Need a Good Cry? Put Your Recommendations For Tear Jerkers Here!

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I was little when The Champ came out, and to this day it remains the only movie that makes me full-on ugly cry. Ricky Schroeder's little face being all red and scrunched-up reduces me to tears-and-snot-cannot-breathe crying, because I'm just strangling on the misery of it. "Wake up, Champ! Champ, wake up!"

Edited August 7, 2014 by Cobalt Stargazer

[Snowprince]

Watch Watership Down (1978) all the way through and keep your eyes dry....I dare you.

[BatmanBeatles]

Oh yeah? Try watching Plague Dogs. It was made by the same person. It messed me up for days.

[Mindymoo]

Perhaps it's because of the death of my beloved Robin Williams, but me and the missus watched "The Fisher King" on Netflix last night, and that had us BAWLING at the end. Robin Williams totally should have won the Oscar for that role. He was amazing. Jeff Bridges was phenomenal too.

[NumberCruncher]

Steel Magnolias (repeating what others have said here), 8 Seconds (don't judge--that final scene is a killer), Sophie's Choice (Meryl always breaks my heart) and Warrior (Again, that end scene was beyond beautiful--it destroyed me).

[zillabreeze]

 

Schindler's List - at the very end/postscript when people were putting stones on Oskar Schindler's grave. (I'm sure the copious weeping was due not just to that scene but a culmination of everything leading up to it, as well.)

Babalu- that scene rips me up as well.  Unless you have a lot of tissues- don't even try "The Boy in The Striped Pajamas"!  Although prob fiction, still the dark genre of the time.  Then again, Brad Pitt did fix it all back for us (fllmwise)with Inglorius Bastards!

Edited August 22, 2014 by zillabreeze

[Charlie Baker]

I tend to resist when a movie as a whole is out to jerk the tears, but I'll admit a number of those mentioned here got me good.

 

There are moments that get me every time in favorites of mine that aren't solely intended to make you cry.

 

From The Last Picture Show: "He was sweepin', you sons of bitches!"

[ancslove]

Not surprising, given its name, but Les Miserables (the 2012 musical).  There's sad crying, angry crying, a hell of a lot more sad crying, and finally, happy cathartic crying.  If you want a good cry, this is the movie for you!

 

(Disclaimer:  I can usually make it through the actual sad parts without crying, but the ending gets me every time.  Something about that Finale song - I just wish they had left in the explanatory text.)

[Readalot]

"My Dog Spot"

"Toy Story 3"

"Terms of Endearment"

"Field of Dreams"

"ET"

"Steel Magnolias"

The first movie I remember crying to at the movies was the Charlie Brown movie when Snoopy was lost/ran away. And "The Rescuers"

[Rick Kitchen]

Not surprising, given its name, but Les Miserables (the 2012 musical).  There's sad crying, angry crying, a hell of a lot more sad crying, and finally, happy cathartic crying.  If you want a good cry, this is the movie for you!

 

(Disclaimer:  I can usually make it through the actual sad parts without crying, but the ending gets me every time.  Something about that Finale song - I just wish they had left in the explanatory text.)

 

"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables".  OMG.

[purplemouth]

Dear Zachary. Enough said.

Oh, this movie for sure. I've never cried more.

 

More recently, The Fault in Our Stars, of course. I actually wish I hadn't seen it in the theater because I could have really let the tears flow, snot and all, if I had watched it at home first.

[Bastet]

I tend not to like films that are aiming to be tearjerkers, but Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias and Beaches are much-watched exceptions to the rule.

 

I cry very ugly tears at Philadelphia and the lesser-known It's My Party.

 

My Girl, Stepmom, Million Dollar Baby, Brian's Song, Stella Dallas.

 

I vowed never to read or watch Marley and Me, lost my damn mind one evening when it was on TV, and proceeded to spend the rest of the night crying and hugging my cats.  I also once embarassed the hell out of myself on an airplane crying copious happy tears at Homeward Bound (The Incredible Journey).  I won't even watch Bambi or Dumbo.

 

I'll skip the documentaries, or I'd be listing films all night.

[wanderingstar]

The end of The Joy Luck Club, when June meets her sisters, gets me every time.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Gillian Rosh

[methodwriter85]

   It might be because I knew I was going to go to a memorial service a few months later, but the practice service scene for Gus in The Fault in Our Stars absolutely slayed me. My god, what a great tearjerker that movie was.

