What's the saddest movie scene you've ever seen?

Also Brokeback Mountain when he goes to whats-his-name's mom's house and finds their two shirts together.

The end of Bicycle Thief

Longtime Companion when David is sitting next to a deathly ill Sean, holding his hand and saying it's okay to let go. I haven't watched it in years, but it still gets me just thinking about it.

The end of "Forbidden Games." Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) and her parents evacuate ahead of the German invasion. The parents and her dog are killed by strafing by the Luftwaffe. She ends up at a farm (I can't remember everything because I've never been able to see it again). Paulette and Micehl end up in a refugee center and she hears someone shout, "Michel!" Paulette thinks it's her Michel but it's not and she runs off. Fin. The clip below, from 1:24, is absolutely devastating.

^^Michel^^

R1 Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Yes, definitely.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me when Laura tells James "your Laura disappeared, it's just me now" with a coked-out look on her face. Then she falls off of James's bike and stumbles into the woods to hookup with Jacque, Leo and Ronette Pulaski.

Computer wore tennis shoes when Patrick Swayze had to go back to being stupid.

Two from Manchester By the Sea. Casey Affleck at the police station (that's the scene that won him the Oscar, I'm sure). Michelle Williams "My heart will always be broken." I wondered if she dug deep and thought of Heath Ledger to get that absolutely perfect.

The end of WITHNAIL & I when "I" walks away from Withnail in the park in the rain

Hillary's death scene in Beaches got me when I was about nine. It still gets me now.

I'm somewhat to embarrassed to admit that Beaches gets me every time.

I know he made his choices. I know he deserved his fate, but the ending scene in "The Godfather, II" gets me every time. Michael Corleone is alone, with only his memories accompanying him.

The immediately preceding scene makes it. He's remembering his young adulthood, when he's left alone at the dining room table while his brothers Sonny, Fredo, Tom Hagen and sister Connie are heard in the background greeting the Don with a surprise birthday greeting.

He's always been alone.

All of DL was in tears at this scene...because it IS weird not having anyone cum on you.

The ending of Coming Home where Jane Fonda is going into the grocery store and Jon Voight is talking to the students and Bruce Dern is walking in to the ocean with that song playing. I just die on that every time.

Also the ending of Long Time Companion where all the people who have died are at the party on Fire Island.

The Ending Of Stand By Me when adult Gordy reveals they all drifted apart and now Chris was dead. Very sad how we lose touch with those we once loved so easily sometimes.

R17, I came to post almost exactly what you wrote.

the death portion of Terms Of Endearment.

Song of Norway

R8, it was Kurt Russell, you stupid (and fat) whore.

When Kira returns to the realm of the gods , leaving Sonny sad & alone on opening night at his roller disco, in Xanadu.

Steal Magnolias and Boys on the Side for me.

Christine Lahti’s reunion with her father, Steven Hill, in “Running On Empty”.

The last scene of Portrait of A Young Lady on Fire when Heloise is watching the orchestra play Vivaldi’s Summer that she heard her love play on the harpsichord years before.

Fried Green Tomatoes when Idgy tells a dying Ruth a silly story at Ruth’s request and Ruth dies, then Sipsey says “a lady always knows when to go.”

Also, 90s Little Women when Beth says she’s alone and not afraid to die and then dies with Jo in the room.

“Give The Boy A Chance!!!”

I have to post another one.

I Am Legend, when Sam dies.

Imitation of Life. I cried.

next scene...

Billy Elliot when Billy recites his mom's letter to him.

Annie’s funeral at the end of Imitation of Life.

I love running on empty. Such a great film. I had the poster for it when I was a kid and used to kiss the picture of River on it every night before bed.

In Terms of Endearment for me it the “Give my daughter the shot!” scene that I lose it on.

Terms of Endearment when Emma says goodbye to her little boys.

The Christmas scene in “One True Thing”.

The scene in The Sweet Hereafter when the daughter lies about the cause of the bus accident that paralyzed her. You don't know if she does it to get back at her father for grooming and sexually abusing her (he loses his lawsuit against the driver because of her lie) or if she lies because she's upset that he no longer desires her after her paralysis.

And pretty much every other scene in the movie.

The ending of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is beyond sad. Horrific, gut-churning is more like it.

‘How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?’

This.

Same for me, r23. Also, City of Angels left me depressed for days, though I have never figured out why.

The movie that makes me break down repeatedly is the 1983 movie Testament starting Jane Alexander. The nuclear bombing of the US kills the father who doesn’t make it home and the film follows the family and their town as they become increasingly desperate, ill and die. I ended up watching it again and weeping my eyes out.

Multiple scenes are heartbreaking, one where the daughter asks the mother what it is really like to fall in love and be with a man and to tell her honestly, where the town comes to the play of the Pied Piper of Hamelin at the school and they say the children will return when the world is better, when the mother accidentally sets off the last message on the answering machine to hear that her husband had not be able to leave early and was never on the way home, her bathing a dying Lukas Hass in the sink as life literally runs out of him and then when he is going to be buried, but she can’t find his teddy bear to be with him and she freaks out.

When Bjork cried and said she wanted to have a child even though she knew he would grow up to be blind. Dancer In The Dark.

The end of Midnight Cowboy - the music gets me every time.

Maybe not the "saddest" but the campfire scene in "My Own Private Idaho" is nuanced and intense.

From saddest to funniest:

Basically, everything from this animated film, Grave of the Fireflies.

Still haunts me more than 30 years later.

Betty plays a woman who saw her husband off to ww2 on their one year anniversary .He was mia from that point on,and every year she went back to the train station to wait for him. This scene is when he was finnaly found and brought home. yes,its a hallmark movie,but if this shit doesnt make you cry youve no heart !

