Any movie with an animal in it, that is a main focus of the plot, and near the end that animal dies, or has to be set free to the wilderness, that always makes me cry. To Kill A Mockingbird, when it is revealed that the children’s savior is Boo, and he’s hiding behind that door-always gets me and I’ve seen that movie quite a few times. Penny Serenade, when Cary Grant is pleading with the judge to let them adopt the baby-oh my! I recently got caught up on the Toshiro Mifune films I had dvred when he was one of the stars of the month for August. He starred in one film, The Rickshaw Man, and at the end of it I was a mess of tears. It was a simple plot: lowly rickshaw man, befriends an Officer in Japanese Army, circa 1900. Rickshaw man also befriends Officer’s wife and son. Officer dies, and his widow asks the humble Rickshaw man to help teach her son how to be a man, which he does, putting his whole heart into this endeavor, and also loving the widow from afar. But class diffenences will not allow a romance to happen. It was such a tender, sweet movie, and at the end, I was balling like a baby!

You listed all my tearjerkers, but the first tearjerker I recall was “The Wizard of Oz” I am among the generation that got to see all the CBS TV airings, I cried when Dorothy said goodbye to her new Oz friends, and so did my Daddy who watched all annual showings with me. I have discussed this on my blog for father’s Day: http://thefeebleartichoke.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/fathers-day/ You might enjoy reading it.

Jenni, your comment reminded me of a recent animal movie – Marley & Me (2008) – which was designed specifically to make its audience cry and, even though I was steeling myself not to, I couldn’t help myself from getting teary eyed.

Winston, you may notice that among my tearjerkers are a lot of “Films about Fathers”, which I wrote an essay about on my site (many years ago) … and (per above) you know why these affect me so. I guess I left out Field of Dreams (1989).

The only film I can remember crying about was The Fox And The Hound, and that was when I was five. The song when Widow Tweed is leaving Tod alone in the forest… killer.

Any movie with a dog in it. “Hachiko” will break me down like nothing else, especially if our two loyal Aussie’s are watching with us . . .

I must add “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” with Alan Arkin. Wonderful movie, in my humble opinion.

Life Is Beautiful may well be the last time I cried at a film. (The killer moment there, for me, is when the American tank appears.) Before that, it may have been Sense and Sensibility, which surprised me because it wasn’t the sort of moment which usually unmans me. (I blame the uncalled-for brilliance of Emma Thompson’s performance!)

As a rule, lovers’ partings don’t devastate me (unless it’s happening in real life…to me). I love Casablanca, but it doesn’t make me weep.
Somebody pretty much has to die or make a child unhappy before I start to fumble with my bandana. The other category, for me, is all those stories in which someone is saved from disaster by a noble act or an outright miracle: A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, IAWL, Three Godfathers, etc. Oh, and June Allyson! It’s one of Newton’s lesser known laws of physics: when June Allyson cries, we all cry. Scientifically demonstrable.

I don’t really like movies that intentionally try to tickle my tearducts; maybe i’m a hopeless cynic. But Judy Garland singing Over The Rainbow always does the trick.As does the final scene in Midnight Cowboy; again there the music definitely helps set the mood.Without it i’d be moved, yes, but to tears? I couldn’t be sure.

Charley Blake – “Oh, and June Allyson! It’s one of Newton’s lesser known laws of physics: when June Allyson cries, we all cry. Scientifically demonstrable.”

Yeah, in fact, that’s why I have the 1949 version of Little Women on my list; I also had Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) on my list, but figured only hardcore TCM junkies would have seen that one;-)

When I saw “Life is Beautiful” at the top of this post I went, “Uh-oh”. That ending got to me.
We’re all wired differently-I have no idea why it affected me so, but the last shot of the last episode of “Blackadder Goes Fourth”
had me crying like a baby.
I haven’t seen “Marley and Me” but one of my favorite books by Farley Mowat, “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be”…well, I don’t read the last chapter anymore. I’m a wuss.

Rutger Hauer and some arrows in 1997′s beautifully filmed “The Call of the Wild – Dog of the Yukon” had me bawling like a baby.

Thanks, Highhurdler, for pointing me to your own blog. I have enjoyed reading your essays very much!

@ Jenni

So,did you cry at the End of Jaws too ?

As much as i hate to admit,but “It´s a wonderful Life” get´s me
every Year.
That Ending:Auld Lang Syne,Little Zuzu and the Ringing Bell.
I guess,that´s why Frank Capra was a great Filmaker.
Even if you understand the Trick,you are helpless.

Also,the Ending of “Shane”.When Shane told Ryker,that there is
no Place for People like Ryker anymore,and Ryker answerd that
the same can be said of Gunslingers like Shane,and Shane said:
The Difference is,I Know.

Also “Angels with dirty Faces”.
I will never forgive Pat O´Brian for that.
By far my favorite Michael Curtiz Film.

Lol Ghijath! No, I probably cringed and looked away when Quint got killed by “Bruce” the shark near the end of Jaws, though.

Ghijath – I can relate; I’ve seen the ending of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) more times than I can count, and have even turned on the TV just to watch the ending (every year?) just so that I can have a goodhearted ‘cry’. “A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.” is what gets me.