Edited August 24, 2014 by methodwriter85

[Rick Kitchen]

My favorite scene in The Fault in Our Stars is when they're sitting on the bench in Amsterdam.  OMG.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

So I had seen Up, and while I found it heart-warming, it didn't move me to tears. And then someone linked me to this

 

 

and I became a weepy Stargazer. If Carl and Ellie don't get to you, you have no soul. :-)

[Rick Kitchen]

Best first ten minutes of any movie, ever.

[harrie]

I vowed never to read or watch Marley and Me, lost my damn mind one evening when it was on TV, and proceeded to spend the rest of the night crying and hugging my cats.  I also once embarassed the hell out of myself on an airplane crying copious happy tears at Homeward Bound (The Incredible Journey).

 

I cry uncontrollably in Homeward Bound when Shadow is stuck, almost giving up, and Chance is trying to convince him to continue.  i know everything ends well, but I just can't help it.  If we're just flipping around and any part of the movie is on, in the few seconds it takes my husband to say "Oh no, not this one" I'm already getting sniffy and blinky. 

[cpcathy]

Funny, regarding Up, I don't cry during the first ten minutes--though I love that sequence--but much later in the film when the Carl and the kid are really in peril. It gets to me every time.

[LADreamr]

 

I cry very ugly tears at Philadelphia

 

Me too, and also the last sequence of And the Band Played On.  It's a video montage of all the public people who had died of AIDS by that time (early '90s), and it's set to maybe the saddest song ever, Elton John's "The Last Song."

[Ankai]

Pick four South Korean movies at random. Any four movies. Regardless of genre, style, initial tone, or actual merits as a movie, there is a good chance that three of those movies will have some serious tearjerking elements. There is also a pretty good chance that the fourth movie will be a tearjerker as well.

[Misslindsey]

​Toy Story 3 does it for me. The part where they all hold hands before the incinerator does me in.

 

Fruitvale Station is another one. I knew what was going to happen, but it just hit me when it all played out in the film. 

[Ankai]

I probably should have put this in my last post, but my favorite film for the past three years has been a tearjerker: Memories of Matsuko. It is about a young guy who, not long after getting dumped, finds out that he had a long-lost aunt. And she was murdered. The movie then goes into extended flashbacks to his aunt as a young woman, and how her desperate search for love led her into a world of neglect and abuse. And, it is a cheery musical with gleefully fake CGI, like a candy-coated Dancer in the Dark. I realize that that description may seem a bit problematic (particularly due to recent events), and I understand if people dislike the sometimes light tone that it takes with the bleak subject matter. However, I felt that lightness and the comedy and the spectacle actually helped to make the sad parts more effective and affecting than a realistic presentation would. It also brings out the humanity of this woman whom society seems to have deemed hopeless and worthless, as if it is insisting that she really is worthy of her own grand story, and deserving of an ending happier than the one that she got. And the final sequence with the stairs gets me every single time.

 

Some genius has posted a low-quality version of the movie on youtube, and while I have not watched it yet there, here is the first half-hour. I swear that the movie is not as manic as the first three minutes are.

[lucindabelle]

Oh god AWAKENINGS. I cried when the mother saw bobby de niro walking toward her saying Mom!

WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

GONE WITH THE WIND.

CAMELOT. cheesy I know but when Vanessa Redgrave cries I just cry with her.

SCHINDLERS LIST. I could only watch it once. Too hard to take. The bit where the old man says I'm very important to the effort and gets shot in the head.

Mom says yes to the Marseilles scene in CSablanca.

Oh and I choked up at HOmeward Bound when the cat finds her doggie pals again.

I know there are more but can't think of them.

Oh yes the twilight zone episode where the man won't go to heaven without his dog.

[Crisopera]

I'm an easy cry, and many movies to which I am susceptible have already been posted.  However, here are a few that have escaped attention:

 

Longtime Companion - the scene where Bruce Davison tells his partner that it's okay to die - crying just thinking about it.

Anything by Pixar - except the Cars series.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947 movie version) - a scene about 3/4 of the way through, which reduces me to heaving sobs every single time.

