What are the best "tear jerking" films IYO?

Post by **Lance** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:51 pm

What are the best "tear jerking" films in your opinion? This is the kind of movie I probably enjoy best. I prefer them to be real life stories (real or fictional, but realistic). I've already stated that one, for me, is either version of Imitation of Life, though I think the Colbert version the better of the two. It's that kind of film I refer to. Does anyone have any suggestions? Not that I want to feel bad, cry, or become depressed ... it's just the acting that makes everything so interesting.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:16 am

West Side Story & Kramer Vs. Kramer

(....even though I haven't seen either film in well over two decades)

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:25 am

How do I choose? I'm sure I've missed some.

"Letters From Iwo Jima"
"Schindler's List"
"Judgement at Nuremberg"
"Edward Scissorhands"
"Stepmom"
"Awakenings"
"Always"
"The Notebook"
"Simon Birch"
"Terms of Endearment"
"Mask"
"Pay it Forward"
"Where the Red Fern Grows"

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:05 am

Hands down - The Miracle Worker.

Chosen Barley · Post by **Chosen Barley** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:33 pm

Born Free

The Yearling

Old Yeller

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:14 pm

Chosen Barley wrote: Old Yeller

A classic tear-jerker. Confederate Railroad did a fun song called "She Never Cried" -- starts out:

She never cried when Old Yeller died
She wasn't washed in the blood of the lamb
She never stood up for the Star Spangled Banner
And she wasn't a John Wayne fan

Her baby blue eyes had the warning signs
That woman was bad to the bone
She never cried when Old Yeller died
So do you think I'll cry when she's gone

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:38 pm

Colleen:

Loved the "She Never Cried" lyrics, what a hoot. My list contains some duplicates, and some of them relate to specific scenes in a favorite movie, like "the funeral" in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the confrontation about "you're just a kid" in Good Will Hunting.

The Color Purple (The final dance)
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Ghandi ("My God" as he dies. I've been to his tomb so I might be predjudiced)
Good Will Hunting
Midnight Cowboy (the bus ride when you realize you've seen a love story)
The Miracle Worker ("Wah Wah")
Mister Roberts ("Your friend Doug Roberts was killed..." I didn't know the ending until I saw it for the first time)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (The Indian breaking his way to freedom)
Philadelphia
Saving Private Ryan ("Have I lived a good life?")
Schindler's List (More descendents of Schindler's Jews than living in Poland)
Steel Magnolias
Terms of Endearment
To Kill a Mockingbird ("Stand up Scout...")

There are certainly more, I tend to water up rather easily, but that's a good sample.

Chosen Barley · Post by **Chosen Barley** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:21 pm

That song She Never Cried (for old Yeller) is hilarious & right-on. Thanks for mentioning it, Madame.

IcedNote · Post by **IcedNote** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:42 pm

Dancer in the Dark
Hotel Rwanda
Pan's Labyrinth
Shawshank Redemption (for different reasons)
The Green Mile
Forrest Gump (has its moments)
Life is Beautiful

-G

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:01 pm

The Notebook, mentioned by Colleen also.
Shadowlands, the one about C.S. Lewis starring Anthony Hopkins, probably my favourite pure tear jerker ever.
Radio, a low-key, but very inspiring movie with Cuba Goodiing.
Once, awww, I will see this new movie again and again, three times so far.
Pride and Prejudice, the long A&E/ BBC production,
Bend it Like Beckham, a family favourite
Mr. Holland's Opus, most warm fuzzies of them all
Scrooge - with Alistair Sim, especially the last 10-15 minutes, such ebullience, what a great role.
Whale Rider - offbeat, authentic.
Billy Elliot - I see it's just being done as a major Broadway production
Notting Hill - a Hugh Grant flick
About A Boy - also a Hugh Grant flick and a Nick Hornby story.
Stone Reader - a documentary actually

And NUMBER 1,
It's A Wonderful Life

You won't go wrong with any one of these. Most of these are not big-budget productions, but they all have good stories.

I like some of the other movies mentioned in other posts, but wouldn't call them all tearjerkers necessarily. Like Gandhi, a fantastic movie, and one we just saw again with our niece who was writing an essay on him. The world needs more of the likes of Richard Attenborough, who has made only a few movies, all classics.

