Which classics reduce you to tears everytime you watch them?

[James45]

"As a youth I used to weep in butchers' shops."

Some of you sound like you need medication.

[Jonnof]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

Slightly too modern but....
The Climax to Peter Wier's 'Fearless' destroys me every time. Must have seen it 10 times now too.

Was going to suggest this over in the 'exhilarating' thread, but it's devastating in equal measure - quite awesome cinema, never fails to affect me...

Reading this thread, I have to confess that I'm much more easily manipulated by modern films than classics - I assume that's because I find it easier to emotionally distance myself from material created in a different era. Child of my time

[John Hodson]

Oooh, not sure about that; I watched Penny Serenade yesterday, which was a three hankie job, and even I'm not that old...

[dharle]

Cool Runnings.

[anephric]

Originally Posted by Jonnof

Reading this thread, I have to confess that I'm much more easily manipulated by modern films than classics - I assume that's because I find it easier to emotionally distance myself from material created in a different era. Child of my time

If anything, it's modern film being far more manipulative... Olly Stone and Born on the Fourth of July? Virtually rapes your emotions. Compare most modern 'romances' or 'tearjerkers' (Titanic, Dying Young) to something like Letter from an Unknown Woman or Now Voyager... modern audiences might be technically more 'sophisticated' than their spectatorial forebears but (in Hollywood at least) the films they're drinking in have become far less discreet... perhaps to cater for a generation that have had their emotions neutered by blantant imagery thrown at them from all angles.

Meh. [/moan]. I blame Love Story.

[Guest 26892]

Dumbo - I know, I know. It's just a cartoon etc. but even now I can't bring myself to watch it. Just thinking about Dumbo being cradled in his mum's trunk is enough to have a lip-wobbling moment. Damn that manipulative Disney.

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by anephric

If anything, it's modern film being far more manipulative...

I'm glad you said that...I was tempted, but I didn't want to sound like the Luddite I appear to be.

[jess10]

Baloo's "death" in Jungle Book.

[Jonnof]

Originally Posted by anephric

If anything, it's modern film being far more manipulative...

I quite agree, but my (very narrow) perception of this disparity isn't based on overt tearjerkers.
I'm thinking Birth, Eternal Sunshine, Solaris (2003), the aforementioned Fearless - the emotional charge doesn't smother the viewer, indeed it is quite hard-won in some cases.

It's just what I'd describe as the immediacy of the contemporary - the less of the cinematic language I have to decode (consciously or otherwise), the easier the emotional needles sneak under the wire.

Just my 2p

[anephric]

I was generalising a bit; there's still plenty of decent 'earnest' American cinema that isn't overly manipulative but in the main... emotive filmic 'tools' are fairly blunt and to the point now.

[Guest 30364]

angels with dirt faces, when cagney refuses pat o'briens request to repent then begins his dead mans walk into oblivion and starts to scream and cry, that whole passage breaks me up.

one flew over the cuckoos nest, at the end when will sampson smothers jack then makes his bid for freedom.

every year for the last 5 years we sit down to watch its a wonderful life before we go to bed on xmas eve, i always have to go to the toilet right after mr potter realises his mistake with the prescription and cuddles george, also i am absolutley busting before the ending and have to go right at the films end. i sit in the toilet crying my eyes out trying to muffle the blubbing sounds as everybody is asking me how long am i going to be.

[jess10]

Originally Posted by fatherofnight

angels with dirt faces, when cagney refuses pat o'briens request to repent then begins his dead mans walk into oblivion and starts to scream and cry, that whole passage breaks me up.

one flew over the cuckoos nest, at the end when will sampson smothers jack then makes his bid for freedom.

every year for the last 5 years we sit down to watch its a wonderful life before we go to bed on xmas eve, i always have to go to the toilet right after mr potter realises his mistake with the prescription and cuddles george, also i am absolutley busting before the ending and have to go right at the films end. i sit in the toilet crying my eyes out trying to muffle the blubbing sounds as everybody is asking me how long am i going to be.

all three films pure class

Although it was Mr Gower not Potter the fiend!

[Guest 30364]

Originally Posted by jess10

all three films pure class
Although it was Mr Gower not Potter the fiend!

jeez how could i have got those two characters confused, think i'll put it down to exhaustion playing tricks with my brain.

[Guest 30364]

just remembered another........
toy story 2 when the little girl discards jessie and randy newman kicks in with jessies song, absolutely heartbreaking.
as dylan would say "either i'm too sensitive, or else i'm getting soft"
sorry don't know the name of the person who sings jessies song just know that randy wrote it, i think.

[DrZarkov]

The one that always reduces me to is when E.T "dies". Spielberg made me bubble from then until the end of the film, both in joy and sadness, but the bit that gets me, and made me appreciate how much spielberg is the master at manipulating emotions ( E.T-Happiness/sadness, jaws-terror, indiana jones-excitement ) is when the flower comes back to life and you realise E.T is alive . Absolute class

[lintone]

The ending of cinema paradiso,must of seen it 15 times and still blubber like a baby.
my sassy girl....ditto

[Guest 1958]

Nobody has mentioned 'Lassie Come Home' yet.
Alan

[John Hodson]

Lassie Come Home - always reduces me to tears...

(Actually it does; I'm planning a double viewing shortly with The Yearling)

[Guest 29]

sorry don't know the name of the person who sings jessies song just know that randy wrote it, i think.

It was sung by Sarah MacLachlan. Last time I saw Randy Newman in concert, he played it himself as a straightforward love song and it was incredibly moving.

Over the past couple of days, the ending of the ITV version of "Goodbye Mr Chips" reduced me to a snivelling wreck and I even got a bit emotional at "Finding Forrester", although a couple of bottles of wine probably had something to do with that. However, a viewing of "Scent of a Woman" this afternoon made me weep buckets and that's not even particularly sad.

[Guest 4779]

Originally Posted by Mike

sorry don't know the name of the person who sings jessies song just know that randy wrote it, i think.

It was sung by Sarah MacLachlan. Last time I saw Randy Newman in concert, he played it himself as a straightforward love song and it was incredibly moving.

Over the past couple of days, the ending of the ITV version of "Goodbye Mr Chips" reduced me to a snivelling wreck and I even got a bit emotional at "Finding Forrester", although a couple of bottles of wine probably had something to do with that. However, a viewing of "Scent of a Woman" this afternoon made me weep buckets and that's not even particularly sad.

Jeez Mike, have you bought shares in Cleenex Man size tissues for Christmas.
Ditto Finding Forrester I dribbled a few tears...but then I was slightly gased!