Probably this is the worst one; it's from Sophie's Choice. When she's ordered to choose which one of her two children will live or be killed by the Nazis.

[quote]it's from Sophie's Choice. When she's ordered to choose which one of her two children will live or be killed by the Nazis.

I choose Glenn.

"Weekend" (Andrew Haigh, 2011), the ending.

OP John Hannah says “wood” instead of “woods” as Auden wrote. Yes it rhymes better with “good” but the anomaly lifts it above banality.

Longtime Companion and Billy Elliott scenes. Both hit so close to home as they were my experiences.

The hunter killing Bambi's mum. Lifetime heartbreak.

Final sceen, Gui Lai (Coming Home). Heartbreaking.

The Colour Purple, Whoppie Goldberg, seeing the post delivered and asking "Anything for me?"

ET, lying on the table, his heart light fading.

La Strada, Zampanò beating the shit out of Gelsomina.

Jessica Lange's scene in "The Music Box" when she confronts her father about his past. Horrific, yes, but sad because the image she had of her father is now completely destroyed.

The scene at the end of "Robin and Marian" when he realizes his wound is far too great and[*spoiler alert*] Marian has given him a drink to end his suffering and his life. She has also taken it, and reaches out for him.

James Garner being far too cruel to Joyce Grenfell in "The Americanization of Emily."

Anne Bancroft in "Garbo Talks," when she at last meets her idol.

Lee Strassberg's tormented character in "The Cassandra Crossing."

Waiting on R47 and would’ve posted that one. Ugh. So horrific.

The climax of Harold and Maude, when Maude gets rushed to the hospital and Harold is in the waiting room and "Trouble" by Cat Stevens is playing. I just lose it every time.

Schindler's List - when the mothers all rush toward the train of children as it starts leaving the camp. As I was watching it in a sold-out movie theatre, up until then I'd been been able to keep a stiff upper lip, just barely, but that was when I broke down.

In The Piano, when Holly Hunter gets her finger chopped off. I was in Paris watching it and was screaming and sobbing, while the whole theater remained stoically quiet. When the lights came up everyone stared to see who had caused such a commotion.

R57, you were screaming in the movie theater? Psycho Mary!

I agree with R1, 2 and 3

Dumbo’s visit with his mom when she was in the jail trailer. Disney sure knew how to gut-punch a kid.

God’s Own Country where Johnny is waiting at Georghie’s place of employment and makes ridiculous small talk trying to win him back. Then desperate when Georghie starts walking away he spills his guts about wanting to have a relationship with him.

Hugh grants character looking down out of his window at the fair haired Maurice waves at him, happy, freed, “join me!”.... the end

In Wit, when Emma Thompson's old professor & mentor goes to visit her in the hospital and is momentarily shocked to see her wasting away.

But immediately composes herself and reads the children's story she bought for her grandchild.

The plane crash scene in Fearless and Jeff Bridges eating the strawberry.

Lee Strasberg's death in 1979's Going in Style and Debra Winger's death in Terms of Endearment.

The music adds a lot to it, but the scene where the evil, callous Emily leaves loyal and loving Jessie at the donation truck. Extreme pathos.

The Power of One.

Ending of Cinema Paradiso

I held it together at Schindler's List until Liam Neeson breaks down. And just when I thought I was going to compose myself, the children visiting Schindler's grave.

Shane! Shhhaaaaaannne! Come baaaack!

R4, I cry every time.

R68 Oh god, that movie. That scene... I think that beats all others on this list.

I would like to add one unorthodox thing, and that's the scene in Stranger Than Fiction when Will Farrell's character tells the author that he read her book, and she should finish it. He knows he has to die, and it's just heartbreaking.

Jodie Foster sending a "silent key" for her father who just died. It is the way radio ham used to honor the dead in their community, sending them a morse message (cq : seek you).

The horse getting shot and killed and then the wolf getting shot and hurt in Dances With Wolves.

Jeez...Boys on the Side. I think I saw it at the cross county mall in Yonkers. I walked out like I was leaving a battle and I remember a fat guy with a wife or girlfriend watching stunned zombies leaving and saying, “We’re seeing THAT?”

I watched it again years later and it didn’t hold up..

Anyone revving up to shit on me because I bring up Meryl, I won’t be surprised. But in Out of Africa, there’s two scenes: 1) When she drops to her knees to beg the incoming Governor to preserve a bit of land for her workers/tribe and secures a promise from his wife. 2) The scene where the men of the club invite her into the males-only bar for a toast.

From 1951's "A Christmas Carol", when the Cratchits are together after Tiny Tim's death...gets me every time, and I've seen it every single year.

The ending of "Mary and Max."

The ending of "Au Revoir, Les Infants."

The ending of "Aimee and Jaguar."

The ending of "Brokeback Mountain."

The ending of "Long time Companion."

The ending of “The Accidental Tourist” when William Hurt sees the French teenager who reminds him of his son.

In Never Let Me Go when Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) plead their case to Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling) who denies their request.

In Animal Farm when the horse gets sold off.

The end of Louis Malle's "Au revoir les enfants " as the Jewish student and the priest who hid him are taken away by the Gestapo.

In The Elephant Man, John Merrick breaks down after receiving a shaving kit, and you realize that it's the first time anyone every showed him kindness and he's overwhelmed with emption.

Miss Celie and Nettie reunion will forever haunts me

The pursuit of happiness

R83 OMG The Elephant Man is gut-wrenching! And for that matter, Mask.

r84, I thought of that scene too, but isn't that scene just emotional in a happy way? There's nothing sad about the two sisters reuniting. The criteria is a movie scene that produces sadness.

To this day, I haven't been able to bring myself to re-watch OLD YELLER.

