Wednesday, January 14, 2015 9:31:16 AM · by SeekAndFind · 288 replies
FIVETHIRTYEIGHT ^ | 01/14/2015 | Walt Hickey
Posted on 01/15/2015 12:39:40 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Which Movies Make Grown Men Cry?
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. 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?
I asked SurveyMonkey Audience, which conducts polls for us from time to time, to ask people what films — if any — had ever made them cry, or at least made them choke up a bit. Respondents could volunteer up to five films.
About 92 percent of the 665 respondents said a movie had made them cry. The dry-eyed 8 percent were asked whether a movie had ever at least gotten them misty-eyed or choked up. A little more than half of them conceded that yes, they had been close to crying before. Call this the “Alex Kaufman Group.”
Still, this leaves us with 4 percent of respondents — about 1 in 25 — who have never been moved even close to tears by any film. Such stoic souls are rare, but they do exist.
Here are the biggest tear-jerker films, with the number of times they were mentioned. In total, 596 films were mentioned 2,615 times.
But men and women don’t tear up at the same films. Looking at films with more than five mentions, there are several that stick out.
“Field of Dreams,” “Rudy,” “Brian’s Song” and “We Were Soldiers” were the most likely to be listed by men rather than women. On the other end of the spectrum, “Beaches,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Steel Magnolias” and “A Walk To Remember” skewed heavily female.
I also asked about the relative tear-jerker-ness of different genres. It’s somewhat interesting to zero in on the 523 respondents for whom we have gender data.
Finally, I inquired about television shows and novels to see whether those were any more likely to cry.
Only 29 percent of male respondents admitted they had ever been brought to tears by a novel, which probably means our civilization is in desperate need for more books about World War II. What’s more, 61 percent of dudes said they have never been brought to tears by a television show or miniseries.
A final note of a personal nature: To the single respondent who listed “Jurassic Park” as a film that has brought them to tears, I need you to contact me as soon as possible. I’m pretty sure you’re my soulmate.
Quint's death always brings a tear to my eye ...
This was a real tearjerker too!
I asked Beau - who is the manliest man you’d ever want to meet - and he says:
‘Where The Red Fern Grows’
‘Old Yeller’
ANY movie where the dog dies. *SNIF*
OK I’ll admit to tearing up at the end of Vanishing Point
Just the thought of a ‘70 RT 440 .... I’m sorry ...
I need a few moments
Starship Troopers 2.
This movie would've made Gen. George Patton cry. I'm serious. I think this is THE most emotion-evoking movie ever made.
On the other hand, I usually cheer at the sight of Leonardo DiCaprio sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic in Titanic
Cinema Paradiso
Always
I just can't bear to watch that beautiful Douglas B-26 Invader get blown to smithereens.
A pretty good love story too.
Here is a Korean music video (sort of version of Elephant Man) that might make you shed a tear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uive4DMqAdc
“We Were Soldiers”
I will second that.
I cried when I saw “A Million Ways to Die in the West” — not because it was sad, but because someone suckered me into ordering it from Comcast and paying $6.00 for something that God Awful.
Only movie I had to [briefly] walk away from was “Return To Me”, a romance about a heart transplant recipient. Not something to watch shortly after undergoing open-heart surgery.
In Southern California, His Eminence Roger Cardinal Mahony...decided not to withhold communion from any Catholic who saw the Ben Affleck / Jennifer Lopez bomb Gigli, saying: "They've already suffered enough. My God man, have you no soul?"
-- from the thread EXCOMMUNICATION CRAZE SWEEPS U.S. CATHOLICS
The flood scene in “Open Season” had me in tears. I rarely laugh that hard.
Love that film, Elephant Man. Also, The Yearling always makes me cry. But then again, commercials make me cry too.
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