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?

[needmorePaine]

Goodfellas is on my list. At the end when Henry Hill orders spaghetti and marinara and gets egg noodles and ketchup. That cuts to the heart of me.

[Hulka]

Indeed.

And what about “Lone Survivor”. . .made me tear-up.

I expect “American Sniper” to do the same.

[SkyDancer]

I read the book, saw the movie. Don’t remember too much of it though ...boys, rockets .... etc.

[WayneS]

What the hell is The Notebook?

[Jeff Chandler]

Rat Race. The scene where the air traffic controller looks though his binoculars. I laughed so hard I cried.

[cuban leaf]

I just visited the town that movie was filmed in last summer. Came across it in one of our wonderful “let’s turn off the main road and see what we find” moments.

[ifinnegan]

Yes.

Typical of Spielberg hackness.

[cuban leaf]

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

Time Traveler’s Wife

[thefactor]

Rudy.

[Jeff Chandler]

Titanic? Ten minutes into that borefest, I'm going, "Just sink already!

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

[WayneS]

Blackhawk Down

(seriously - although I may have been weeping with rage rather than from sadness)

[cuban leaf]

Dirty Dozen*. Duh.

*Obscure Sleepless In Seattle reference.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

“The Best Years of Our Lives” always makes me tear up...

[WayneS]

Well played, sir!

[CTyank]

“The Best Years of our Lives”

I choke up several times through that movie.

[WayneS]

I’ll second that.

[dfwgator]

I’ll save you some time.

Titanic in Five Seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuSdU8tbcHY

[qam1]

Phantasm II

When the 1971 Hemicuda got trashed

Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

[cuban leaf]

You don’t want to see My Dog Skip, then. ;-)

[wally_bert]

Brain’s Song gave me some laughs though. A Pinky And The Brain episode.