Entertainment Weekly's 50 Best Movie Tearjerkers Ever
Screening on Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
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''Emotional roller coaster'' is a horrible, hackneyed phrase, but it's a cliché for a reason: Something in our nature craves a ride on the ol' manipulation machine. Nine times out of 10, we know long before pushing play that the movie involves a terminally ill loved one, or an impossible love, or a giant robot that dies for our sins. And then there are the ambushes we still haven't gotten over...like Bambi's mom. (Let's not talk about Bambi's mom, okay?) Yes, there's something about fictitious grief — different, it must be noted, from the real thing. (That's why you won't find The Sorrow and the Pity, or any other documentary, on our list.) Sure, laughter may be the best medicine — but discriminating depressives know that nothing beats a good sob.
(SPOILER ALERT! We give away the plots — and even endings — of some of the movies covered within...)
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:47:00 PM
50. Rudy (1993)
Like its hero, Dan ''Rudy'' Ruettiger (Sean Astin), the uplifting true story of a blue-collar kid who, through sheer force of guts, gets to play football for the legendary Fighting Irish overcomes a smattering of dopiness and slightness of size to tackle our hearts. Oh, and sports fan or not, you'll bawl...
KLEENEX MOMENT...especially when Jerry Goldsmith's score swells as Rudy finally gets to play. Rudy is, quite simply, the consensus champion of that goofiest emotional commodity: happy tears.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:47:00 PM
49. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Frank Darabont's beloved drama was no hit when it premiered, but it's gained a tremendous following since thanks to its straightforward, sincere portrayal of pure human friendship — a fact that's beautifully summed up in the simple sentiment offered by Red (Morgann Freeman) at the film's conclusion: ''I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.''
KLEENEX MOMENT In the final shot, Red walks down the beach, Andy (Tim Robbins) looks up from his boat, and the camera pulls back as the two friends make their embrace. No dialogue necessary.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:47:00 PM
48. Cinema Paradiso (1989)
While the movie begins when a filmmaker, Salvatore (Jacque Perrin), learns that a forgotten friend has passed away, it's actually the flashback story that unfolds — in which young Salvatore learns lessons of life and love at the feet of fatherly projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) — that stirs the soul.
KLEENEX MOMENT Upon returning from the funeral, Salvatore plays a film reel Alfredo left for him. You can't help but share his bittersweet sorrow as he sees a loving message from beyond the grave unspool on the big screen like a memory from his childhood.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:47:00 PM
47. Moulin Rouge (2001)
A sweet-natured prostitute (Nicole Kidman), promised to a creepy power monger, in love with a poor writer (Ewan McGregor), and hacking her bloody lungs up, to boot — you know this ain't gonna end well. But, man, is the affair between Kidman and McGregor's characters beautiful right up until its agonizing end; it's filled with the kind of inescapable and determined longing that makes us remember the largeness of our own jaded hearts. Bless writer-director Baz Luhrmann for adding freaky, quirky elements (John Leguizamo as Toulouse-Lautrec! Narcoleptic Argentineans!) so that we can come up for air in between sobs.
KLEENEX MOMENT Despite being dumped and threatened with death, the writer steels himself and marches into the theater, where he and his love reconcile with their duet of doomed passion, ''Come What May.''
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:48:00 PM
46. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
What is it about sports movies and crying? The two always seem to fit perfectly together, like pitchers and catchers, goalposts and kickers. Or, yes, Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank, as this Best Picture's crotchety old boxing trainer and the scrappy young pugilist he takes under his wing — and tragically can't pick up when she falls.
KLEENEX MOMENT As the old man puts his wounded young protégé out of her misery, he reveals the meaning of his pet nickname for her: Mo Cuishle.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:48:00 PM
45. Truly Madly Deeply (1991)
The one thing more painful than losing the love of your life? Winning him back — only to have to give him up again. Or so it goes for Nina (Juliet Stevenson, perhaps the most convincing on-screen crier we've ever seen) in Anthony Minghella's tender debut feature about a woman broken until the ghost of her late boyfriend Jamie (Alan Rickman) shows up one night to join her in playing Bach's Sonata No. 3. ''Thank you for missing me,'' he says.