Stella Dallas - happy to see it mentioned above, Bastet, but I wanted to mention specifically the scene on the train when Stella realizes how trashy and almost clown-like she appears to her daughter's friends.  Nobody could cry like Barbara Stanwyck.

When

Giovanni Ribisi

dies in Saving Private Ryan.  Basically, I cried for the rest of the movie.

 

On the other hand, Forrest Gump, which appears to leave everyone in tears, left me completely stony.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Crisopera

[Spartan Girl]

The 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet makes me tear up, even though I'm not a huge fan of the play.  While I do like the Leonardo DiCaprio one and the 2013 one, I think this film is definitely the most emotional version.  Even if you find the whole romance rushed and unrealistic, Olivia Hussey and Leonardo Whiting just really captured the emotions of young love: the giddiness and passion of first finding it and the heartbreak when it all falls apart.

[Laurie4H]

Running on Empty. One of the most emotional endings ever in my opinion. And even more sad that River Phoenix left us so early.

Marley and Me - I cry just thinking about it. I know the dog lived a full long happy life but still so sad.

Bed of Roses - Yes I know it's really sappy but then ending is so sweet.

Six Weeks - If you where a young kid in the early 80's and had HBO I'm sure you remember this one. The scene on the Subway deeply upset me as kid.

Ordinary People - So many moments in the movie. When Mary Tyler Moore can barely show any affection towards her son. The finale scene with Timothy Hutton and Judd Hursch. The finale scene between Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. And the finale scene of the movie.

Savannah Smiles - Not many remember this one but the last few scenes in the movie where Savannah is found is a tearjerker.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Laurie4H

[annzeepark914]

This was just on the other day and I turned it on right was she was talking to the ladies after the funeral...walking back looking at her hair and crying because it really did look like a brown football helmet...and then the line that stabs you in the heart, when she just screams "I could jog to texas and back, but my daughter can't...she never could" and "I want to know WHY!!!!!" Sally Field is SO good in that scene.

 

 

IMO, only Sally Field could show the raging grief and anger this mother felt after burying her beloved daughter.  I don't know what it is about Sally, maybe she is able to get deep within herself and scream from the heart?  I've seen this a few times but now only watch the earlier part of the movie (I like the backyard party and the reception with all the Louisiana dancing).

[Pemyquid]

I always choke up during the end credits of Love, Actually. You know, when they show real people reuniting with loved ones at the airport. I've seen it many times, and it always gets me.

E.T. Was the first movie I saw in a theater as kid. Scared the crap out of me, but also made me cry for realz.

Titanic, the scene of the older couple on the bed and, yes, the scene where Jack died. At the time I didn't realize there was room for two on the board, I was so caught up in it. The moment Jack began to float down to his watery grave, after all the build up, I just lost it. For awhile after seeing the film, I would burst into tears every time the Celine Dion song swelled on the radio.

[cpcathy]

ET still gets me going, every dang time. Mostly due to John Williams' incredible score, it just hits all the right emotions.

[briochetwist]

Terms of Endearment just about kills me.  The scene where Debra Winger is saying goodbye to her son - he's really young, pissed off that she's dying, and is therefore mad at her.  She tells him that she loves him and when he's older not to feel bad about being mad at her, because she knows that he loves her.  Tears in my eyes typing this.  That shit kills me everytime....

[BatmanBeatles]

When the horse died in Neverending Story, it messed me up so bad I could barely finish the movie.

[crystalball]

I can't explain it, but the end of A League of Their Own gets me every time.

[Jazzy24]

Anne Frank (1939-1945) the scene at the end when Otto Frank learns that his whole family died and he was all alone. He is looking through Anne's diary and he walks back to their little hiding place and he just breaks down its heartbreaking, I cry every single time the pain of losing your whole family is unbearable.

[SallyAlbright]

Life is Beautiful. Oh man, I'm always a mess.

Terms of Endearment was the first one that popped into my mind.  My Girl is a good one, too.

 

About Time had most of the theater, including me and my friend, sniffing pretty loud. 

 

Mr. Holland's Opus was a happy/bittersweet cry for me at the end when they surprised him with a retirement party. 

 

Champ, with Ricky Schroeder. Enough said.

 

E.T.

Totally agree with About Time. So sweet. 

Edited October 4, 2014 by SallyAlbright

[Mrsjumbo]

Chrisopera- I'm curious to know what scene in Ghost & Mrs Muir? I love that movie!

