Which Movies Make Grown Men Cry?

FIVETHIRTYEIGHT ^ | 01/14/2015 | Walt Hickey

[SeekAndFind]

Argument — much like karaoke and online shopping — is at its best when done with friends and a drink. And so, here’s “Bar Fights With Walt,” a column devoted to solving the only questions that truly matter: the dumb arguments about life and pop culture developed and hashed out in barroom rants. We’ll use data and research to take these arguments to their logical statistical conclusion. If you’d like to submit a question or conundrum, corner the author at one of his typical haunts and pick a fight.

After an evening at Grassroots Tavern, some friends and I got into a heated argument about “Love Actually,” which I contend is a good movie (see this Ben Dreyfuss essay for more on that). This eventually became a slightly less heated argument about which movies make people cry. The consensus was that everyone has at least one movie that gets them. The lone dissenter was my friend Alex Kaufman, who claimed he had never cried during a movie. After we listed approximately half the films on IMDb, he eventually recanted, saying that “Saving Private Ryan” had, at points, briefly broken his steely resolve. This leads us to this week’s question:

What movies make people cry the most?

[ken in texas]

I saw Independence Day during a visit to Colorado Springs -- there was cheering and applause during that scene.

[central_va]

If you don’t choke up when the boy has shoot Old Yeller then you are just not human....

[ken in texas]

re. Secondhand Lions

Excellent choice.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I almost did at the end of “A league Of Their Own” when they had that Jimmy Dugan ( Tom Hank's character ) died, but then looked it up and found out that the character was born 1906 and died in 1987. Not bad for a guy who burned the candle at both ends like he did.

[pgyanke]

The worst one for me, and it is WAY ahead of whatever is in second place:

Time Traveler’s Wife

You're not alone.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

My Life as a Dog.

Yes, it’s really a movie.

[onedoug]

How could you doubt without having seen it?

That’s what I originally thought too. But that later movie has drawn me to more research re The Alamo and its antecedents more than the Wayne version did...but then I’m a little older, and perhaps a bit more passionate about some things these days.

Best....

[onedoug]

“Her” sister. I was a bit ahead of myself, wasn’t I?

[a fool in paradise]

When was the last time ANYBODY watched Love Story?

It’s a relic of the 1970s.

[a fool in paradise]

I knew there would have to be at least ONE destroyed car on this list.

[SeekAndFind]

DOES ANYBODY EVEN REMEMBER THIS QUOTE?

[a fool in paradise]

Russ Meyer fan?

[wbill]

The ending of “Black Adder Goes Forth.”

Oooo. Yup. Rare is the show that has a perfect ending, but that was most assuredly it. Excellent writing, as well.

[minnesota_bound]

When John Wayne’s horse gets shot in “True Grit”.

[Nepeta]

Thanks for giving away the ending. I was going to watch that movie.

I saw Titanic in a crowd THAT DID NOT KNOW how things turned out!!!

I loathed that movie. The actual story is so much more gut-wrenching and memorable.

[doorgunner69]

Geez, only seen three out of that list.

None of them in a theater.

[doorgunner69]

Ah, now THAT sort of crying I am guilty of. "Airplane" had a few of those moments as well.

When I was a kid, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies could do it, too.

[TotusTuus]

Got home, flipped the switch on for background noise and caught the 2nd half of A Night to Remember about a month ago when it was on the idiot box. A British movie from the 50's that many consider to be the most accurate one dealing with the sinking of the Titanic.

Anyway, there was a scene near the end after "every man for himself" was declared where a small child who was separated from his Mommy (and missed the lifeboats) was crying out for her amidst the chaos of men in their final panicked terror before the big whoosh of ship into sea. An elderly gentleman picks the child up and wraps him warm and tells him "Don't worry, we'll find your Mommy!"

Okay, I admit it. That scene punched me in the gut and sent my heart in a standstill. I'm gonna have to rent the movie now to watch the whole thing! I highly recommend this movie for the Titanic buffs. 5 daggers to the heart just for that scene.

[Pearls Before Swine]

When John Wayne’s horse gets shot in “True Grit”.

But, not when John Wayne gets shot by Bruce Dern in "The Cowboys?", LOL.

I saw an article where Bruce Dern says that shooting John Wayne in that movie wrecked his career.

[tet68]

Where the Red Fern Grows.

The book, not the movie so much.
I read it on the deer stand and my tears
patter on the dry leaves...