Star Wars...no, just kidding.

We were Soldiers had it's moments. When Herrick was killed, sad sad.

Well, to be honest, it doesn't take much to get me crying during a movie. For example, that final seen in "The Last Samurai" Tom Cruise's facial expression alone got me huffin and puffin.

And I know it's a bit cliche but I'd have to say "Shindler's List" is the saddest movie I've seen.

quote:

Originally posted by Klinker:
And I know it's a bit cliche but I'd have to say "Shindler's List" is the saddest movie I've seen.

Agreed, schlinder's list was pretty brutal at times. Crash was exceedingly sad also at parts.

It's not a super depressing movie, but I bawled pretty much the entire way through the last half of "In America". Talk about a tearjerker.

Moulin Rouge made me incredibly sad at the end, even though I knew it was coming, and it wasn't unexpected...

Deep Impact wasn't a very good movie, but for some reason it made me extremely sad in parts. Especially the daughter and father storyline.. I odn't even reallly like the movie.

I'm probably alone in those ones.

Sad movies can either bring tears or a submerged feelings of emotional turmoil, uneasiness, submerged roiling of painful thoughts. The following of some of those moving picture/sound experiences:

Picnic at Hanging Rock(1975). An eerie, haunting mystery of the unknown fate of three girls in the turn of the century Australian outback. Directed by Peter Weir.

Nomads(1986). One of the most captivating, haunting, eerie movies made starring Pierce Brosnan in one of his finest performances as a anthropologist and the female doctor who has a strange connection to him in her attempts to discover the mystery of his man's demise.

Doctor Zhivago (1965). Omar Shariff and Julie Christie star in the historical epic of the Russian Revolution.

House of Mirth (2000). A strong performance by Gillian Anderson of the X-files in a historical period piece. Gillian's rise and fall is tragic.

Moulin Rouge(2001). The best musical revival of the past decade.

Twelve Monkeys (1996). A wrenching, sci-fi movie about time travel. The ending can really twist one's emotionally.

Sliding Doors (1998). A fascinating what-if love-romance movie. The one alternative ending really has the audience going and then slices the heart.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). A heart wrenching comedy-drama for Mia Farrow.

The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000). A long suffering sacrifice of a woman in a historical period piece.

After Life (1998). A Japanese look at the way station after death.

Cold Mountain (2003). One of those civil war tragedies.

Fate is the Hunter (1964). A Glenn Ford and Robert Taylor in a haunting investigation of an airplane crash.

Sweet November (2001). A contemporary version of Love Story.

Love Story (1970). Perhaps the classic most sad love movie.

Idaho Transfer(1973) viewed 3/6/05. A little known time travel pic directed by Peter Fonda. Contains a Blair Witch Project (1999) feel, low-budget but decent script with a surprise ending.

Saddest film? Hm, The Apartment, with Jack Lemmon, is really moving for me. It's a funny film but it's also pretty dark and I find Lemmon's performance very touching.
Easy Rider is pretty depressing as well! Those of you who have seen it know why.

Leaving Las Vegas
In the Mood for Love
21 Grams
Mystic River
In the Bedroom
Talk to Her
All About My Mother

Yeah Schindlers List would probably be on the top of my list but I also thought that Les Miserable was quite sad as well the title would infer. I thought the book was much more heart wrenching but the movie still does a good job.

There are at least six movie/tv versions of Les Miserables, the most recent 1997 version being considered by some as standing up well against the 1978 television version and the classic standard 1935 version. In my mind, somewhat like Dr. Zhivago (1965) in scope as the somestimes sad relationships on display in the movie are set against a larger epic revolutionary canvass. for me, Les Miserables is more about the dramatic interplay between Vajean and Javert than the more melancholy of the sad scene of Valjean's Fantine. Les Miserables has more hope and redemption than Dr. Zhivago's haunting ending even though in that movie it's modern ending also offers a smaller but relatively upbeat hope of redemption also.

All time? I don't know, but "Requiem For a Dream" is definitely up there. I recently saw a Japanese film called "Nobody Knows" about a family abandoned by their mother. Dear God, what a sad movie. It's beautiful, though. Highly recommended.

Million dollar baby hit me in the guts I was numb and walked around like a zombie for a week.
I had no idea about the storyline before seeing it. You know a movie is good when it over but you just sit there for a hour or more taking it in, very empowering movie.

Another sad film that also had Jack Lemmon in a starring role is Days of Wine and Roses (1962)(see Edward Nygma's earlier posting about his role in The Apartment), a powerful and mostly depressing movie about alcohol addiction.

The English patient, especially the repeated image in the plane (and you don't realize that she's dead yet) and the scene where he mourns for her in the cave, left me with a profound sense of grief and loss that lingered long after the film ended. When the characters are believable and their emotions and passions ring true as they do in this film, then the sense of tragedy is almost palpable and can be personally devastating, as if one had lived through the experience oneself. Sometimes, ironically, almost more powerful than life. for In life, as it is actually lived, as opposed to imagined and fictionalized, the myopic focus that the art of film provides, augmented by clever, and occasionally exquisite, editing is pathetically missing.
And, of course, there is no musical score to enhance the mood and perform its mesmerizing magic.

Almodovar's Talk to Her is equally sad, but for totally different reasons. In methodical, almost documentary fashion, it narrates the bizarre, almost limitless, ethically indefensible lengths that one can be driven to by loneliness and the "madness" of love. Here the sadness (FOR the characters) is tingued with repulsion and convulsions of anger and rage.