Speaking of childhood tearjerkers, try a wordless cartoon called the Snowman. Watch it on YouTube...it’s only 20-something minutes long. The song in it called “we’re walking in the air” is haunting. I saw it with the SF orchestra accompanying the video on a big screen. The boys’ choir sang the song and I could barely keep from sobbing as they sang. It made my heart ache. Also, the ending is really sad and abrupt (i think you can guess it).

The "Married Life" montage in Up.

The one where Rizzo announces she's in menopause.

R91 Oh, the reason she felt like a defective typewriter (because she skipped a period) was because she was menopausal and not pregnant?

Don't know if it's the saddest one, but the opening scenes of UP where you see the relationship unfold and then see her frail and weak and that little tumble where she almost falls gets me every time.

When James McCovoy dies in Atonement....Keira Knightly too.

That scene in AI (Artificial Intelligence) when Osment's character watches his mother die.

'Of Mice and Men' (1939): when George (Burgess Meredith) kills Lennie (Lon Chaney Jr). My Dad loved the movie, and had it on VHS. i knew to leave him alone for awhile whenever he'd watch it, since I knew he didn't want me to see him cry.

Oh, man R28 and R29. Forgot about that one.

Any of the mother scenes in Murel's Wedding.

The Champ

saddest ending of all time

Wake up Champ.....Champ wake up!

The entire movie is cold dark bleak unrelenting misery as befits a Dickens adaptation, but the last ten minutes of TWIST (2003) is agony porn at its most potent.

Particularly hard to watch is the brutal scene where a distraught traumatised Oliver (played by Joshua Close), having just seen the aftermath of Fagin’s (Gary Farmer) suicide and Charlie’s (Moti Yona) overdose and having been rejected by his long-lost family, tries to find comfort in his mentor and love-interest Dodge (Nick Stahl) by kissing him...only to have Dodge physically attack and assault him, then enter into a violent sobbing emotional breakdown. This is compounded by the previous scene, when Dodge’s brother forces Dodge into an act of oral service, as a way of coping with the anguish of their shared past at the hands of their father’s sexual abuse.

Just chilling and desperately sad, though still really a beautiful film.

The scene in Air Bud when Josh tells Bud he doesn’t want him anyway and Bud needs to go with the bad guy posing as Bud’s legitimate owner.

Runner up - Bambi’s mom.

Ffs, am I the only person here with real feelings who watches legitimate cinema?

Just to be clear - the death of Bambi’s mom was a more important moment in the entire cinematic body of work, but the execution (acting included) of the Air Bud scene was superior.

That scene for some reason reminds me of The Hidden Camera's song, "Boys of Melody", r16.

Oh, there are just so many from Mame....

The end of “The Third Man”.

Nigel Finch’s « Stonewall ». The scene with Vinnie and Bostonia in bed. Also, not a scene but the whole movie: « Toto the hero ». A movie that shows you how it’s like to live a life with ghosts of the past.

Two scenes in "The Notebook" :

1) When James Garner is dancing with Gena Rowlands and she suddenly forgets who she is and starts freaking out and screaming. The look on his face as he watches her being terrified of him is gut wrenching.

2) The end of the film, where they're both in her hospital bed together and die in each others' arms.

"The Hours," when Julianne Moore comes to Meryl Streep's house after Ed Harris has died and explains her life story to Meryl and why she abandoned her family. Had me sobbing.

"Leaving Las Vegas," where Nicholas Cage literally drinks himself to death at the end.

‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s when Audrey Hepburn looks for her cat in the pouring rain.

The ending scene of ‘Ordinary People’ when Conrad tells his dad he loves him

The scene in ‘Big Fish’ when the son carries his dying father to the river. Something about that particularl scene makes me absolutely weep.

When Littlefoot’s mother died in the original The Land Before Time.

Starts at about two minutes in.

I was only five when I saw this, but man, I bawled.

Here’s the Stand By Me end scene. Gets me every time. It more bittersweet than heartbreaking, but still makes me feel sad.

The line ‘ even though I hadn’t seen him in ten years, I know I’ll miss him forever’ is how I feel about a lot of my childhood friends. I had such fun as a kid.

r103 I'm guessing you're referencing Miss Ball's travesty?

R89, I watched that movie all the time as a child! Such a great short movie. I watched hundreds of times hoping it would end differently.

The Lucy version of Mame was on last night. What a shitshow. Had not seen it in a long time. Cringeworthy. She can barely move, never mind dance. And the voice is just painful. Never gets the whole “haughty“ thing that makes Mame witty.

I read Lucy put up $5 million for it and insisted she get part - she apparently thought Roz Russell’s Mame stole some of her shtick in the 50s from I Love Lucy. Delusional.

"The Heiress," when Olivia de Havilland is waiting for Morris to elope with her, and he doesn't come. She's giving up everything (her home, her relationship with her father whom she realizes doesn't love her, her fortune), and at first she's in denial. but then eventually she cries in anguish when too much time has passed and she realized she's been deserted and that Morris never loved her after all.

"The Hours," when Julianne Moore drops off her little boy with a friend when she plans to go to a hotel to commit suicide. the little child realizes something's wrong and he keeps crying hysterically, calling for his mother, but Moore at this point feels she can't keep it together and thinks he will be better off without her.

Op, that scene is so beautifully done.

The death of Sam the Lion from "The Last Picture Show"

All of They Shoot Horses, Don't They. I couldn't take my eyes off that film even though it tore me up from beginning to end. Afterwards, I asked my mom (who had lived through the Depression) and she said that those marathon dance contests were put on all the time...mostly for the amusement of others. And the 'winners' got much less than what was promised.

Bonnie Bedelia broke my heart in They Shoot Horses Don't They.

