Since my previous Friday Question Fun turned out pretty great, I’m ready to keep the questions coming! This one is sure to divide some people…
What was the last movie that made you cry?
What movies normally make you cry?
Now, I don’t cry much in my normal life, very rarely in fact…But I’m not ashamed to admit that I cry fairly often at movies, especially if they involve animals. Whether a movie is meant to be sad, or it’s happy and uplifting, if I’m invested in the characters/story, I’m probably going to tear up a bit.
The last film that made me weep was Beasts of the Southern Wild, which I was not at all expecting. I won’t be spoiling anything for you, but it’s safe to say it’s a tearjerker. You can read my review for more of my thoughts on the film, I thought it was pretty terrific.
So what about you?
Andy Watches Movies 
Dogfight with River Phoenix.
I’ve always wanted to see that one. Of course you would pick an underrated movie, haha
That movie is SO good! I watched it New Year’s Eve. What an excellent way to welcome a new year.
The DVD is freakin’ expensive, though. I guess it’s on limited copy?
Peter Jackson’s King Kong
(2005)
At the ending?
Yes. Also, throughout the scenes where James Newton Howard’s cues “Beautiful” and “Central Park” play. I totally love that score.
Yeah, I can see that, the score was pretty awesome.
It is. Funny thing is that Howard had to do it the fly because Peter Jackson and Howard Shore couldn’t see eye to eye on the score for Kong.
Hm, never knew that!
Teared up during Beasts but mostly because a friend did the music and I was so proud. I don’t remember the last one to make me cry but the most I’ve cried was during Eternal Sunshine
I loved the soundtrack, it was beautiful. Your friend did good.
This last time I watched Eternal Sunshine I didn’t get emotional, but the first time through I did. Relationship movies don’t get to me like pet movies.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.
Slayed me. Read: Blubbering mess.
Oh god…Me too. So much so that I blocked most of it from memory.
Great pick.
To answer your first question: The Amazing Spider-Man, believe it or not. I’ve been looking forward to checking out Beasts of the Southern Wild since last year. And in fact it’s now playing in my city. Funny thing is I’m in the mood for other things right now. But when I do see it—and I will—I’ll definitely come back here and read your review. I normally don’t read reviews before seeing films. Too many critics have lead me astray.
To answer your second question, I really can’t put my finger on any specific kind of movie that makes me cry. It really depends on a combination of things; and not just those that try toying with one’s emotions. I was genuinely happy while seeing the new Spider-Man, which is partly why I was so emotional during a couple scenes (favorite moment was when Spidey gave the kid his mask to “give [him] strength” in order to help save him from falling off the bridge). I love all kinds of movies, from world cinema (like Rainer Werner Fassbinder) to Hollywood to trash (like Jess Franco). But again, it depends on my mood.
I can see how uplifting heroics could get to me too, so I can see that.
I tend to watch a bit of everything too and I wonder if that desensitizes me to certain aspects of things or if it enhances my appreciation.
The Last Time I Cried During A Movie Was In 1994. I Was In The Theater, And I Was Watching “STAR TREK: GENERATIONS” And I Literally Broke Down Into Tears When Captain Kirk Officially Died :*(
I Was Sooo Crushed, It’s Not Even Funny.
Stop Laughing, Andy.
Heartless Brute.
😉
-B.
Haha oh wait I’m not laughing…
Captain Kirk pulled on my heart stings too, my friend
I am a soul less monster, last time I cried I was 10 and my hamster died, never since 😀
Crying is good for you!
Stuff makes me sad, but it just doesn’t make me cry 😀
So you’re a tough guy, huh?!? 😉
Little bit, cry like a little girl if a bee flies past my ear though haha 😀
Haha
As awful a movie as it was otherwise, the hospital scene near the end of B*A*P*S made me tear up, because of one small thing that happened in it that reminded me of something sad from my own life. I won’t go into details.
A few more “mainstream” answers would be the Up montage and the final scene from The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Totally relate with real events making movies even more potent. And I cried several times while watching Up.
I cried hard at the end of Beasts as well.
The movie that makes me cry the most is Schindler’s List, one of my all time favorite movies.
I have yet to be able to watch the ending of “Schindler’s List” without bawling. The first time I saw it, I was left messed up for weeks afterward and would randomly be reminded of the film and break down. I was a sad sight.
I believe it. It’s incredibly powerful.
I saw Schlindler’s List at a pretty young age and I was bawling by the end. Really affected me personally.