KLEENEX MOMENT Letting go and moving on: After realizing he's forcing Nina to live in the past, Jamie waves, teary-eyed, from her living room window as she and a potential new companion embrace.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:54:00 PM
44. Dead Poets Society (1989)
Unorthodox English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) whispers ''carpe diem'' to his young charges, and the wide-eyed, parent-whipped boys at the staid Welton Academy come alive with free thought and a disregard for authority at the dawn of the '60s. Learning poetry has never been as fun or kinetic as in Peter Weir's spirited addition to the teacher-that-changed-my-life genre. But every revolution has its casualties, and watching the boys surrender to the system — one, wearing a crown of thorns(!), sacrifices everything — turns emotionally defeating for everyone.
KLEENEX MOMENT As Keating leaves his classroom for the last time, tongue-tied Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) finally expresses himself. Distraught for betraying his mentor, he stands atop his desk and emotionally beckons to his fallen leader, ''O Captain! My Captain!''
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:54:00 PM
43. Sounder (1972)
He ain't nuthin' but a hound dog, and you'll be cryin' all the time. That's because the poor pooch's owners are Depression-era Louisiana sharecroppers who must endure backbreaking work to maintain a hand-to-mouth existence. After Nathan Lee Morgan (Paul Winfield) steals to feed his brood, he's sentenced to hard labor at a prison camp. The movie's real emotional journey begins when son David (Kevin Hooks, who later directed an equally affecting TV remake) sets out with his canine companion to find his father.
KLEENEX MOMENT As Sounder chases the wagon that's taking Nathan away, the deputy shoots our four-legged friend, who disappears into the woods to lick his wounds. Really, there are few sadder sights than a limping dog.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:54:00 PM
42. Now, Voyager (1942)
Frail, frumpy spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) cracks up, goes to a sanatorium, and then blossoms from ugly duckling to empowered swan after meeting an unhappily married dreamboat (Paul Henreid, who makes lighting cigarettes for two tres suave). The allure of this Freudian fairy tale deepens when Charlotte takes a maternal interest in Henreid's emotionally disturbed young daughter. Their mutual recovery, full of tears and pain, is like a warm comforter on the soul.
KLEENEX MOMENT After they declare their love for each other, Davis implores Henreid, ''Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.'' It's weepie heaven
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:54:00 PM
41. Little Women (1933/1994)
Katharine Hepburn might be the definitive big-screen heroine of Louisa May Alcott's novel about the four March girls, but director Gillian Armstrong's later take has more appeal to modern tastes. The '33 is an old-fashioned weeper, just saved from treacliness by Kate's tour-de-force performance. Winona Ryder's Jo, on the other hand, lives in a more complicated world in which her dueling desires — to grow up and yet to never have things change — provide a more satisfying emotional journey.
KLEENEX MOMENT In both films, when a lonely Jo slips her hand into Professor Bhaer's ''empty'' one to accept his proposal? It gets you.
Friday, August 10, 2007 11:56:00 PM
40. Umberto D. (1952)
These are just some of the calamities that beset elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari (played by nonactor Carlo Battisti) as he navigates postwar Rome's mean streets: He's behind on the rent and is threatened with eviction. His adorable little dog, Flike, gets lost (don't worry, he's found). In desperation, he swallows his pride and begs. And when he thinks he can't feed Flike, Umberto tries to give him away but can't because he loves him too much. So when don't your eyes tear up?
KLEENEX MOMENT It involves Umberto, Flike, and an oncoming train. Be very brave and don't press that stop button.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:02:00 AM
39. The Champ (1979)
Mothers of America, we beseech you: Don't make the same mistake that one of your kind has and rent this for your children. Franco Zeffirelli's family-oriented remake (of the equally emotional King Vidor classic) about an ex-boxer and his boy may feature a cute kid and lots of sports and sun-splashed trips to the beach. But it's a real killer. Do you really want your brood to be crying for a whole sleepless week?
KLEENEX MOMENT Check out the closing scene, such an emotional KO that on their DVD commentary, Jon Voight and a now-grown-up Ricky Schroder still sniffle as they watch themselves, respectively, head to the boxing ring in the sky and shriek up a storm (''Champ! Wake up! Gotta go home, champ!'').