I lose it in Ordinary People when Mary Tyler Moore can't hug her son. Your heart breaks for both of them. And the ending with Donald Sutherland. How he didn't get an Oscar is a mystery to me. You rarely see a male performance with that much tenderness, emotion, and vulnerability.

Terms of Endearment gets me, but it's not the last 10 minutes like everyone else has said. It's the scene where Jack Nicholson's character shows up to comfort Shirley MacLaine after he'd broken up with her due to his fears of commitment. The fact that he shows up at all means he loves her in his own way even if he can't say it and that just destroys me for some reason.

R46, I'd never seen that film before, but Betty White doesn't get the credit she deserves for what a wonderful dramatic actress she can be. Of course, she's hysterically funny, but that clip alone destroyed me with no dialogue whatsoever.

This:

R119 You killed her! My Linda!

R119 here. I know everybody immediately thinks of Shelley's death scene, but this one does it for me because you really believe they've made it through and her death seems so pointless. Yeah, I know she said that mean thing to Shelley about being fat, but she had the best character arc, and you can tell she was sorry when she witnessed Shelley's dead body on the pipe.

R121 I loved Stella Stevens' character. At times, she was a total cunt ("I'm going first. In case ol' fat ass gets stuck in there, I won't be caught behind her"), but then she helped everyone get strapped into the fire hose and hoisted up the back of the stairs to avoid the flood waters and waited to be the last one up, strapping herself in with Red Buttons.

Then when Pamela Sue Martin thought Gene Hackman had died and was hysterical, Stella patted her on the back and said, "Pull yourself together, kid."

It did suck that she was mere feet away from rescue and plunged to her death. She should've taken off her chunky heels.

"Just panties. Do I need anything else?"

R121 The reveal about the prize and the shot of the rest of the contestants still chugging away at the end haunt me.

This scene from Terms of Endearment is the one that got to me. This happened to my mom, brother and I a few times- not enough money at the register or worse, the check was denied. 😬

I love the younger boy at 1:33 trying to help out his mom by giving up his candy.

R125 Oh, when her youngest son gives up the candy bar, that always kills me.

I'm surprised no one has posted this one yet.

The House of Sand and Fog. If you've never seen this film, you need to. The last scene is gut-wrenching, but the penultimate scene is even worse.

I saw this at the theater, and for the and only time in my life watching a movie, I found myself struggling not to sob aloud.

When Ben Gazzara rescues son Aidan Quinn from his suicide attempt in An Early Frost.

I can feel Quinn's fear and hopelessness and Gazaarra's love for his gay son.

I have you beat, r76. The end of Mamma Mia 2 where M shows up at the church had me crying into my shirt!

R127 Oh god... Rip my heart out why don't you...

R130 Ugh. That was the dumbest scene ever.

I bet a lot of people will be agreeing when I post this:

R106 I was going to post that. I never fail to bawl my eyes out when you see the sheer look of grief on James Garner's face, and then his sobbing. What an amazing actor.

Oh my goodness R45, I was going to post that clip too.

One if not the saddest film I have ever seen.

R134 "The Notebook" is one of those movies that you think is going to be just another "chick flick," but then turns out to be this incredibly gut wrenching experience. And yes, that scene Garner is just heartbreaking.

I actually wept in "Joker" many times. I can't think of the "one" scene that "got me" but there were several very sad scenes, and I sobbed after it was over for awhile. What a haunting, heart-wrenching movie.

The Color Purple

The scene in "Little Man Tate" when the mother of Fred, the socially ostracized genius kid, tries to throw a birthday party for him. He tries to get the other kids at school to take the invitations, but they make fun of him and refuse the invitations, tossing them aside. He just stands there alone, decimated, as all the invitations blow away in the wind.

The deathbed kiss scene in Wings. Also much of Au Hazard Balthazar

R140 God, that was heartbreaking!

The Brokeback Mountain scene is very sad. Makes me cry.

This still gets me, three hundred years later. Very little said. The scoring plays a big part.

Requiem for a Dream

Passion of the Christ

Lion King - death of Mufasa

The final scene of "Make Way for Tomorrow," Leo McCarey's movie about an elderly couple (Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore) who fall on hard times and are forced to separate when none of the children are willing to take them in. They enjoy one last day together in New York before Moore leaves on a train for California, where he plans to get work picking fruit and then send for Bondi. The last scene, in which Bondi (brilliant and heartbreaking) says goodbye to Moore on the train platform, talking about how they'll see each other again, is devastating, because you know they're never going to see each other again. Orson Welles said this movie "would make a stone cry." McCarey thought it was his finest film, and when he won the Oscar for the screwball comedy "The Awful Truth," he said, "Thank you, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture."

House of Sand and Fog ... the entire movie ... but especially this scene.

“City Lights.”

The Fault in Our Stars

Although it's also very funny, Calendar Girls is very sad.

R107 also hearing Eddie Vedder song made it more difficult to keep a drying eye

I’m ooooooold!

So many scenes in Penny Serenade with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The whole film is free on youtube.

R151. Thanks for posting the link. My late husband loved ‘Big Fish’.

R146 I saw this little known film on TCM last year, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. The ending had me in tears. Such real, raw performances from the actors in that movie. A sharp contrast from the razzle dazzle "happy talk" films of the Depression era.

Beulah Bondi had a very long career as a character actress, and was twice nominated for supporting Oscars. She played Jimmy Stewart's mother in four movies, including "It's a Wonderful Life." She was only 48 when she played the elderly mother of adult children in "Make Way for Tomorrow." Nearly 40 years later, in 1976, in her last screen appearance, she won an Emmy for a guest appearance as an elderly relative on "The Waltons." She was in the original Broadway production of "Street Scene" and repeated her role in the 1931 film version recommended by a previous poster.