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:00 pm

Ghandi is more about such a man existing, then losing him to assassination, not unlike Martin Luther King, who certainly deserves a great film. Not a tear jerker, I agree.

David Sherman

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:34 pm

HoustonDavid wrote:Ghandi is more about such a man existing, then losing him to assassination, not unlike Martin Luther King, who certainly deserves a great film. Not a tear jerker, I agree.

David Sherman

I agree about M.L.King also. Such a film would be very hard to do. It would be intimidating because expectations would be very high.
But didn't Philip Glass do an opera on Tolstoy, Gandhi AND Martin Luther King, the trinity of passive resistance?

Post by **Lance** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:44 am

Yes, among the best! Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke outdid themselves acting wise. Of course I've always been in love with Anne Bancroft!

Febnyc wrote:Hands down - The Miracle Worker.

Post by **Lance** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:47 am

I recall seeing a film that I thought tragically tear-jerking ... I think it is called Gorillas in the Mist or some such thing. I don't have that one yet. Will check it out. This IS a tear-jerker, no?

Febnyc · Post by **Febnyc** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:03 am

IcedNote includes "Forrest Gump" in his list. That's an interesting choice - it does, as he says, "have its moments." One which always gives me a lump in my throat is when Forrest visits Jennie after a long separation and she introduces him to her child, Forrest's son. He is captured by the boy, almost choked with emotion, and, putting his hand to his chest, asks her, "Is he...is he....like me." It's a powerful scene.

And just as overwhelming, I think, is Tom Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan." Again, there's one scene which captures the essence of the movie. It's when the sergeant is threatening to shoot the complaining private - after a shouting match - and Captain Miller (Hanks) quietly cuts the unbearable tension by answering a question which has been puzzling the troops - what did the Captain do before he joined the Army. The way Hanks delivers this line is beautifully accomplished - and almost takes ones breath away. He, essentially, becomes the everyman soldier - just a former high school teacher who is, like all the rest of the men, doing his best under the circumstances, making mistakes and, more than anything else, seeking to shorten the time until he can go home again. This climax-in-the-middle-of-the-picture is brilliantly acted and directed.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:43 am

Lance wrote:I recall seeing a film that I thought tragically tear-jerking ... I think it is called Gorillas in the Mist or some such thing. I don't have that one yet. Will check it out. This IS a tear-jerker, no?

I haven't seen it, but I remember it. This was about that female biologist who studied gorillas and worked to protect them from poachers. A true life story. Thanks for the reminder; that's one I've always wanted to see.

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:58 pm

Chosen Barley wrote:That song She Never Cried (for old Yeller) is hilarious & right-on. Thanks for mentioning it, Madame.

Going off topic a bit more -- I have played the Confederate Railroad CD hundreds of times, the songs are great -- this is a favorite:

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:23 pm

For a single scene, nothing compares to Dumbo being separated from his mother.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:26 pm

Barry wrote:For a single scene, nothing compares to Dumbo being separated from his mother.

Excuse me. Bambi's mother killed by hunters! Dumbo doesn't come close.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:40 pm

slofstra wrote:
Barry wrote:For a single scene, nothing compares to Dumbo being separated from his mother.
Excuse me. Bambi's mother killed by hunters! Dumbo doesn't come close.

Close call for me.

Chosen Barley · Post by **Chosen Barley** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:41 pm

Re Dumbo, Bambi, etc. A few years ago a nice young man knocked on our door asking for permission to hunt deer on our land. I told him I would prefer that he did not, but I made sure he understood that I wasn't hostile to all hunting all the time. I just don't want bullets flying around my head, as I like to walk thru the meadow & bush in the fall. And I don't like people hunting if they don't absolutely have to (but total social breakdown could soon occur making it necessary but that is another story).