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:03:00 AM
38. The Iron Giant (1999)
It's a kids' movie, to be sure, about a fatherless boy who befriends an amnesiac robot from outer space. But director Brad Bird — in the best Warner Bros. cartoon tradition of playing to both children and their parents — reinforced the smart, sweet camaraderie with themes of isolation, paranoia, and destiny.
KLEENEX MOMENT After the Iron Giant reverts to his original programming — see, he was designed to be a world-conquering weapon — the army retaliates with a nuclear missile. In a moment of pure, triumphant sacrifice, the big guy discards his directives and meets the nuke head-on.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:03:00 AM
37. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
You may think it's about representing the Lollipop Guild and skipping down the Yellow Brick Road. But you haven't got a heart if you say director Victor Fleming's piece of cinematic Rushmore is nothing but candy and smiles. Indeed, for all its joy and song, the story of a meek Kansas girl (Judy Garland) on a quest through dreamland contains perhaps the single most tear-jerking line around: ''There's no place like home.'' On hearing that, only a wicked witch would fail to get weak in the lacrimal glands.
KLEENEX MOMENT Watching Dorothy pay a heartfelt farewell to her friends — especially Ray Bolger's Scarecrow, the one she'll miss most of all — leaves us blubbering like the Cowardly Lion.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:03:00 AM
36. Jerry Maguire (1996)
Who knew a comedy about a sports agent could be so moving? Cuba Gooding Jr. may have won the Oscar for his showy role as NFL hotshot Rod Tidwell, but the heart of director Cameron Crowe's endlessly quotable film is the deeply affecting romance between Tom Cruise's titular 10-percenter and single mom Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger). Using his sweet-talking powers for good instead of evil, the superagent discovers he has a soul — and pours it out to his mate.
KLEENEX MOMENT Jerry's instant-classic climactic speech, delivered to estranged love Dorothy in front of a divorced women's support group, includes not one, but two guaranteed-to-moisten-faces catchphrases: ''You complete me'' and ''You had me at hello.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:03:00 AM
35. Philadelphia (1993)
It's rare that a movie with all-male headliners is a weeper. But when there's a fatal illness involved, the crying's anyone's game. Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, an attorney wrongfully canned by his firm for having AIDS, and Denzel Washington is the attorney who fights for his rights. Hanks' Oscar-winning portrayal of a dying man is second to none; overacting would have killed the otherwise thin role, but his quiet, heroic demeanor is perfect.
KLEENEX MOMENT During Beckett's wake, Neil Young's mournful title track echoes in the background to home movies of the deceased as a little boy, walking with his mom on the beach and making funny faces.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:04:00 AM
34. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
It's amazing to think that a movie that includes some of the best war sequences ever put on film is also a terrific tearjerker. But it's true! Because for all that they go through, for all that they've suffered and lost, all you really want to see in the end is Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) going home to his wife, and Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon) hugging his mama.
KLEENEX MOMENT Steven Spielberg's coda may be a tad heavy-handed, but it's damn effective all the same: Merely thinking about the aged Ryan standing with his family over the grave of the man who saved him brings forth a grenade-sized lump in the throat.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:05:00 AM
33. Imitation of Life (1959)
Lana Turner, coiffed to the nines, plays an ambitious stage star who neglects her love-starved daughter (Sandra Dee) on the way to fame and fortune. But Lana's and Sandra's considerable emoting is not what gets the ducts flowing. It's the parallel story of Turner's black maid (Juanita Moore) and her troubled, light-skinned daughter (Susan Kohner) who tries to pass for white. Their scenes together often have such a poignant intensity that it's impossible not to be moved.
KLEENEX MOMENT In a Hollywood motel room, Kohner tearfully allows her estranged mother to hold her just ''once more.'' Devastating.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:05:00 AM
32. West Side Story (1961)
Romeo and Juliet take to the streets in Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise's song-and-dance ode to doomed urban love, which won 10 Oscars (including Best Picture). Natalie Wood stars as the glorious Maria, who has the misfortune to fall for Tony (Richard Beymer), a guy from the wrong side of the turf — and a member of the wrong gang. Who knew punks could look so tough while singing Stephen Sondheim lyrics?