The quickest way to lose mine, or for that matter anyone's compassion and inhibit the degree to which we identify with and are subtly, yet inextricably, emotionally wrapped into the lives of the characters, on the other hand, is to leave us feeling manipulated due to the blatant use of superficial, clumbsy or transparant techniques. Then the emotions seem sentimental, false or "tacked on", and in fact diminish the impact or "payoff". They certainly can't have the same profound affect or staying power then. Fortunately serious students of film have an innate sixth sense that alerts them to this gambit or gimmick, which is nothing short of deception and emotional fraud. In this regard, "sad" is probably the primary emotion where a director is tempted to cheat. It's what makes Chekhov so difficult, if not impossible, to stage: The line between too little and too much is so subtle as to be almost indistinguishable.
As far as I'm concerned smearing fake sadness on a film, most commonly in the final scene(s), is analagous to dipping it in vomit. It invalidates anything that might be redemptive or valid about the film.

I have seen a few people mention "Requiem For A Dream" and "Dancer in the Dark." I really don't find "Requiem" sad except in the sense it is sad what they are doing to themselves. It didn't make me want to cry, it just depressed the crap out of me. Same thing with any von Trier movie, they're all depressing! And I'm a cryer. I honestly cried at the end of "Godzilla 1985" as well as "First Blood," when Rambo was describing how his friend got blown up in Vietnam. But here are 11 I cried at because they were sad. Tears of joy is another thread!

1. "Old Yeller" - This has not been mentioned. To quote Bill Murray, "Nobody cried at the end of 'Old Yeller'? I cried my eyes out."
2, "Boyz in the Hood" - When Ricky got shot, ouch.
3. "Steel Magnolias" - I'm not afraid to admit it.
4. "My Girl" - I know you know what I'm talking about.
5. "Bang the Drum Slowly" - Saddest movie De Niro's ever been in.
6. "Love Story" - This one has been mentioned.
7. "My Dog Skip" - I watched this on my way to Japan on the plane and had some confused Asians(including my wife) looking at me!
8. "Brian's Song" - I'm talking about the original with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams.
9. "Bambi" - I've seen it, but I just watched the re-issued DVD with my 3 1/2 year old niece. It was the first time she's seen me cry.
10. "Sophie's Choice" - When what really happened comes to light, it's agonizing.
11. "Watership Down" - I was bawling when Hazel got shot. Bawling. I'm getting choked up thinking about it right now! I can hear Garfunkel singing "Bright Eyes."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PRG,

1. "Life is Beautiful." Total soap opera, but by the end it didn't matter.
2. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
3. "Schindler's List."
4. "Million Dollar Baby."
5. "Forrest Gump."
6. "About Schmidt."
7. "Babe." Not really sad, but the ending still made me cry, mainly because of the farmer.
8. "Rain Man."
9. "Truman Show." Once again, the ending wasn't really sad, but still tear-provoking.
10. "Lord of the Rings." These movies made me sad because after watching them I realized that I had wasted 10 hours of my life.

I find some of paxsoprano Know-It-All picks at odds with what I consider "saddist" movies.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" had that nudging tugging sadness with the bringing loss of love but I don't think it ever managed to cross over to the saddest category. This comedy, drama, romance maintained a nice balance of dramatic tension with an underlying potential sad component that was backed up by the everlasting love wins out hope. I do believe the sad factor of this movie, though, did help to make it one of the best movie of 2004. At least two saddest movies that would more likely fall into this same category of losing something important would be "Awakenings" (1990) and "Charly" (1968).

"Forrest Gump" is a more difficult movie to categorize, but to label it saddest, perhaps overlooks the real message underlying the movie's theme and the character's own attitude and perception of life. I gathered from Tom Hank's simple character that while life can be cruel, it's also possible to seek and find the best in people and situations rather than the "saddest."

I think the ambivalence with "The Truman Show" speaks for itself. The overall conceptual notion of "The Truman Show" was based more of the fear of loss than the actual loss, unlike George Orwell's "1984" (1956) or "Brazil" (1985) the original theatrical ending - not television version. In some respects saying "The Truman Show" as a sad show would be somewhat like saying "Blade Runner" (1982) was a sad show.

I categorize "Sad Movies" not based on plot but based on how they affect me. Most of those movies I named were not overall "Sad movies," but they earn their places because the parts of them that were sad are powerful enough to beat out movies whose sole purpose is to depress. I would rather have one extremely affecting moment than two hours of constant pain and suffering.

Semantics perhaps but this forum is entitled "Saddest Movies" not "Saddest Movie Scenes." This distinction is a material one in that there are sad movies and then there are romantic comedies, dramas, action movies, sci fi movies that have sad, intensely emotional scenes. A sad movie is one in which the overall tone and purpose of the movie is to focus on the emotional depths of sorrow while other movies have other purposes that use the emotion of sadness to make selective points during certain episodes that come up in a movie. Nevertheless, I believe your ability to express your feelings based on certain "sad" parts of a movie have valuable merit and are worthy of posting and discussion.

I don't like tear-jerkers, not because they not good movies, some of them are. I just hate going to a movie and leave feeling like someone ripped my heart out. The saddest to me were:
Love Story
Brian's Song
Play it Forward
Kramer versus Kramer
The Passion of Christ