Now get a load of this: this fella said that the first time he killed a deer, he cried & cried and felt awful. But he kept on doing it.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:58 pm

Chosen Barley wrote:Re Dumbo, Bambi, etc. A few years ago a nice young man knocked on our door asking for permission to hunt deer on our land. I told him I would prefer that he did not, but I made sure he understood that I wasn't hostile to all hunting all the time. I just don't want bullets flying around my head, as I like to walk thru the meadow & bush in the fall. And I don't like people hunting if they don't absolutely have to (but total social breakdown could soon occur making it necessary but that is another story).

Now get a load of this: this fella said that the first time he killed a deer, he cried & cried and felt awful. But he kept on doing it.

My sister-in-law's mother-in-law lives in Carman, Manitoba. She narrowly missed being hit by a hunter's bullet a week ago. Sounds like keeping hunters away is a good policy.

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:48 pm

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" by Max Ophuls is billed as one of the great romantic tearjerkers.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:38 am

lmpower wrote:"Letter from an Unknown Woman" by Max Ophuls is billed as one of the great romantic tearjerkers.

That raises an interesting question. What's a tearjerker? When I look over my list, I realize that many of them are not tragic in the classic sense, like Love Story, but inspire only positive emotions, like It's A Wonderful Life. Enough to bring tears (in my case, there usually are no tears, just a lot of nose blowing in a hankie to hide my face, how romantic for my wife).
And a few involve romance, but many do not. Like Radio, which I felt had a very uplifting finale. Also a true story by the way.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:41 am

slofstra wrote:
Lance wrote:I recall seeing a film that I thought tragically tear-jerking ... I think it is called Gorillas in the Mist or some such thing. I don't have that one yet. Will check it out. This IS a tear-jerker, no?
I haven't seen it, but I remember it. This was about that female biologist who studied gorillas and worked to protect them from poachers. A true life story. Thanks for the reminder; that's one I've always wanted to see.

Lance, talk about serendipity. Last night I was watching an old episode of Seinfeld (many of which I'm seeing for the first time believe it or not) and this biologist is mentioned. It's Diane Fossey. The Seinfeld episode is the one where Kramer gets into a banana peel throwing spat with a monkey.

jserraglio · Post by **jserraglio** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:57 pm

Million Dollar Baby

even more blubbery when I brought to mind the last scene of Dirty Harry and reflected on the trajectory of Clint Eastwood's career.

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:53 pm

"Gorillas in the Mist" is the true story of Diane Fossey. It is quite tragic, but I don't think it is sentimental enough to be a first rate tearjerker. There is certainly a distinction between critically acclaimed great films and tearjerkers. Personally I am more concerned by whether the plot and acting move me whereas critics tend to pay more attention to brilliant innovations by the director. Background music is also an important factor. My eldest son and I just watched Forrest Gump again. It may be the only film where I laugh and cry all the way through. It is like life itself. It constitutes a striking meditation on American history and culture in the latter half of the twentieth century. "Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel."

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:53 pm

The films that I "really" enjoy are those that stretch my emotions, ones where I am laughing one minute and crying the next. "Impower" is right IMHO, I am moved more by the plot and the acting, and you have to throw in the musical score as a "prompt" for emotional highs and lows. I only seem to notice the "acclaimed" directorial tricks after I've seen a film more than once, although some are truly awesome the first time, like the first portion of "Saving Private Ryan". I really like "Shakespeare in Love", but it can't compete with "Ryan" as a competitor for "Best Picture". When it comes to jerking my emotions around: "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Mister Roberts", One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" come to mind, as well as "Forrest Gump". Loved your concluding quote, Impower, what's the source?

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:16 am

HoustonDavid wrote:The films that I "really" enjoy are those that stretch my emotions, ones where I am laughing one minute and crying the next.

Agree ... esp. remembering 'Forrest Gump' ... my adult kids on either side of me ... and I'm hearing this ..sniff ... sniff .. sniff.. my son saying in a low voice 'I NEVER cry in a movie ... I NEVER cry in a movie', his girlfriend patting his hand. It was during the last scene before Jennie died, it tore him apart.

These two hit me: "I guess sometimes, there's just not enough rocks"
And this, at the end: "You died on a Saturday morning. And I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground."

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:44 am

Saw this in the NY Times this morning in a review of the new film "Australia", thought it very appropos of the topic:

“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession,” Milan Kundera wrote. “The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.”