KLEENEX MOMENT The end. The very, very end, when Maria is kneeling beside Tony, singing, from ''Somewhere'': ''Hold my hand and I'll take you there.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:05:00 AM
31. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
When Franco Zeffirelli cast two unknowns as the most famous lovers of all time, plenty in the movie industry thought the director had lost his mind. Wrong. Whether locking eyes for the first time, or bidding each other adieu after their wedding night, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey embody Romeo and Juliet completely, with just the impetuous adolescent passion and giddy innocence that make Shakespeare's play the romantic tragedy.
KLEENEX MOMENT Believing his beloved dead, a weeping Romeo gazes upon her and wonders, ''Why art thou yet so fair?'' before poisoning himself. When Juliet awakens moments later only to join him in suicide, her ''happy dagger'' plunges through our own hearts, too.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:05:00 AM
30. Cocoon (1985)
Old people too often serve one of two functions in popular entertainment: They make us laugh with their disconcertingly salty tongues, or they make us cry with their mystified bouts with mortality. Ron Howard's sci-fi fantasy at least allows them to do both, as the cast of vintage stars literally dives into a fountain of youth near their Florida retirement community, only to find that its healing powers come via unhatched alien pods. Don Ameche won an Oscar for his portrayal of the group's bachelor; because this was an '80s movie, he scored a solo break-dancing scene when the rejuvenated seniors hit a local club.
KLEENEX MOMENT After his ailing wife dies, stubborn coot Bernie Lefkowitz (Jack Gilford) drags her limp body to the pool for a futile attempt at bringing her back to life.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:06:00 AM
29. The Way We Were (1973)
Sydney Pollack's sappy Oscar winner may seem dated, but it still offers a shot of bittersweet reality to any ugly duckling with eyes for the captain of the football team. The WWII-era drama explores the on-again, off-again romance of a Jewish peace activist (Barbra Streisand) and a WASPy writer (Robert Redford). But when her rebel attitude clashes one too many times with his career aspirations, they realize that a split is the only solution.
KLEENEX MOMENT As the melancholy title track plays, Babs and Bobby — now with his Barbie Doll wife — meet again at the Plaza Hotel. The former lovebirds exchange one final teary-eyed hug before Redford says, ''See ya, kid,'' and turns away forever.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:47:00 AM
28. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Told through the eyes of young tomboy Scout (the pitch-perfect Mary Badham), Robert Mulligan's take on Harper Lee's Depression South-set novel amounts to one of the best literary adaptations ever. And as lawyer Atticus Finch, defending a black man accused of rape, Oscar winner Gregory Peck embodies the all-time hero; recalling his noble courtroom exit made us even sadder when the actor passed away in 2003.
KLEENEX MOMENT When Scout meets Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). In a split second, the young girl matures a million years, realizing that her most feared bogeyman is not only human and good but also her guardian angel. So she goes and holds his hand.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:48:00 AM
27. The Deer Hunter (1978)
It isn't ultimately about Vietnam, though The Deer Hunter couldn't have been about any other war. The film's real theme is how the lives of a group of small-town friends are ripped apart after three of them ship out to a nightmare world, in the name of God and country. But for all the inarticulate longing of the vigilant Linda (Meryl Streep) and all the quiet pathos of double amputee Stevie (John Savage), the aching heart of the film is stoic Michael (De Niro), who journeys back to the burning hell of Saigon, in a heroic but futile attempt to save his best friend, Nick (Christopher Walken).
KLEENEX MOMENT The outcome of that final, fateful game of Russian roulette, when Michael cradles his dying friend's head, and the emotions that have been welling up throughout the film let loose in a banshee howl of grief.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:49:00 AM
26. The Great Santini (1979)
Without a real war to engage in, career military man Col. Bull Meechum (a charismatically taut Robert Duvall) channels his energy into mercilessly driving his reticent son Ben (Michael O'Keefe) to be tough enough to fight the next one. The ultimate Bad Dad film is all the more poignant because the barking, authoritarian Meechum clearly loves his four kids, he's just unable to relate to them as anything but cadets: His idea of a term of endearment is calling them "hogs."