^^Correction. "Street Scene" was recommended by a poster in the "suggest a classic movie while we're all stuck inside" thread.

Can I have a threesome with 1994 George Clooney...

...and 2007 George Clooney?

Four Weddings and a Funeral's death of one member of the gay couple isnt so sad how they went to a lot of trouble foreshadowing them having bacon and eggs for breakfast.

The ending of West Side Story. My 13 year old self cried for days the first time I watched it.

R152, how could I have forgotten this beautiful scene. And how did Ellen Burstyn lose the Oscar to Julia Roberts' push up bra? That might be the greatest Oscar robbery of all time.

The climactic scene of "The Unbearable LIghtness of Being."

My mouth sat open for a half hour. I've never gotten over it.

Even the shout of "Mary!" has never been enough to shake it.

Close to the ending of Grave of the Fireflies, when the older brother Seita hold a funeral for his toddler sister Setsuko then has to burn her body. Grave of the Fireflies has the distinction of being regarded as the saddest movie ever made. It has the reputation of even reducing burly, macho bikers, military dudes to cry for days. It's one of those movies that you think about days and weeks after watching, it lingers, both the beauty and the sadness of it are what makes it so memorable. It's been said that if you're not emotionally impacted or cry when viewing this movie then there's a high likelihood that you're a sociopath. Roger Ebert goes into a nice review of the film in the link below.

R160 thinks "surprise" and "sadness" are the same thing.

Idiot.

Hey, asshole. You're going to die. Have you had enough foreshadowing for that to expect no one will care?

Well, in your case, maybe it's true.

The ending of Stella Dallas gets me every time.

Barbara Stanwyck is amazing.

Tragic.

[r107] Hepburn throwing her cat out of the car in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is definitely the saddest scene.

Not a movie, but there is a scene in the Man in the High Castle where an abandoned cat is sitting on a sock. Gut punch.

"The Champ" with Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery was a lot better than the remake with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder. Jackie Cooper gave one of the greatest child star performances of all time.

R164: I read the synopsis yesterday (with the sweet anime images) and felt like crying. I know I can’t watch it.

R45 I was told to never watch Grave of the Fireflies. There are movies I'm sorry I watched because they affected me so much. My friend knew this and told me to NEVER see this movie. Reading your post, I'm glad I listened to him.

There are a number of them. One that surprises me is the deathbed scene in "Terms of Endearment." Debra Winger looks over at Shirley MacLaine and simply slips away. It comes close to melodramatic, but it doesn't cross the line into it. I watched the film a few weeks ago on TCM.

Carrie (original) is very sad

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

When I first watched Grave of the Fireflies I was so profoundly affected by it that I googled the backstory, if any, that it was based upon. I needed to know everything about the film. Apparently parts of it was based upon the memoir of a writer who never forgave himself for him not being able to care for his baby sister when they were both orphaned, she also died in his care.

Anyways I once mentioned GotF to a female friend's boyfriend who'd boasted that he never cries at the movies, ever. I of course challenged him to watch this movie and forewarned him to get 2 boxes of tissue paper for when he fucking bawls his eyes out. The boyfriend is a Latino ex-military guy, the Army to be precise and he did 2 tours in Afghanistan. How did he react during and after the movie? According to my friend he ugly cried and couldn't stop talking about the movie and even told his army buddies to watch it. But he was glad that he watched Grave of the Fireflies even if it made him depressed afterwards, he said it didn't make sense but that it did paradoxically and eventually help with his depression and PTSD.

So I think for those who think they can't handle the sadness in GotF, there is also a strain of beauty and humanity that the movie manages to convey along with sadness. I did not think after viewing it the first time that I could stand rewatching it, and I have since rewatched it 3 times with other people. But for most people that I know who have watched it, they can't watch it a second time because the first viewing was so impactful on their psyche. It's interesting that an anime film has such an impact as a piece of cinematic art.

R175 Thank you but I'm still not going to watch it. Ever. It sounds like a beautiful movie but there's enough sadness in the world right now and I'm on overload as it is.

R176: Same! Synopsis and images were enough for me!

The scene that gets me in Carrie is when she's just been announced as prom queen and everything goes slow-mo and that beautiful score comes on and, for the first time, she's genuinely happy and smiling. Sissy Spacek looks so beautiful in this scene and your heart breaks for her, especially since you know what's about to happen. I was introducing my friend to the movie a few years ago and was shocked to find myself start blubbering like a baby the minute that scene came up.

The end of Up in the Air. George Clooney gives that speech finally accepting his loneliness and choice of isolation while footage runs of everybody else showing how their lives have unexpectedly improved despite their economic turn-arounds. The whole way it was done had me in tears. Many have thought that film is overrated, but it totally spoke to me. And I think it's Clooney's greatest screen performance.

The ending of Romeo and Juliet - whether in movie form or as a play - can be amazingly sad when done well.

Up in the Air was a great movie and it made me quite emotional a few times. I think time will be very kind to it. I caught it on TV recently and it's held up a decade later.

When we find out about Mark in “Pride”. 😭😭😭

When we find out about Mark in “Pride”. 😭😭😭

Discovering the truth about Logan Lerman’s character in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

What’s the truth? Spoil me please

R99 I hate you . I actually watched that piece of crap and wish I had that hour of my life back . I love Stahl and was expecting something great , but what a boring,disjointed piece of shit that movie was.

Watch it, r185. You have nothing but time and it’s well worth it. Sometimes sad but beautiful film.

R181 I loved Up in the Air and I thought Clooney's final monologue was just beautiful. I agree with you on that being his finest film performance.