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:44 pm

"Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel" Horace Walpole in a letter to Sir Horace Mann 1770

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:38 pm

HoustonDavid wrote:The films that I "really" enjoy are those that stretch my emotions, ones where I am laughing one minute and crying the next. "Impower" is right IMHO, I am moved more by the plot and the acting, and you have to throw in the musical score as a "prompt" for emotional highs and lows. I only seem to notice the "acclaimed" directorial tricks after I've seen a film more than once, although some are truly awesome the first time, like the first portion of "Saving Private Ryan". I really like "Shakespeare in Love", but it can't compete with "Ryan" as a competitor for "Best Picture". When it comes to jerking my emotions around: "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Mister Roberts", One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" come to mind, as well as "Forrest Gump". Loved your concluding quote, Impower, what's the source?

I can pretty much concur with your list, with the notable exception of Four Weddings and a Funeral which I thought to be a very callous treatment of romance without being absurd enough to make it into the black humour category. Not at all a movie I liked, and I know I'm in the minority since it won Oscars.

smitty1931 · Post by **smitty1931** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:55 am

I dare anyone not to tear up at the final scene of RANDOM HARVEST with Colman and Garson at their finest!

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:54 pm

"The Champ"
(1979, Jon Voight, Rick Schroder, Faye Dunaway)
(1931, Wallace Beery <won Best Actor>, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich)

I bawl my eyes out over the whole thing.

Jackie Cooper is still alive today, I was surprised. He left 'show business' almost 20 years ago but returned in 2006 to play Perry White in Superman II. Just few tidbits if anyone cares

HoustonDavid · Post by **HoustonDavid** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 4:24 pm

That's the trouble I have with "The Champ"; it was designed as a pure tear jerker from start to finish. Even so, it sucks you in and you wind up doing just what it was directed, produced, written, orchestrated and acted to do. It reminds me of the last few seconds of "Shane" -- "Come back, Shane" -- but repeated for 90 interminably wet minutes. It may well be near the top of the ultimate tear jerker list, right up there with "Ol' Yeller".

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 6:41 pm

Three Colors: Blue
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources
Un Coeur en Hiver
Twin Sisters
Joyeux Noël
Resident Evil: Extinction (well, I wept it was so damn bad)

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Thu May 21, 2009 6:23 pm

Can it be that nobody has mentioned Cyrano De Bergerac? For me that is one of the purest tearjerkers of all time.

Guitarist · Post by **Guitarist** » Fri May 22, 2009 12:25 pm

Testament starring Jane Alexander. It's about a family trying to survive a nuclear attack and is utterly devastating.

kairos · Post by **kairos** » Fri May 22, 2009 11:39 pm

lmpower wrote:Can it be that nobody has mentioned Cyrano De Bergerac? For me that is one of the purest tearjerkers of all time.

Oh my goodness - absolute heart-breaking tears for Cyrano - Yes! I have loved the play and the movie forever!

lemarquis · Post by **lemarquis** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:06 am

Wings of the Dove
The End of the Affair
Sunshine

Post by **Lance** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:05 pm

Madame, you are right on! That's a tear-jerker for me, too. I've always loved Wallace Beery, but I must say, Jackie Cooper did a yeoman's job of acting in The Champ, particularly the last sequence. Whatever happened to Cooper? Did he go on to a great career?

Madame wrote:"The Champ"
(1979, Jon Voight, Rick Schroder, Faye Dunaway)
(1931, Wallace Beery <won Best Actor>, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich)

I bawl my eyes out over the whole thing.

Jackie Cooper is still alive today, I was surprised. He left 'show business' almost 20 years ago but returned in 2006 to play Perry White in Superman II. Just few tidbits if anyone cares

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:59 am

So far as I know, Lance, he's still among the living....in fact, as one of the Little Rascals, he's practically the only surviving major player in that forever-rotating bunch (apart from Robert Blake & Porky Lee).

If you relish the 9-year-old Jackie Cooper crying his eyes out, you should savor the episodes "Teacher's Pet" and "School's Out" (they about make me plotz--I prefer this series when it has me in tears of laughter).