KLEENEX MOMENT After Bull's death, Ben confesses to his mother that he used to pray for his dad's plane to crash: "I feel so terrible that he had to die for me to be free."
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:49:00 AM
25. GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939)
We know that the beloved Brit teacher Mr. Chips (Robert Donat) is a kind man by the way he comforts the boy on the train who, like him, is nervous about going off to boarding school for the first time. And because we know that Chips was a lonely man who always spent summer holidays by himself, we cheer when he finally finds love with Greer Garson's incandescent Katherine. And then comes the awful...
KLEENEX MOMENT when she dies in childbirth and Chips wanders off to the classroom. There he sits, dazed, while a choked-up student stumbles through the Latin lesson. That this scene is played with stiff-upper-lip restraint makes it all the more heartrending.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:49:00 AM
24. CHARLY (1968)
Based on Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon, Charly tells the simple story of Charlie Gordon (Cliff Robertson), a retarded man who can't even spell his own name. A radical new surgery turns him into a genius and enables him to win the heart of his lovely teacher, Alice (Claire Bloom). But their idyll is cut short when they discover the effects of the operation are only temporary — and that Charlie will return to his former state. Academy members couldn't keep dry eyes either: Robertson won the Best Actor Oscar.
KLEENEX MOMENT Alice begs Charlie to marry her, or to let her stay as long as he can bear it. Turns out, he can't bear it for one minute and, truthfully, neither can we.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:49:00 AM
23. THE JOY LUCK CLUB (1993)
The stories of four Chinese women and their difficult relationships with their daughters are explored in director Wayne Wang's relentlessly emotional adaptation of Amy Tan's novel. A chick flick through and through, the movie switches between the mothers' early lives in restrictive Chinese society — dealing with child marriage, domestic abuse, and infanticide — and the Asian-American daughters' present-day lives as they face loveless marriages, racist in-laws, and a major lack of connection with their moms.
KLEENEX MOMENT The trophy of tears goes to the deceased Suyuan (Kieu Chinh), as a flashback shows how she had to abandon her twin baby girls by the road while fleeing the invasion of Kweilin.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:50:00 AM
22. LONGTIME COMPANION (1990)
In 1981, an article in The New York Times identified the ''gay cancer'' that would ultimately ravage the homosexual population. That item's appearance opens Companion (the title refers to the newspaper-obituary euphemism for gay partners), a film that deftly injects the disease-of-the-week formula with a political agenda, providing its audience with the human face of AIDS. In a series of vignettes that take place over a decade, those faces, an appealing group of loosely connected Manhattanites of varying ages and socioeconomic and romantic status (some of whom get sick, some who don't), eloquently represent an era filled with fear and loss.
KLEENEX MOMENT ''Let go,'' Davison repeats, reassuring his lover as he gives in, turning the lonely process of dying into a beautiful collaboration.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:50:00 AM
21. STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989)
Dying and death have been done (see half our list). But Sally Field took grieving to a new level in Herbert Ross' Southern drama about a group of tenacious gal pals who gossip and grapple with love, loss, and beauty-shop appointments. She plays a feisty mother struggling to protect her diabetic daughter (Julia Roberts) as she starts a family, suffers kidney failure, and slips into a coma. Rumor has it there are male characters in the film, but it's the women who carry all the weight.
KLEENEX MOMENT Surrounded by friends at her daughter's grave, Field rages from hysterical anger to glacial calm. The tears don't stop until the audacious moment when Olympia Dukakis offers Shirley MacLaine to her as a punching bag.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:50:00 AM
20. STELLA DALLAS (1937)
There are many movies about parental love, but few can match this one's fierce sentiment. Gauche Stella Dallas (Barbara Stanwyck) is an embarrassment to the stiff, well-bred husband she snagged. Her one triumph in life is their nicely turned-out daughter, Laurel (Anne Shirley), who reciprocates her mother's love. The two actresses are so good and their bond so touching that Stella's sacrifice — pushing Laurel away to live with her father and his upper-crust new bride so that she'll have opportunities Stella can't provide — is absolutely devastating.