The two boys saying goodbye to Debra Winger in the hospital bed. The little one especially choked me up, when Winger said "I think that went well, don't you?" And his reaction just wiped me out. I had been eating popcorn and wiping the tears away with a napkin. I tried to compose myself so I could walk past the people waiting to get in. When I got into the car and looked in the mirror I realized I had popcorn stuck to my face (with butter and tears).

The death bed scene, followed by the funeral, in Barry Lyndon (accompanied by Handel on the soundtrack)

Jack I swear...

Grown men cry at anime??? I don't care what the story is -- it's just a cartoon, for fuck's sake! I guess you're the same guys that were traumatized by Bambi.

When I want to watch a cartoon, I watch vintage Bugs Bunny.

So a so called movie buff recommended Grave of the Fireflies without telling how sad it was. Then is one movie that should be spoiled. So sad you actually feel pain.

[quote]Grown men cry at anime??? I don't care what the story is -- it's just a cartoon, for fuck's sake!

As opposed to live-action movies, in which we're seeing actual people in actual situations.

Good storytelling is good storytelling, regardless of the medium in which it is told.

In a 1988 Greek movie Landscape in the Mist, two children are running away to Germany searching for their missing father who might not even exist. It’s a brutal journey, and in one town after a snowfall a horse it dragged by a pickup truck and left to die in the street while the children comfort it. It is juxtaposed with the celebration of a wedding nearby, the celebratory and the tragic.

There are two other tear worthy scenes as well, and a few beautiful surreal ones like a giant sculptured hand rising out of the water in the bay and being lifted in the sky by a helicopter. One of the few people who shows them kindness is a hunky gay motorcyclist who was part of a traveling troop of actors. The girl’s crush on him, is even more heartbreaking after he comforts her after a horrific event.

The end of Lorenzo's Oil where Susan Sarandon is holding her dying little boy and telling him he is free to go and leave his life of pain. I needed a couple cocktails after watching that.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

City Lights

The Student Prince in Old Heildelberg (I'm not joking--this film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, has one of the most-rending endings I've ever seen...but you MUST see the restoration with the Carl Davis score)

Showtime's adaptation of The Baby Dance starring Stockard Channing and Laura Dern. Two couples fight over custody of Dern's unborn child after she was paid by Channing and her husband in for a legal adoption. The child is born with special needs, ends up being abandoned by both couples. The last shot of the movie is the infant, crying, alone in the hospital nursery with only hospital staff to attend to him. Devastating!

Ugh, too many seclusion-induced martinis wreak havoc in r197: *Heidelberg *most heart-rending

I also Graves was the saddest movie but you don’t have to cry to think it is sad.

La Strada and a forgotten film The heartbreaking Eye of God.

Ooh, EYE OF GOD and LA STRADA! You ain't kidding, r200!

You also listed movies rather than individual scenes, R197.

I loved Perks but forgot the truth about Logan’s character What was it?

PERKS SPOILER ALERT:

He was molested as a child by his beloved aunt. It's a really good movie and a great performance by Logan.

You're right, r202! But I think truly devastating scenes are usually saved for last...and that's the case in each of the movies I listed.

Emma Thompson! Love Actually when she realizes her husband is having it off with the secretary while Joni Mitchell plays in the background. Also, when she does that gut wrenching ugly cry in Sense and Sensibility when she realizes that Hugh Grant’s character isn’t married. That just kills me.

"First gay kiss" is such a bullshit reduction of that incredibly tender scene between two straight men in WINGS. Grow the fuck up!

"Jackie Cooper gave one of the greatest child star performances of all time."

Amen! When Beery socks him through the prison bars...Madre Di Dio!

The ending of Bridge to Terabithia

All of "The Impossible"

Death in Venice

Sunday Bloody Sunday when the children's dog, that beautiful rottweiler, is killed by a speeding car.

Una Noche (2013), the last scene on the beach. I can't tell you about the scene, but suffice it to say it ripped my guts out. The movie is about young people who try to escape to America from Cuba. That's it -- anything else would spoil it. Hope you get a chance to see it -- it's a great film.

If.’s not a good movie, but when Meryl Streep is in the truck with her husband and sees Clint Eastwood in the rain. She reaches for the dour handle, but just can’t do it.

The Lives of Others, when the Stasi spy realizes the playwright will be psychologically destroyed by the government and flips his allegiance to protect him.

The endings of Tu mama también and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

I always find the ending of Sweet Charity to be really sad, but in a somewhat optimistic way. She's lost the man who could have given her love and security, but if they'd stayed together, it probably wouldn't have worked anyway since he'd always be wondering how many men she's slept with before him. She walks off with that great caption "and she lived hopefully ever after" and you wonder what became of her. No matter what, she's still going to get up in the morning, dust herself off, and take on the world.

It just seemed like such a great snapshot into the life of someone we might never usually notice or inquire about. I think that's what a lot of great stories are all about - we get to see into the lives of someone we'd usually forget about and realize we might have more in common that we'd originally thought.

There's an alternative ending to "Sweet Charity" in which Charity and Oscar end up together. TCM showed it once after showing the original cut of the movie. Fosse thought it was too hokey but filmed it because he assumed the studio would want a happy ending.

That alternate ending really is corny. They were wise to keep the bittersweet one. Maybe one of the few times a studio film got it right.

I'm a sap for everything and cry at the drop of a hat. My 9 year old always makes fun of me or says "It's only a movie..." We had gone to see, of all things, "A dog's purpose" and every time the dog was about to die (and come back) my son would 'Have" to go to the bathroom. WE both were devastated by that movie and it's sequel "A dog's journey". I couldn't even look at the poster without crying after those movies. It's sappy and manipulative, but it works.

Al Pacino leaving his watch on the table knowing he's going to his death in Donnie Brasco, it broke my heart.

R124 Do you mean R116? They Shoot Horses Don't They?