I hardly ever cry in life but I will cry at the drop of the hat when it comes to movies (I guess emotions gotta go somewhere, huh?). I teared up at “Gotta Dance” recently (a documentary about the senior dance team for the NJ Nets) because dammit, those senior citizens were beautiful and then I thought about getting old and all the life experiences and well, you see how it went. “Pan’s Labyrinth” always makes me cry. I even teared up when I watched “Because of Winn Dixie” with my friend’s kid. *sighs*
Old people doing nice things is almost a sure thing to make me cry. Definitely cry during Pan’s too.
Man, I guess I cry a lot and just don’t count it because it’s just a movie.
The Tree of Life.
Not Late Spring?
I got choked up at the end of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
I choked up too near the end
The Dark Knight Rises didn’t exactly make me cry, but it did make me sad. Sad that this trilogy was done and sad at some of the moments in it.
Titanic (as girly as that sounds) always gets me. When she sees Jack at the end on those stairs, every time. It just makes me think of all that life she missed with him and what they could have had together.
I don’t think it’s girly, it’s not much different than any other romance movie.
this is a hard question, the last movie I cried at was Breaking the Waves by Von Trier. When Bess is disowned by the village and her mother I got really upset.
Haven’t seen that one but with Von Trier’s imagery I’m sure it’s powerful stuff.
No joke…The Dark Knight Rises. When Alfred is saying good bye to Bruce…OH MY…tears. LOL Well, not a lot of tears, but like a couple.
Yeah, that made me a little misty eyed myself
I cried in EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE or “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora…
Extremely Loud looked like it was going to be the type of movie that really wants to get people crying.
Mission Accomplished!
Hahaha
I watched Gorillas In The Mist on VHS when it first came out and I was fine. But then I dreamed the scene where she finds her gorilla friend Digit murdered and when I woke up I had tears streaming down my face. I guess it was because it just didn’t hit me while I was watching the movie. I love animals and hate to see them hurt or abused. I refuse to watch Dances With Wolves because of the scene where they methodically kill the wolf.
Yeah, I’ve had delayed reactions like that too. Weird how that happens sometime.
The last movie that made me cry was Ghost. I watched it with my girlfriend and tried to hide the tears, but she knew they were coming and now she thinks I have a sweet side.
There’s a few movies that get me every time: PS I Love You (I love this movie), The Notebook (yeah I love this too), Marley & Me (I love dogs and this one is unbearable), Homeward Bound (feel good tears when Shadow returns) and Wicker Park (the ending is beautiful).
Oh, Homeward Bound destroys me…
It’s a tearjerker. I love Shadow.
I can’t remember the last film I cried for, but I know the one that gets me everytime, no matter how hard I try not to. That would be The Sixth Sense. At the end, when the mom and kid are talking about the butterfly brooch and he tells her that her mom is proud of her. Kills me everytime.
I also find myself crying and relating a lot more to fathers in films, having my son and all. Things that didn’t used to bother me now do.
That makes total sense, I’ll probably be the same way now that you mention it…
Okay, I hate to admit that I do cry often, I guess thats a girl thing. But the movie that I remember being the most devastated watching was “Blow”, that may sound weird but it just really made me sad, I was depressed after watching it 😦 Oh and I guess “Titanic” is up there as well haha but thats a given.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Blow, what about it specifically makes you sad?
The ending was the worst. I didnt want him to be separated from his daughter, I think he was sorry for what he did but it was too late
Same here. I rarely cry in real life, but I cry with movies all the time. Last movie that made me well up was The Dark Knight Rises, just last night. Michael Caine, man!
I don’t always cry at the same type of movie, but I tend to cry at happy moments in dramas. Does that make sense?
Yeah, Michael Caine’s performance…Wow.
I cry more at happy moments in dramas than anything else (after pet movies), I understand completely.
I don’t usually cry during movies, actually. Sometimes I try and feel like I should (like when I hear my relatives crying in movies), but it just doesn’t happen. I don’t know why, though. I think the last movie I cried in…probably…uhh…Schindler’s List, I’d have to go with that. It was a saddening movie overall, so there were very many possible scenes at which I started tearing up. I saw it back in November.
For a really long time I couldn’t cry at movies and then something just changed and now I cry more often than I’d like to admit.
Hey there, I’ve just passed you on the Liebster Blog Award:
http://themoviefreakblog.com/2012/08/11/liebster-blog-award
The last movie that made me bawl was The Descendants. I’m talking Niagara Falls. I think anything that deals with someone losing something they love does me in every time. I saw you guys talking about Generations up there, I cry every time I watch Star Trek 2 and Spock dies. And I cry just thinking about UP.
I was a mess by the end credits of The Descendants too…
I can’t remember the last movie, but I cry at most of the emotional Doctor Who scenes. I might have gotten choked up during the end of Griff the Invisible. Odd movie, but it pulled at my heartstrings a bit.