For me, it's The Joy Luck Club when she has to abandon her twin babies. I have twins. I can barely watch that scene, I'm a mess.

Babe- first when his mom is taken away from him, & later when he realizes what happened to his mom.

Dumbo- dh doesn't call me Mrs Jumbo for nothing!

[Spartan Girl]

Life is Beautiful. Oh man, I'm always a mess.

 

Thank you!  I was beginning to think I was the only one that was moved by the movie.  I get why critics accused them of trying to make a comedy out of the Holocaust, but there was nothing about that movie that was even remotely funny in the Holocaust part.

[VCRTracking]

Just saw Pacific Rim recently and Mako's flashbacks made me cry. The actress who plays her as a little girl was amazing.

[NoWillToResist]

Maybe it's because I tend to avoid movies which I suspect will make me cry, but I find many animated movies are the culprits of my tears. Toy Story 3 totally side-swiped me with the incinerator scene and then with the kid letting go of his toys. Simba crying over his dad in Lion King still gets me, Anna's sacrifice at the end of Frozen makes me bawl, despite having watched it many, many times etc.

 

I guess I just naively assume that a kid-targeted animated movie would skip over angst. I think that's why I loved the first How to Train Your Dragon movie (no real angst in sight) and then proceeded to FUCKING HATE THE SHIT out of its sequel. I will never forgive them for taking such a happy, positive experience and then dumping it right into the angry grief bucket. It was so damned unnecessary. I still can't be rational about it. In the theatre, I kept pulling back tears, telling myself it was a fake out until it became clear that no, it wasn't. I sat in shock for the rest of the movie. And then I got angry. Aaaand I'm still angry.

Edited November 1, 2014 by NoWillToResist

[Quof]

Love Story, when Oliver walks out of the hospital and sees his father.

[GreekGeek]

Love Story, when Oliver walks out of the hospital and sees his father.

What ruined that scene for me was that Oliver walked away from his father, unlike in the book, where he fell into his father's arms and cried.

[annzeepark914]

There's a section in The Judge, where they're watching old home movies and you see the three brothers as little guys with their loving mommy. Uh-oh...can feel my eyes getting a bit moist (and I'm not kidding!) I have to be careful which movies I see (hate crying in public even if it's a darkened movie theater).

[turbogirlnyc]

Hoosiers with Gene Hackman. It's very inspirational and the music is brilliant!

[VCRTracking]

Well, I just saw Disney's Big Hero 6 today and had to pinch my thigh hard to keep myself from sobbing uncontrollably in the theater at one part and I still couldn't hold back the tears during other moments.

[purplemouth]

St. Vincent was an unexpected tear-jerker, at several points. Good movie, too.

[applecrisp]

I don't cry at movies without animals but weep every time I see Awakenings.  Every. Time.

This one really got me too.  Oliver Sacks, what a sweet man and Robin Williams was so good.

 

Unexpected crying for me when I watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles.   At the end when Steve Martin realizes John Candy's wife is dead  and they played Every Time You Go Away (not sure if right name).   I really cry.

 

Rudolph gets me. Damn mean Santa.

[NoWillToResist]

 

And although I vowed I wouldn't talk about it because I am super angry about how they handled this, but I balled like a baby in How to Train Your Dragon 2

 

I really hope you mean *bawled* like a baby because otherwise...ew? :D

 

For me, it's Sense and Sensibility. There are many affecting moments but the killer for me is when Marianne is on death's door and Elinor is by her bedside, pleading with her to not die. Emma Thompson kills me with her performance. Every. Damned. Time.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I really hope you mean *bawled* like a baby because otherwise...ew? :D

 

I will be sending you a bill both for my laptop screen and my therapy because of that, NoWilToResist. :-P

 

In other news, I went to see Big Hero 6 today, and the tears ran from the happy to the sad and back again on some kind of vicious loop. It's a very good movie, though, so go see it if you get the chance.

[NoWillToResist]

I will be sending you a bill both for my laptop screen and my therapy because of that, NoWilToResist. :-P

 

Heh, sorry about that. Christ, I will need to save up. You're the second person who's said I owe them a new computer....

[MrsRafaelBarba]

12YAS: When Patsy was stripped, tied to a tree and whipped.

Revenge: The ending broke my heart.