[quote]They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

R116 / R117 The book is a very short read and Sidney Pollack translated it to film beautifully. It's the film that made me a Pollack fan for life!

[quote] If.’s not a good movie, but when Meryl Streep is in the truck with her husband and sees Clint Eastwood in the rain. She reaches for the dour handle, but just can’t do it.

Agreed, r213. That scene had me weeping, too, but there is another, small scene that had me weeping even more - Her husband is dying and he quietly tells her something like "I know that your life here wasn't all that you expected or wanted it to be." It took every fiber of my being to keep from sobbing out loud in the theatre.

Damn that old Repug Clint Eastwood. I have to admit the old manipulative bastard got me with that one.

R221 I agree -- Eastwood's films can get to me, so can Mel Gibson. Why are these assholes so skillful as film makers?

Um, dear you do know Sweet Charity is based on a great Fellini film. At the end his wife gives a brave smiles staring directly at the camera.

I think most of us know that "Sweet Charity" is based on "Nights of Cabiria," R223. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, or why you used such a patronizing tone.

Probably this one. I felt like I was watching an old friend getting dragged back into a dark alley and bashed to death.

R154 did your husband return as a fish?

I was still trying to say Nights of Cabrira is truly a sad film over the mostly unsuccessful Sweet Charity.

Agree with those who mentioned the closing scene of Au Revoir Les Enfants - the semi-autobiographical Louis Malle film from the late 80s about a boy's Catholic school in Nazi-occupied France. The end is so devastating and so heartbreaking and yet so understated--I don't know how anyone can not be a blubbering mess at that point.

In Absence of Malice when Paul Newman's friend realizes that Sally Field (newspaper reporter) is going to publish that she had an abortion. So the friend gets up at dawn and in her bare feet runs lawn to lawn trying picking up every newspaper at her neighbors' homes. It's shot really well with the camera held back and just the early morning birds chirping and subtle music in the background.

Inez Guerrero (Maureen Stapleton) sobbing after the plane her husband bombed has landed, apologizing for him but also aggrieved that her husband is dead.

The ending of The Official Story

SPOILER

The great Norma aleandro realizes at the end her husband is a monster who treats her the same as the many he has tortured. They hug for the last time and she walks away and closes the door. Hmmm. Haven’t seen that movie in many years might watch it tonight.

I've always found the death scene of Tyra Banks' character in Higher Learning to be quite sad even though the whole scene was a bit over the top.

When they realized that baby Dawn had died in Trainspotting.

Miguel sings Remember Me to Mama Coco

Much of the time magical realist endings can feel like cop-outs that cheapen emotion and they often date horribly too, but the fairytale escape in LAWN DOGS (written by Naomi Wallace and directed by John Duigan) remains nothing short of breath-stealing and heart-shattering.

You have to watch the whole film to get the full effect (preferably alone when you’re already feeling blue), but you will without question get a lump in the throat.

No on is safe when lonely abused little Mischa Barton climbs her garlanded tree in the backwoods gun in hand to watch her platonic soulmate Sam Rockwell drive away forever, as Trevor Jones’ score lifts and soars with thwarted yearning....

The ending of "Das Boot."

The ending of "Brazil."

The ending of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

The euthanasia scene with Edward G. Robinson in "Soylent Green"

Manuel (Spencer Tracy) going to his watery grave in "Captains Courageous"

The ending of "American Graffiti." Made me want to cry.

Dorothy saying goodbye to her friends in Oz.

"How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"

Sophie Scholl thought that her execution (and the execution of her brother their friend, a young man with three children) would cause a "revolt" among the students at the University of Munich. It didn't. Others in their protest group The White Rose were also executed, but there was no outcry over those deaths, either. The members of The White Rose were just more Nazi murders. Many years later The White Rose and its members, particularly Sophie Scholl, were be remembered and revered as noble resistance fighters. But at the time of their deaths they were just another casualty of the the Nazis.

The final reveal sequence from JACOB'S LADDER when Tim Robbins character sees his long dead son at the top of a staircase and he goes up to follow him. Then the audience sees that he'd been fighting for his life all along from a stab wound in Vietnam combat. He ultimately dies and the Drs comment on the smile and peace on his face. It was a pretty creepy film.

The end of The Sterile Cuckoo, when Wendell Burton puts mentally ill Liza Minelli on the bus and they look at each other as the bus pulls away, knowing they'll never see each other again, as "Come Saturday Morning" plays in the background.

It's Minnelli.

R242 Sho shorry.

"The end of The Sterile Cuckoo, when Wendell Burton puts mentally ill Liza Minelli on the bus and they look at each other as the bus pulls away, knowing they'll never see each other again, as "Come Saturday Morning" plays in the background."

Yes, that's a sad one. But the ending of the novel 'The Sterile Cuckoo" was even sadder. Jerry and Pookie part ways in a train station, not a bus. A year later, Jerry gets a note from Pookie, telling him it is in effect her suicide note. She says she has a bottle of sleeping pills and by the time he gets her note she'll be a "crumbled cookie." She says she couldn't bear writing to her parents or Uncle Bob, but she's writing to Jerry because "I just wanted to say goodbye to someone. And after all, I never did in Grand Central that morning, you know. You will think of me sometimes, won't you? Belatedly goodbye, Pookie." He says he considers enquiring to find out if she really killed herself, but decides against it. The novel ends like this:

Better to let the matter rest as I'm sure Pookie wanted it to, never knowing for sure, always curious, always wondering and a little tempted to enquire.

For I like to think that perhaps one day in the far, far, future I will most assuredly hear that she did not take her life , and has now become a famous writer or movie actress, or the wife of a famous athlete, living the quotable life she mentioned to me on the day I fell in love with her...