I’ve got that in my queue now
Last one that choked me up was Ladder 49, at the end. The last one I really cried at was Bridge to Terabithia, all at the third act of the film, and a lot. Haha.
Haha nice picks!
Jep. Another Dark Knight Rises crying girl here! That was the last one where I cried.
I had a couple of years where nothing got to me while watching movies and then I saw the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants with some friends. I can’t even remember if it was any good. I just remember crying! Haha!
O and I was really crying rivers while watching the english Being Human and somebody died! It devastated me and I felt awfull the complete week!:P
I can’t remember. I have a feeling I recently watched a tear jerker but for the life of my I can’t remember the movie at all. It must have devastated me that my brain has wiped out the memory completely.
Haha, I’ve had brain-wiping moments like that too
Hunger Games made me sob unashamedly. Kids are my thing. When kids die, the mucous starts flowing.
The emotional impact was mostly dulled from my reading the books. Rue especially. I did get misty eyed watching it though.
(PS – welcome back, I hope things went as well as they could have)
I hear the books are quite good. Even my literary friends say so.
(Thank you)
They are much better than I thought they would be but they aren’t the same caliber as Harry Potter. Still, I blew through the trilogy in about a week’s time, I had a hard time putting them down.
Last movie: Good Will Hunting. I love that movie.
For me it was a little film about children’s homes in the UK. It was an autobigraphical film directed by Samantha Morton and starring Robert Carlyle. It was a fabulous film but very bleak and absolutely harrowing. It brought a tear to my eye, no end.
That sounds like it would be an emotional one, Mark
It is that Andy. The little girl who plays the lead role, shows a sublime bit of acting by saying very little. It’s worth checking out and I have a review on my site if your interested.
Stuart – A life backward. A TV movie by Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch
Hadn’t heard of that one but after looking it up it sounds riveting. Plus, how could Hardy AND Cumberbatch go wrong together?
That movie was the first time I can finally see Hardy’s real acting talent.
Ooh! Hadn’t heard of that one either Novroz. I’ll be checking that out also. Nice one.
Hope you’ll like it Mark.
I have been off the Hollywood movies lately and discovered great ones from other countries, that includes the TV Films.
“Canvas” for me. I work with kids and I identify with them a lot, so my biggest weakness is watching kids going through some kind of challenge whether it be a physical handicap, being bullied, family issues, not thinking they’re good enough, etc.
It’s a simple movie but it gets its emotions across very clearly.
Had to look that one up but it seems like it would be an emotional ride…
Someone said Dear Zachary up above and I will third that one. At the one point in the film (and those who’ve seen it know exactly what I’m talking about) I had to stop the movie and just bawled my eyes out saying ‘it’s not fair’ over and over. God what a punch in the stomach made worse that it is a documentary. Once I became a dad I can’t handle anything that happens to kids in movies real or not. I just can’t do it.
I’ve had Dear Zachary sitting on my shelf for ages now. I still haven’t found the time to get around to it. I think I’ll make that time now.
It’s hard to psych yourself up to watch it because it’s so sad and moving so its best just to get it playing and let it happen.
don’t read anything about it, go in cold. Just make sure you give yourself the time and space to be a hot mess by the end of it
I’ve got a list as long as my arm to get through but I think I’ll take both you gentlemen’s advice and get onto that soon.
I take it that you mean a most recent movie on its initial screening (as things like Schindler’s List, WALL•E, E.T., etc. will get me to mist right up on subsequent re-viewings). Hmm… Using that criteria, it’s ‘The Grey’. Thanks, Andy.
It could be the most recently released thing or the most recent viewing, but they could be one in the same like they were for me
Alien 3 because it sucked and made us all look horrible. We can’t even incubate a dog!
Haha good choice!
two interesting movie-crying stories.
1. i had seen “poltergeist” many times and enjoyed it without crying. but when i watched it after having a child, it was very different. i cried like a baby when carol anne was calling from the tv set because it was no longer a “ghost” story. it was then a family drama about a lost child. when i looked at it that way – cryyyyyy.
B. oh, can’t tell you the second story unless you’ve already seen “the searchers.” don’t want to spoil anything.
I could definitely see that changing your perception, that would be horrifying.
I have indeed seen it!
the searchers? thought so, but wanted to warn just in case. throughout the movie, ethan is chasing the comanche and also his niece debbie and talking about how she’s not “debbie” anymore. then he chases her at the end, and martin tries to stop him but can’t. when ethan catches her, picks her up, and says “let’s go home, debbie,” i’m more of a mess of crying than absolutely anything else.
Man, that makes me want to watch that movie again…
another movie i can’t turn off, no matter where i join it.
I picked it up to watch just the other day and opted for something else. I’m regretting the decision now…
you’ve got time.