only "What Dreams May Come" blubberer! And say, JDM, "Over the Rainbow" is in the first 20 minutes of "Oz," you don't have to wait until the end.

Perhaps it's my age, but, "Field Of Dreams" really gets to me, my jaw aching from trying to maintain my machismo but in the end always deeply sobbing. Perchance to reclaim those missed opportunities with a parent from a time when I was too young to understand. Yet it was perfectly appropriate at that time for me not to do recognize those fleeting chances. It's tough. You blink and they're all gone. Am I being too morose here?

I always lose it at the very end of E.T., when John Williams' score swells under a close-up of Elliot, his hair blowing in the wind as he watches E.T.'s spaceship depart. It gets me every time, and I think a huge part of it is Williams' amazing music.

I'm with Jaime (above). I'm glad to see that scene in "Awakenings" gets to someone else as well. Just thinking about the scene is often all it takes. It's the combination of the kindness shown by the girl, the sense of hopelessness for the De Niro's character and ... as is often the case ... wonderfully poignant soundtrack (solo piano) at that moment.

"Forest Gump" always gets me multiple times -- when his mother tells him she's dying and when he's at Jenny's graveside talking to her, among others.

"Il Postino" has some wonderful moments as Mario is reading poetry and thinking of the woman he loves.

"Cinema Paradiso" is also a great tear-jerker -- when the old theater is demolished; while Salvatore is watching the old movie clips.

So much for being "strong". When it comes to some movies and music, I get as teary-eyed as some women.

My good cry movies have been "Terms of Endearment,I Am Sam & of course Brian's Song".A newer movie I must add to the list is "The Ultimate Gift" with James Garner & Abigail Breslin. Its a wonderful little movie but I really couldnt stop crying. For tears of Joy "Miracle" always gets me (Story of the 1980 US Hockey team.

"Glory" - seeing Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick leading the all-black Massachusetts 54th regiment into what they all know will be a suicide mission against the Confederates... just an incredibly powerful ending.

Carrie, you're right. When my daughters were little, and we watched Oz for what seemed like only twenty or thirty thousand times, I always snoozed off at "Rainbow" and then woke up at the end. It must get loud then. I was gratified to see that three of the original dwarves are walking the WGA picket line. I too find the end of "Miracle" tearful.

Field of Dreams. That "Hey Dad, Wanna have a catch" line, gets me every time. Although, I know it isn't a film last 15 minutes of "Six Feet Under" final episode is very moving as well.

To Kill a Mockingbird, when Gregory Peck turns and walks out of the courtroom and all the black people in the balcony turn and rise, and one nudges Scout and says something like, stand up, that's your father passing....gets me bawling everytime.

Life is Beuatiful, when the American tank rolls in at the end is one of the most sad, humorous and hopeful scenes in movie history. Gets me every time.

Forgive me for jumping topics but I want to ring in on your review of John Turturro's ROMANCE & CIGARETTES, which I've seen a couple of times up here in New York, and which opens today at the Ritz. As you say, the cast is superb, it's big-hearted fun, and Gandolfini is a pleasure to watch. I think you nailed the essence of the film with the word "naked." In spite of the singing and dancing, there's no artifice. No vibrato, no obvious choreography, no ulterior motives. It's all right out there: sex, love, anger, humor, disappointment, loneliness, reconciliation, contentment. Life, in all of its messy glory. I hope it catches on in Philadelphia like it has in New York.

My friends and I rate tearjerkers on a "Color Purple" scale, which rates a 10 for us.

A little-known Robert Duvall film from 1972 - "Tomorrow," written by Horton Foote (adapted from a William Faulkner short story) and directed by Joseph Anthony. Duvall and his co-star, the late Olga Bellin, participate in the most fragile of romances that is only enchanced by their humble and humbling circumstances. Topping this is Duvall's heart-wrenching relationship with his ill-fated little boy. A genuinely sad, moving film that earns its tears with dignity.

Also, for some bizarre reason, I am always touched by Gordon MacRae's rendition of the title song in Fred Zinnemann's "Oklahoma!" (1955), particularly the moment when Shirley Jones is moved to tears by the song and MacRae comforts her. My eyes always well up.

Oh, yes, and one other: William Wellman's 1932 "So Big," with Barbara Stanwyck and Dickie Moore in one of the more touching mother-son relationships.

"Penny Serenade" - both when Cary Grant pleads with the judge to let he and Irene Dunne keep their adopted daughter, and later when Dunne tells Grant that since the death of that same daughter, Dunne has been all alone, "right here in this apartment with you."