Cooper, as a grownup, continued with acting well into the 50s (notably in the forgotten sitcom People's Choice, in which he played second banana to a basset hound named Cleo). He became an executive of Columbia-Screen Gems studios, and a director (Stand Up And Be Counted, Leave 'Em Laughing, and several episodes of M*A*S*H, one of which earned him an Emmy).

I have a Dollar Store DVD of a Milton Berle Show episode on which Cooper guested, where we get to see & hear a little of his acumen as a drummer!

smitty1931 · Post by **smitty1931** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:29 am

Years ago Mickey Rooney was touring in a show with his wife. He became ill and Jackie Cooper, Donald Oconnor and Gloria Dehaven put on the show in his place. I got to shake his hand and tell him how much I liked his work.

maskedman · Post by **maskedman** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:49 pm

Febnyc wrote:Hands down - The Miracle Worker.

Definitely agree with this, watched it again last night......What acting, I am always in amazement when I watch this....along with Philadelphia, these two films get me every time.

Robert

maskedman · Post by **maskedman** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:51 pm

smitty1931 wrote:I dare anyone not to tear up at the final scene of RANDOM HARVEST with Colman and Garson at their finest!

another winner

Robert

jbuck919 · Post by **jbuck919** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:17 pm

I'm not often moved to tears by cinema, as opposed to music, but I was choked up by the ending of Amistad, when (spoiler) the print narration over Cinque's apparently triumphal return to Africa states that he returned to find his family killed, his village destroyed, his people shattered by internecine war. The movie takes many liberties with history (J.Q. Adams accepted the job of defense counsel not reluctantly but as an honor, neither Adams' closing speech nor the reading of the court decision bears resemblance to the much longer real things, etc.), that part at least is correct.

Unfortunately, when I first saw it I was watching it with a bunch of middle school social studies students, and while I normally have no hang-ups about such things, it was not exactly the most convenient time to find a film moving in that way.

Jared · Post by **Jared** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:59 am

for me, I think one of the most poignant moments in movie history is the final scene in Vittorio de Sica's 'The Bicycle Thieves', when the father walks away from the baying crowd, holding his son's hand after having been caught trying to steal a bicycle... the look of dejection in the boys eyes, truly brought a lump to my throat...

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:50 pm

More on Jackie Cooper:

In 1931, when Paramount acquired his contract from Hal Roach's studio (for $100K), for the starring role in Skippy, the director, in order to get Cooper to do his big cry scene, told the kid he'd just shot his dog. Of course, there was the "just kidding" part that came afterwards for the traumatized youngster.

Still--as Movies On TV editor Steven H. Scheuer concluded his two-star review--"So much for cinema realism."

DavidRoss · Post by **DavidRoss** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:24 am

jserraglio wrote:Million Dollar Baby

even more blubbery when I brought to mind the last scene of Dirty Harry and reflected on the trajectory of Clint Eastwood's career.

Yes. Good movies that are also "tear jerkers" seem awfully few to me, and most of those listed by others don't strike me as both. This one, however, came promptly to mind. And I nodded assent when someone else mentioned Steel Magnolias. Contrived sentimentality in movies rarely moves me to tears but rather pisses me off. In the two cases above, yes, the sentiment is contrived, but the characters and story are strong enough to make it work--for me, at least.

One True Thing -- with William Hurt and Meryl Streep, and largely because of their performances -- moved me as more true and respectful than most movies that might provoke tears--authentic, not sentimental. Maybe I responded so well because my own father was dying of cancer at the time and it treated that situation with more honesty than I expected.

Brendan · Post by **Brendan** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:35 pm

Three Colors: Blue
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources
Un Coeur en Hiver
Twin Sisters
Joyeux Noël

Each of these movies is a cinematic masterpiece of the highest order. Steel Magnolias is cliche Hollywood tripe with a stonrg cast. If you look outside Hollywood, there is actually quite a selection of good movies (not up to the standard of those mentioned above, but far better than Hollywood fare) out there that move quite powerfully. I should probably also mention The Double Life of Veronique, Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, Wings of Desire/Far Away, So Close and Downfall.

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