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?

[trisham]

What an awful list.

[Pelham]

Sharknado

[Perdogg]

ping

[Oatka]

If you haven’t seen it...The Lighthorsemen might be a movie you’d enjoy.

Forgot about that one. The one thing that stuck in my mind was the Turks forgetting to lower their rifle sights as the range closed.

[Dagnabitt]

An hour into the wretched 2001 Pearl Harbor film, I was rooting for the Japanese to off Ben Affleck and all the other main characters. Unfortunately, the strafing Zeros missed, and the film continued for another 90 minutes.

[LS]

“Rudy,” “While You Were Sleeping”, the Little Round Top scene in “Gettysburg” and, once in a while, one of the scenes from my movie “Rockin’ the Wall”.

[Hulka]

Indeed. . .and it takes a special kind of evil to murder his dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHTJyuXzhQ

Those punks are lucky to still be alive as you REALLY don't want Marcus Luttrell after you. . .

[SZonian]

Yep, brilliant move on the diggers’ part.

The Turks/Germans were out foxed by the diggers who had, up to that point, consistently dismounted to fight, as expected since they were mounted infantry, not calvary...the Turks and Germans assumed they’d do the same.

This time they didn’t...a full on charge...the artillery guys tried to keep up with lowering their sights, but the infantry didn’t.

When the artillery guys “bottomed out” and Chauvel said “They’re under the guns.” That’s when you knew they were gonna make it...

I’m gonna have to watch it again this weekend...it’s one of those movies I don’t tire of.

[dfwgator]

An hour into the wretched 2001 Pearl Harbor film, I was rooting for the Japanese to off Ben Affleck and all the other main characters. Unfortunately, the strafing Zeros missed, and the film continued for another 90 minutes.

Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part, he's way better than Ben Affleck.

[US_MilitaryRules]

When Forrest Gumps girlfriend brings him his son.

[Joe Brower]

“Grave of the Fireflies” was indeed heart-rending.

[Elsie]

Bad words alert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D9mDHPY0RA

[Elsie]

If home is Montana, we lived in Billings for 7 years where I became familiar with Norman Maclean and other Montana writer/artists.

---

Cowboy Poetry

by Bill Jones

 

 

 

Jake, the rancher, went one day
to fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty
and the clouds rolled gray and dense.

As he pounded the last staples in
and gathered tools to go,
The temperature had fallen,
the wind and snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup,
he felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition,
he knew it wouldn't start.

So Jake did what most of us
would do if we had been there.
He humbly bowed his balding head
and sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key for the last time,
he softly cursed his luck.
They found him three days later,
frozen stiff in that old truck.

Now Jake had been around in life
and done his share of roaming.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked --
it looked just like Wyoming!

Of all the saints in Heaven,
his favorite was St. Peter.
(Now, this line ain't needed
but it helps with rhyme and meter)

So they set and talked a minute or two,
or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keeping' score --
in Heaven time is free.

"I've always heard," Jake said to Pete,
"that God will answer prayer,
But one time I asked for help,
well, he just plain wasn't there."

"Does God answer prayers of some,
and ignore the prayers of others?
That don't seem exactly square --
I know all men are brothers."

"Or does he randomly reply,
without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day,
the weather or the season."

"Now I ain't trying to act smart,
it's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me --
what the heck's the deal?!"

Peter listened very patiently
and when Jake was done,
There were smiles of recognition,
and he said, "So, you're the one!!"

"That day your truck, it wouldn't start,
and you sent your prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time,
with hundreds of us trying."

"A thousand angels rushed,
to check the status of your file,
But you know, Jake, we hadn't heard
from you in quite a long while."

"And though all prayers are answered,
and God ain't got no quota,
He didn't recognize your voice,
and started a truck in Minnesota."

[Elsie]

The King of the universe who died for my sin so that I may live.

Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[Elsie]

My Life as a Dog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H17edn_RZoY

[Elsie]

...my tears patter on the dry leaves...

You, Sir, are a poet.

[tet68]

Thank you for the compliment, I wish I was a writer.;

Where the Red Fern Grows.
The book is better than the movie but it’s good too.

Just try reading it and when you get to the end,
you’ll cry too.

Admittedly it’s personal for me, my father grew up
like the character in the book, a Virginia farm boy.
Raccoon, and fox hunting with dogs was a sport and
a way of life, a way of life I only got to see a little
of growing up, it’s all gone now, the five brothers and
three sisters all gone, the farm and land sold off.
I would give anything to go back to the time my father
asked me if I wanted some of the land once my grandmother
died but I was young and stupid and didn’t appreciate it
at the time, now it’s gone, all gone, just the memories
made sepia by time are left.

I went to the Coon Dog Graveyard over in Tuscumbia
Alabama once years ago, what a tribute to dogs those
owners have made.

Here is the site, see for yourself.

http://www.coondogcemetery.com/gallery.html

[Elsie]

... now it’s gone, all gone, just the memories made sepia by time are left.

Sir; you ARE a WRITER!

[Ditter]

I hear what you are saying. When I was about 12, I was taken to the log dog trot house in east Texas built by my ancestors in around 1830. I don’t know where it was but if I did, when I was grown I would have gone back and bought it. Everyone who knew where the house was located, is long dead.