Most heartbreaking film you have ever seen

[NCbear]

I agree re: The Color Purple, TitanicJake. How about Soul Food--or, my personal favorite, Diary of a Mad Black Woman?

That scene at the end with the recently rehabbed ex-junkie gospel singer coming into the small church to sing with her daughter and reunite with her husband--man, I boohooed in the theater, I boohoo every time I see it on DVD, and I even watch that scene every time I want to remember what raw naked hope looks like.

That scene is heartbreaking, really, in a different way. Do you remember the line in Les Miserables (the musical) when the lead singer, referring to his and his dead friends' revolutionary hopes and dreams, says, "Stripped to the bone in a moment of breathless delight"?

That's how that moment seems to me: simultaneously a flash of lightning and a transcendent event outside of conventional measures of time.

NCbear (who sometimes feels this same kind of overwhelmingly emotional, transcendent, quasi-spiritual ecstasy also when listening to powerfully expressed music)

 

[lonamisa]

Dancer in the Dark with Bjork

First thing that came to my mind.

 

[prince_will]

I agree re: The Color Purple, TitanicJake. How about Soul Food--or, my personal favorite, Diary of a Mad Black Woman?

That scene at the end with the recently rehabbed ex-junkie gospel singer coming into the small church to sing with her daughter and reunite with her husband--man, I boohooed in the theater, I boohoo every time I see it on DVD, and I even watch that scene every time I want to remember what raw naked hope looks like.

That scene is heartbreaking, really, in a different way. Do you remember the line in Les Miserables (the musical) when the lead singer, referring to his and his dead friends' revolutionary hopes and dreams, says, "Stripped to the bone in a moment of breathless delight"?

That's how that moment seems to me: simultaneously a flash of lightning and a transcendent event outside of conventional measures of time.

NCbear (who sometimes feels this same kind of overwhelmingly emotional, transcendent, quasi-spiritual ecstasy also when listening to powerfully expressed music)

Edited a second time for clarity:

lol...we're watching the Color Purple in my film studies class, and i'm preparing myself not to tear up when i see that scene which is slightly indentical to that one. It's when Shug sings in the church and reunites with her father, the preacher. that ALWAYS gets to me because it is too sweet. it's more a of heartmelting scene, rather than heartbreaking though. Margaret Avery made that scene what it was. Hats off to her.

EDIT: MY 900TH POST. yay!

 

[Principessa]

Longtime Companion
Boys On The Side
Imitation of Life
Boys Don't Cry

 

[NCbear]

lol...we're watching this in my film studies class, and i'm preparing myself not to tear up when i see that scene. that ALWAYS gets to me because it is too sweet. it's more a of heartmelting scene, rather than heartbreaking though. Margaret Avery made that scene what it was. Hats off to her.

Are we talking about the same movie?

I was talking about Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

NCbear (who's now more confused than ever)

 

[prince_will]

Are we talking about the same movie?

I was talking about Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

NCbear (who's now more confused than ever)

whoops! i read the post thinking it was the scene from the Color Purple which is almost identical. my apologies.

 

[HazelGod]

Michael Bay's Transformers.

Man, you really loved that movie, didn't ya? :biggrin1:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Aside from being utterly brilliant, it was a film that managed to break my heart deeply without ever being depressing.

Yep, loved this one.

Just talking scenes:
The scenes from Braveheart where he's burying his wife, and when he's being tortured at the end.
Willem DeFoe dying in Platoon
The scene in the Outlaw Josey Wales where his wife and son are murdered.

Check, check, and (fixed that for you) check.

Life is Beautiful (italian)

My wife introduced this one to me when we were dating. Beautiful, indeed. I returned the favor by taking her to see A.I. :wink:

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Dead Poets Society or American Beauty.

 

[The Dragon]

Diary of a mad black woman.

Thank goodness I held off seeing it until it came out on dvd!!
I bawled like a baby.

The green mile.

 

[D_Kay_Sarah_Sarah]

Boys on the side.
when Whoopi's character was singing to Mary -Louise Parkers character :cry:

 

[cutedorkwho]

i couldn't help but cry during the re-make of a bridge to terabithia. i felt different after seeing it, even days afterwards.

im a baby at heart i know it! :]

 

[nay-nay]

Ghost
Brokeback Mountain
The Notebook
I Am Sam
E.T.
Beaches
Armageddon
White Oleander
Patch Adams
The Lion King
Something's Gotta Give
What Dreams May Come
Jack
Angel-A
The Sea Inside
Finding Nemo :tongue:
The Green Mile
Titanic
Mystic River
The Brave One
Babe :tongue:
Ever After
Field of Dreams
A Little Princess
Simon Birch
My Girl
Peter Pan
Secondhand Lions
Sweet Home Alabama
Stepmom
Mommy Dearest
Haven
The Fox and the Hound
The Lakehouse
Hannibal Rising
Under the Tuscan Sun
The Guardian
Pan's Labrynth
Butterfly Effect


The Laramie Project: it's a true story about a gay college student from Wyoming who was tied to a fence in the middle of nowhere and beaten to death. sort of like a documentary. i've never sobbed so hard in my life. the part that got me most was when his father took the stand and told the murderers what he thought.

ok, i'm done for now. haha. :tongue:

now i'm in the mood to watch heartbreaking movies!

 

[diesel82]

I'm soppy... so I'll have to say:

The Notebook
Brokeback Mountain
My Girl
Life is Beautiful
Angels in America

 

[nay-nay]

Oh, I also thought August Rush was heartbreaking.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

Once Were Warriors, it's very brutal and the effect the father has on his family is devastating.

 

[diesel82]

BRILLIANT movie!

Once Were Warriors, it's very brutal and the effect the father has on his family is devastating.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

I found it a very hard film to watch, there are many films where we see women physically abused by men, but to watch him using his wife as a punch bag and to give her the beating he gave her is something we very rarely see. His inability to deal with life with anything except his fists and the result of that was inevitable, but still we felt sympathy for the character.

 

[naughty]

whoops! i read the post thinking it was the scene from the Color Purple which is almost identical. my apologies.

I am so glad you all mentioned the Color Purple. Diary of a Mad Black woman made me amgry instead of weepy.

 

[yhtang]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Dead Poets Society

The ending tore me up. I just could not bring myself to watch it again.

 

[auncut10in]

Ok first I have to say I am about to cry just reading this thread and remembering all of these films. So that tells you where I fit on the tear-o-meter.

I just rewatched Dead Poets Society a couple of weeks ago. Yeah it really tore me up. First when Ethan Hawk takes his own life because his father is such a jerk and is more interested in prestige than his own son and then when Robin Williams takes the fall after all he had done for those boys to help them realize who they were. When that one kid stands up on his chair, I could barely see the rest of the film through the tears.

A film no one has probably seen was "Eighteen". A young man comes out to his family and the horrific way he dies because of his father. But the story is about the straight brother that has to deal with both his father and himself for not doing anything to stop the tragedy.

 

[Principessa]

Boys on the side.
when Whoopi's character was singing to Mary -Louise Parkers character :cry:

When that scene came on at the end the entire theater wept openly. I remember looking around and seeing men and women from 16-60 sobbing into those rough movie theater recycled paper napkins.

Longtime Companion
Boys On The Side
Imitation of Life
Boys Don't Cry

I forgot to include The Champ with Ricky Schroeder. When sobs, "Wake up champ! Come on champ wake up!" I lose it every time.