You mentioned "To Each His Own," so I'll throw in another Mitchell Leisen-directed Billy Wilder-scripted movie, "Hold Back the Dawn" - specifically, the ending where Charles Boyer's cad goes to see Olivia deHavilland in the hospital, even though he knows he'll be arrested.

The scene in "Remember the Night," where Fred MacMurray's family is singing Christmas carols and Barbara Stanwyck is feeling the Christmas spirit for the first time gets me.

And, perhaps surprisingly, another Christmas movie: Bill Murray's long closing monologue in "Scrooged," where he pleads with the TV audience to get with the Christmas spirit, always affects me a lot.

Oh, wwolfe, "Penny Serenade" is a guaranteed five-hankie job. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant at the adoption agency are incredible but also the first night the baby comes home and they think they've misplaced is slapstick comedy worthy of Laurel and Hardy. (Penny's director, George Stevens, got his start as a L & H gagwriter.)
Anon, I believe the line from "Mockingbird" is "Stand up. Your Father's passing." It always gets me.
And having just watched the tail end of "The Miracle Worker," I will say it's a very excellent pump primer of tears, both literally and figuratively.
I think parent and child stuff is particularly effective on the waterworks because adults respond both as children and as adults and, like music, it stirs up the emotions we felt when first we saw it.

Terrific article, Carrie. Brian's Song may be the greatest male tearjerker of all time. Losing the love of your life a la The Notebook is a bummer, but losing a teammate to a terminal illness is a whole other level of sorrow.

The ending of Jerry Maguire is really good. Cameron Crowe understood that the most emotional moment for women was your husband standing up in front of a bunch of other women and declaring his love for you, while for men, getting a big contract extension is enough to make us weep.

I dare anyone not to cry at a little movie called "All Mine To Give" Mom & Dad die..Older brother has to give away all his 7 brothers and sisters then goes off to live at a lumber camp. He does all this at age 12 and on Christmas Eve........Talk about cry!!!

"All Mine to Give" is the movie used by researchers to measure the subject's vulnerability to tears. Read the Desson Thompson article linked on my post. I've only seen it once and it was definitely hanky-worthy.

Carrie- Re "Old Yeller," do you think Disney - or any other modern film company actually - would dare to make such a wrenching family films these days? Wouldn't it be too disturbing for the target audience? I'd like your opinion not only as a critic, but also as a mom.

the ending of cenima paradiso in which all of the films that were edited in his youth are
discovered by the film producer and ennio morricone's lovely score hits the perectt note.

To Joe:

Well, the opening scenes of "Babe" show the pig's mom and littermates being carted off to the butcher and many scenes involve the threat of barnyard animals becoming dinner (as is the fate of the duck, who, if memory serves, runs around screaming "Meat is murder!" before he becomes Christmas dinner). Miyazaki animations have sequences of death. And "Charlotte's Web," which was recently remade, ends in the death of the titled spider (and the birth of her little spiderlings). This said, when Old Yeller goes, he's irreplaceable.

To Irv: I first saw "Cinema Paradiso" at the Cannes Film Festival in the company of my fellow jurors on the New York Film Festival panel. That year, there were three hard-core vanguardists (whose names I will not disclose so they don't lose their cred) who were crying so hard at the end that they apologized for allowing themself to be "manipulated" by such "schmaltz." P.S. It was in the festival: I threatened to out them as closet schmaltzists if it wasn't included.

Genrally I tend to avoid fims that I know will make me sad or ones that deal with sickness and death..things that we all have to face at some point. Why pay dough to be reminded of such things?

My feelings about films in which people sicken and die is different from my feelings in which people are killed as a result of war, crime etc. Even though those things are a part of real life I find it easier to divorce myself from the happenings in the average war or gangster flick than from the illnesses depicted in films like "Terms Of Endearment" or "Philadelphia" Same for the wholesale tragedies in films like "Hotel Rwanda".

To address the question:

Having lost my best friend, I can't make it through "Cooley High" anymore. I've never been able to make it through "Breaking Away" which features a character with my friend's name (though spelled differently).

Seeing poor Pudgy McCabe sitting in that snowdrift most likely dead at the end of "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" never fails to get to me. In fact I tried watching my DVD of the film recently and was in tears during Leonard Cohen's opening song. I had to turn the thing off.

And it doesn't make me cry but I am still upset and frustrated every single time Steve McQueen doesn't make it over the fence on that motorcycle in "The Great Escape".
Sometimes it's a "feel good" movie or one with a happy ending that brings me to tears. I'm especially susceptible to the 'triumph over adversity' type of flick. Terrence Howard's got at least two, "Pride" and "Hustle and Flow" on that list.

You mentioned a couple of mine -- Dark Victory and To Each His Own -- but there are a couple more that really get me.