I can’t watch “Dumbo” at all. I own it, just because i collect the “Good ole” Disney movies, but I just look at the cover and tears well up. Just talking about it does it too. I don’t care if people die, usually, and sappy movies don’t usually do it for me either. Although my husband might remember it differently! I do tear up at the end of “Terminator:Salvation” when Marcus gives up his heart. I hate that ending. “The Fox and Hound” just kills me. Not sure if it is the movie, or if it is because it is the last movie my grandma took us to before she passed. But I have to say, there is a show on tv called “too Cute” which is just stupidly cute with kittens and puppies and assorted other animals. Last night there was one that had a kitten that had been orphaned and they were showing it in a foster rescue. I was a puddle of tears when they showed it going to it’s forever home at the end of the episode. Stupid animal movies.

For me it’s “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” from Mary Poppins ; it gets me every time.

Military hospital sequence of “Random Harvest,” where the withdrawn amnesiac Ronald Colman is taken to meet what might be his parents. He is clearly hopeful. The woman cries out in disappointment and has to be helped from the room. I feel more for her than for Greer Garson, mainly because Garson is stuck in a very good but traditional soap opera.

Two moments in “Lady and the Tramp”: The tearful puppies in the pound during the comical “No Place Like Home” and Jock howling over the fallen Trusty.

Miracle in the Rain (1956)
The Old Maid (1939)
The Biscuit Eater (1940)
The Yearling (1946)
Maytime (1936)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Ballad of a soldier (1959)
Symphonie Pastorale (1946)
A Canterbury Tale (1943)
Odd Man Out (1947)
Miracle of marcellino (1955)
Umberto D (1952)
Au Hazard Balthazar (1966)
Dumbo
Asphalt Jungle
Black Orpheus
Ikiru (1952)
The Cranes are Flying (1957)
Willie the Operatic Whale

I meant to make a note that these are stories that reduce me to sobs. I only watch them alone so no one sees my disintegration.

That’s quite a list muriel; thanks for sharing it!

Oh, and I forgot to mention in “The Hurt Locker”, I cried when the sniper wanted some juice, and they couldn’t find any. No water, no juice, and i just lost it. Now, I send care packages to soldiers deployed overseas, so that really hurt my feelings. I have sent juice boxes in every box I have sent since that movie came out. Not on my watch! The rest of the movie I was fine with, but that really got me.

As a mom of an enlisted US Marine, thank you so much for sending care packages to our troops, Heidi! God bless you!!!

Yep, even reading that line from IAWL gets me a bit choked up. And of course, “Every time a bell rings…”

I haven’t had a dog since I was 5 or 6, but even so, My Dog Skip and the recent Australian film Red Dog (seek it out, it’s really quite wonderful, with a great canine performance) turned on the waterworks.

I lost someone close to me when I was still in my late teens, so I’m usually affected by people being reunited with someone they thought was dead (non-comedically, as this plot twist seems to turn up in a lot of ’30s and ’40s comedies). Can’t think of too many examples, I probably blocked them out, but A Very Long Engagement comes to mind because I’m also deeply affected by stories from the First World War (although not Warhorse), and Audrey Tatou is so unbearably cute.

swak44-I loved “A Very Long Engagement” but somehow I think I might have liked it better without the happy ending. I know that makes no sense.
You are right about Audrey Tautou-she shines, and is also a great actress-I think that she will still be popular when her beauty fades.
Right now I have yet to finish “Young Adult” not because it makes me sad, but because the desperation of Theron’s character is so unsettling; I would absolutely dread being as needy and desperate as she is. Please don’t tell me how it ends-I’ll finish it someday.

Thanks Jenni! I have Christmas cards and packages going out now.

Actually Doug, that does make sense, to me anyway. Sometimes I watch a film like that and wonder where my happy ending went to (as it turns out, I’m now the love of my life and things couldn’t be rosier), or, in A Very Long Engagement, the happy ending denied to so many who lost loved ones in the trenches of France. But I guess sometimes you’ve got to hold onto hope.

BTW, just watched the documentary Stories We Tell by Canadian actor/director Sarah Polley, where she delves into the story of her mother, a beautiful and vivacious actress who died when Sara was only 11, and the mystery around her own birth, and it’s quite a moving story, especially when she talks to her dad about her mother’s death. There are a few surprises along the way, and some thoughtful insight into family lore and how it clouds and shifts over time. Recommended!

Thanks for the recommendations swac44, several I’ve yet to see (I have seen War Horse;-)

The ending of “It´s a Wonderful Life” makes me cry every single time I watch it. No other film scene gives me the same feeling of joy and hope. It´s like a fairy tale for adults. As someone said above, no matter if you know the trick: the trick just works so wonderfully.

Other films whose endings never fail to make me cry : “Gone With The Wind”, “Stage Door”, “The Sound of Music”, “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” and “Billy Elliot”.

I just watched “My Foolish Heart” again with Susan Hayward and Dana Andrews. Now that’s a tearjerker! Dana Andrews as Walt is the most endearing man. In the beginning, Susan Hayward is reminiscing about Walt and says “He was really sweet, not that little boy sweet, just sweet.”
Now I don’t know what the appeal of little boy sweet means, because it doesn’t sound appealing in a man, but that is how Dana Andrews played it – good humored, good sport, just plain nice.
Andrews and Haryward were really too old for the parts, but they are such appealing characters, you don’t mind.