But still and always Pookie; forever telling her stories to strangers.

The diner scene in Moonlight. The last scene in Midnight Cowboy.

R244 God, that's devastating! The movie ending was sad enough.

The endings of ‘La Dolce Vita’ (Ageing Marcello’s realisation that ‘the sweet life’ is just another dead end vs. the young and innocent girl who seems to know a secret forever out of his reach) and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (Joe Buck’s shellshocked loneliness vs. the indifference of the other greyhound passengers.)

If watching Boromir’s death in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING didn’t fuck you up then I don’t want to know you. I’ve seen hardened military men openly loudly weeping into their hands in public over this single scene. It’s deeply meaningful as a narrative gesture, and in many ways stands as the lynchpin of the entire saga. It’s certainly more moving than anything in the sequels, or in those execrable HOBBIT movies.

I could talk about this one scene all day, but in a nutshell; the breaking of the Fellowship so critical to the eventual success of Frodo in destroying the One Ring could only occur with Boromir’s death. Without his sacrifice, many crucial events would not have taken place: Faramir would not have rejected the Ring so firmly and decisively; Aragorn would not have taken up his Kingship with such resolution (notice Aragorn takes and wears Boromir’s greaves through all his battles); the rest of the Fellowship would not have made their way toward Gondor thereby encountering Rohan; and the Orc raiders may have picked up the trail to Frodo & Sam sooner instead of taking Merry & Pippin by mistake. Boromir may not have been a ‘chosen one’ on the Quest to restore peace to Middle-Earth like Frodo or Aragorn, but his sacrifice created the conditions for the eventual victory of those heroes he called friends. Boromir is arguably the very spirit of the Fellowship, and thankfully Jackson acknowledges that in an achingly painful sequence of several minutes switching between almost stage-like shots (I’m sure someone more versed in film artistry than I can explain the nuts & bolts).

It hurts so much to watch Boromir die because he stands as a symbol for both the weakness and the strength in Men. He’s utterly relatable - more so than most of the other characters - because like most mere mortals his fatal flaw is compassion in despair. He ultimately only wants to save his beloved people and his kingdom, and time is running out. His blind naïveté has him believing that he could wield the Ring of Power to save his own kingdom and defend others, and remain incorruptible (though I think he could have resisted its pull a second time, has he lived). His passionate will overwhelms all reason and wisdom, but it’s this that makes him brave enough to admit his lapse in judgement and sacrifice himself for the cause to which he pledged. He courageously redeems himself in an instant for one single act of fear, going to his doom in full knowledge that he will die and leave Gondor to Aragorn & Faramir. Boromir is the worst of Men, a greedy craven sentimental & vainglorious fool willing to sacrifice others; and yet the best of Men, a noble generous companion who at the hour of need can go beyond his limits and his personal attachments to stare into the face of Death.

One thing the film neglects to mention from the book is that the reason why the fearsome Uruk-Hai shoot Boromir from a distance and hesitate to engage him in close combat is because they are terrified of his battle prowess. He’s such a revered and famous Captain & General that the most evil brutal creatures walking Middle-Earth still don’t want to approach him and get decapitated. In the book he is said to be greatest known warrior in the Third Age. Sadly the films played down Boromir’s warlike qualities and power to render him an Antihero and to make Aragorn & Legolas look more badass by comparison since they’re the characters who survive in subsequent movies. Jackson also cuts the part where Boromir loses his horse and walks for a month to get to the Council of Elrond, which is a loss from a comedic standpoint.

I always watch FOTR thinking it will different, that “this time he’ll survive, and he’ll go with Aragorn to the Battle of Pelennor Fields then lead the Charge at the Black Gates...” It never gets less tragic.

Closing point about Boromir’s death: nothing is more moving than remembering his assertion “Gondor has no King” at the Council of Elrond as he calls Aragorn “My King” with his very last breath and says he would have followed his leadership. Boromir would have been an excellent Steward (in all the ways his father was not and his brother did not want to be), as well as a devoted lifelong friend to Aragorn.

Even Legolas looking on at a prone dying Boromir completely bemused adds to the tragedy; he doesn’t understand to grieve because Tolkien’s Elves are of course immortals, and though they may fall in battle are stronger than mortals (able to heal magically) and can be reincarnated so Death means little to them. Legolas is a young Elven warrior to boot, so he cannot know how to join Aragorn or the audience in private human mourning. It adds weight.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" -- two eight-year-olds, one a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz (Schmuel) and the other the son of the Nazi commander who lives nearby)Bruno), form a close friendship despite being separated by a barb-wire fence (and Bruno's father telling him that Jews were "less than animals").

One day Schmuel's father disappears, and Bruno decides to go and help find him. He puts on a spare pair of "pajamas" and digs under the fence to join his friend in the camp. You can probably guess what happens.

All of Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. But it changed my life.

The Post-Mortem Bar scene that ends Longtime Companion.

R252 I still can't watch that scene.

I hope you've seen it once, r253.

I just watched it twice. Nothing makes me cry like this. I hardly ever watch it, either.

"Ordinary People"

Calvin crys.

This is before the deep hatred many have for Goop but in Se7en it was really sad when Brad Pitt finds out what is in the box.

R256 It was a box full of goop, and that’s how she got her name?

That’s a good question. Where does the name come ? The first and last initials come from her name but what is oo? I believe she uses it also so I can’t be an insult. Paltrow is her grandmothers name I believe.

R46 What did you do to me? I just watched the clip and I am now sobbing, and I didn't even see the movie!

R255, that scene always gets me the most in that movie and Sutherland should have won an Oscar for it. You rarely see a man be that vulnerable. It's like the first time you see your father or grandfather cry. Seeing someone that's supposed to be strong finally break, never fails to break me up.