The end of Now Voyager. Let's not ask for the moon, we have the stars. Indeed.

An Affair to Remember. It's a cliche now but when Cary Grant goes into the bedroom, it still gets me.

And speaking of Leo McCarey....

Make Way for Tomorrow, with Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore breaking your heart as a couple heading The scene in the hotel toward the end is a guaranteed tear-inducer.

For some reason, I cry at the end of Diner, too, when the camera is panning the action as Elise throws the bouquet and it lands on the guys' table. I think maybe because they remind me of guys I knew from the neighborhood.

It should have read.....

And speaking of Leo McCarey....

Make Way for Tomorrow, with Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore breaking your heart as a couple heading to different parts of the country to live out their days. The scene in the hotel toward the end is a guaranteed tear-inducer.

Carrie,
I thought I was the only "cheap weep" who cried at the Wizard of Oz! My granddaughters used to laugh, now are resigned, when I cry at the end when Dororthy awakes from her technicolor "journey." I think my tears arise from the fact that I am reflecting on my lost youth--I did see it for the first time when I was ten--and re-living the optimism, energy, and belief that ten year old girls have for a few shining years. I'm so "weepy" that I cry at the NCC's video on "Who Are We? which opens the exhibit. My husband cries at Cinderella stories, especially sports stories, i.e. "Invincible". Pass the hanky! Thanks! Loretta

I agree with some of the others about "Field of Dreams" and "What Dreams May Come"....but my personal all-timer is "Resurrection" with Ellen Burstyn, the story of a paraplegic healed by Richard Farnsworth, then inheriting the healing power herself. Not my kind of movie at all, I thought, until I saw it; there are many powerful scenes, capped by the epilogue dealing with a young boy with cancer....great stuff.

I'd forgotten about ET, but yes, that always gets me at the end, when you see that Eliott is happy to know his friend will be going home, but sad to lose him.

How about an oldie, the original "Lassie Come Home" with Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor. I was about 4 when I first saw it. I cried and cried when they showed her bloody pawprints, and I still cry, and I cry at the end when Lassie shows up at 4:00 at the school.

Oh thank you for remembering "Penny Seranade". Cary kills me in the end. Speaking of him, (and I know it's cliche), but the end of "An Affair to Remember" when he sees Deborah Kerr's blanketed legs and...you know the rest.

Here's more of my automatic water works:

Antione Fisher and Hurricane - the victory of love over hate!

Life is Beautiful

Gunga Din (the last scene as Rudyard Kipling is reciting his poem)

Imitation of Life

It's a Wonderful Life

Schindler's List, along with the Diary of Ann Frank. The last line, "In spite of everything I still believe people are really good at heart".

The Little Princess, in the scene where the her father doesn't remember her! I took my young daughter to see the remake in the theatre ten years ago and I bawled my eyes out. My poor daughter started crying cos mommy was crying.

Vittori De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Giardino dei Finzi-Contini). I first saw this movie in a theater in Toronto in 1971 and wept so much, I couldn't get out of my seat and leave the theater.

Three movie moments that always get me, a 57-year-old guy who's not very emotional:
1. Mr. Roberts. Not when Mr. Roberts dies, but earlier when the crew who had been shunning him realize that he sacrificed himself so that they could get liberty. Each man makes a point of saying, "Good night, Mr. Roberts" as the puzzled Henry Fonda, unaware that they know of his heroism, responds.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird. After the trial, when the black minister tells Scout, "Miss Jean Louise, you stand up. Your father's passing."
3. Another Gregory Peck film, Keys to the Kingdom, when the priest says goodbye to his Chinese friends at the dock after some 30 years of living in China.

I agree with "Imitation of Life." I was beside myself when Susan Kohner tried to pass for white and shunned her black mother, then realized her love for her too late, chasing the funeral procession.

I also sobbed when Nancy Kelly gave her child, Patty McCormack an overdose of sleeping pills when she realized she was a murderess in "The Bad Seed."

Another tearjerker was when Raphe Fienes couldn't save his lover in "The English Patient" when she was left dying in a cave as he couldn't return because he was captured and put in prison.

I'm crying just reading ths posts!

Imitation of Life is another movie where I cry just hearing the theme song. But I have to say the 1934 version with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers is even a bigger weeper -- without Mahalia Jackson singing at the fineral as in the 1959 version.

For me, "The Bad Seed" is a horror movie.

Breaking the Waves really got me

Used the annual trek to Central Jersey (rowhouse-raised Philly cousins, parents in a family of five) for Thanksgiving to bring this up at the dinner table.

We got into a healthy discussion of favorite movies and came up with these additions to the list:

When Mrs. Jumbo sings to her baby in Dumbo.

The Christmas scene in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, when GI Robert Mitchum gives Sister Deborah Kerr the present he made for her.

With a Song in My Heart, when Susan Hayward's Jane Froman sings "I"ll Walk Alone," to Robert Wagner's shell-shocked paratrooper.

Two scenes from The Best Years of Our Lives -- the wedding, when Harold Russell slips the ring on Cathy O'Donnell's finger. AND when Roman Bohnen's Pat Derry reads the citation for heroism given to son Dana Andrews.

I'd forgotten how much the last one chokes me up. We all thought it was because we grew up in a neighborhood that was a step up from the Derrys but not by much. It reminded my cousin and me of our dads.

I always break down at the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge abandons his free market principles.

Yeah, Frank: I'll buy that if you buy that I cried at the end of "101 Dalmatians" when Cruella DeVil didn't get her piebald coat.

Whenever I watch the "Lion King", I cry. From the opening song "Circle of Life" through the glorious ending when Simba wins back Pride Rock, I cry. I have seen the stage play 3 times and each time I sob so heavily during "He Lives in You" that people turn around to see what's wrong. It just gets to me like nothing else, perhaps because I love animals so much, or it could be because I miss my own Father so much. I just know that everything we need to know about life is contained in that marvelous story!

I'm sitting here watching what may not be considered a tear-jerker, The Grinch that Stole Christmas. But I cry every year when all the Who's down in Whoville gather round and sing "Christmas day is in our grasp/As long as we have hands to clasp." sniff. Gets me every time.

Definitely agree with the comments about The Lion King. And what about Beauty and the Beast? There are many tear-inducing scenes in that movie.
White Christmas always makes me cry - first, when they're actually in the war zone doing the Christmas show, and then when they recreate the whole thing for the General at the Vermont Inn with no snow. Gets me every time.
The ending of Love Actually is great for tears too - seeing all the people connecting at the airport, with that Beach Boys song "God Only Knows" playing in the background.
I guess endings get to me too, cause here are 2 others - in Shakespeare in Love, when Violet (Gwyneth Paltrow) walks up the shore alone. And then the ending of Big, when Tom Hanks gets back home, and his suit gets too big, and you hear his mom call his name . . .
So many films, so many tears . . .

Best tearjerker ever, gets me every time "Finding Neverland" Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Dustin Hoffman, and the wonderful Julie Christie, whose hard heart is moved to applause for Tinkerbell. Winslet's death scene...I sob like a child, so I can't even watch it anymore.

Chuck

Sounder and Imitation of Life (when the daughter runs after her mother's coffin) - just knowing the scene is coming, I start to cry. Also, any movie where a dog is in jeopardy, hurt or killed - I waited to see 8 Below so I wouldn't disturb a theater audience with my crying.

Finding Neverland also leapt to my mind when I read this. And Joy Luck Club always gets to me, every time it pops up on TV.

The movie I cried most for was the Marathi-language movie Shwaas, which India sent as its entry to the Oscars in 2004. It's about a grandfather who can't bring himself to tell his little grandson that he will have to lose his eyes in order to save his life. Instead, he steals the boy away from the hospital for a day to show him the wondrous sights of life.

I'd like to add a current movie to this list: Taare Zameen Par. It's a Hindi movie starring Aamir Khan (Lagaan) about a boy with dyslexia. Not only did everyone in the audience cry, but they also applauded at the end. Philadelphia viewers will have to drive to Burlington, NJ, to see it.

I often enjoy a good cry at movies, but my all-time misery at the movies was watching Akim Tamaroff in 'The Way of All Flesh'
It was on T.V.one night, and I was ironing at the time, but had to unplug the iron so that I would not get an electric shock from the barrels of tears running down my face.
He had been a bank messenger,was seduced and robbed by a 'lady of easy virtue' when he was out of town on business, and, ashamed and disgraced,allowed his family to think he had been hit by a train and died. Years later, we see him in rags and tatters at a theatre counting out his few pennies and climbing to the topmost balcony to hear his son, by then a concert violinist, performing. The son introduces his music by paying tribute to his 'late'father who had been his inspiration...and the old man weeps. I almost drowned.
Betty

The scene in Doctor Zhivago where he sees Lara on the sidewalk...Terms of Endearment when the mother looks at her daughter's face when she dies; Steel Magnolias' scene at the cemetery (nothing gets me more); the last scene of It's a Wonderful Life when he realizes he has friends and nothing is better; the last scene of Romeo and Juliet (franco Zefferelli's version) when Romeo sees Juliet in the Mausoleum and when the Montagues and Capulets go past the two lovers.

I always cry I hate my self