KLEENEX MOMENT Stella, outside in the rain, watching Laurel's marriage with an expression of utter adoration. Her triumphant walk away afterward hits you even harder.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:51:00 AM
19. ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)
Timothy Hutton won an Oscar for his film debut as a suicidal high schooler haunted by his older brother's accidental drowning. But the movie's true gut punch comes from the counterintuitive casting of sunshiny Mary Tyler Moore as the appearance-obsessed, feeling-phobic matriarch who can't tolerate the disintegration of her family after her favorite son's death: Here, she can turn the world off with denial.
KLEENEX MOMENT Hutton's agonized therapy session with Judd Hirsch over his guilt for surviving the sailing accident (Hirsch: ''What was the one thing wrong you did?'' Hutton: ''I hung on'').
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:51:00 AM
18. LOVE STORY (1970)
Erich Segal's melodrama reveals the story of two lovers — a rich Harvard jock (Ryan O'Neal) and a middle-class Radcliffe music geek (Ali MacGraw) — whose lives are sewn together against all odds, and then ripped apart by cancer, all by the ripe old age of 24. But the true soul of the movie — and the tagline — is revealed near the end when a lovelorn O'Neal, whose soul mate has just died in his arms, says to his apologetic, overbearing father, ''Love means never having to say you're sorry.'' In 1970, this killed. And if you give in to the kitsch, it still works.
KLEENEX MOMENT After realizing she has the terminal disease, the raven-haired beauty says to her husband, ''I just want you...and I want time, which you can't give me.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:51:00 AM
17. GLORY (1989)
The story of the Civil War's first African-American regiment, the 54th Massachusetts volunteers, is more than a moving history lesson. It's a reminder that some things are worth dying for. Led by a Boston abolitionist (Matthew Broderick), the troops are made up of free men and escaped slaves — individuals for whom the word liberty is no abstraction — who train and fight bravely only to become cannon fodder in an effort to prove their worth.
KLEENEX MOMENT As soon as we hear the Boys Choir of Harlem start up over a military tattoo, the floodgates open, but when a white soldier starts a cry of ''Give 'em hell, 54!'' as the regiment marches toward the inevitable bloodbath, we move on to sobs.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 8:52:00 AM
16. TITANIC (1997)
It's easy to dismiss James Cameron's Oscar-hogging tragedy as a one-trick pony, the sort of bombastic love story that made a gazillion dollars precisely because it hewed so closely to the Gone With the Wind formula. But because it did just that, the timeless love story at its core (good-but-rebellious rich girl meets scruffy-but-lovable poor boy) plays out so uncynically that it's hard not to blubber when, following the ship's awesome collapse and nearly three hours of adventure, betrayal, and window-fogging passion, we finally reach the...
KLEENEX MOMENT Slowly freezing to death, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) professes his love to Rose (Kate Winslet). She lets go of his hand, and he slips into the dark, unyielding sea.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:44:00 PM
15. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1998)
The uniqueness of writer-director-star Roberto Benigni's Italian Oscar winner lies in the theory that by using comedy to enhance the highs, the low points emerge as that much more devastating. (Jury's out on whether turning genocide into a fable is creative genius or cheap manipulation.) Benigni plays a father who shields his son from the horrors of a concentration camp by pretending it's all a very elaborate game.
KLEENEX MOMENT Benigni convinces his boy to hide in a metal cabinet until no one is in sight, then, as he is marched past the cabinet at gunpoint, he plays soldier to avoid alarming his son. Nothing prepares us for the gunshots that follow.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:45:00 PM
14. KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979)
It defined ''yuppie angst'' before the term was even invented. After wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) abandons her family to ''find herself'' (give her a break — it was 1979), Manhattan ad man Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) raises their young son (Justin Henry). The emotional struggle that occurs when Joanna decides she wants her boy back packs a more potent punch since the subtle performances avoid the obvious hero/villain stereotypes.
KLEENEX MOMENT At the custody hearing, Ted pleads with his ex-wife not to take their son: ''We built a life together.... If you destroy that, it may be irreparable. Joanna, don't do that, please.'' Sniff.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:45:00 PM
13. BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)
What could be more of a heartstring-tugger than a love that can never be? That's the case in David Lean's tale of two marrieds who randomly meet in the café of a train station and, due to an irresistible attraction, embark on a passionate affair, meeting once a week for over a month. The story is narrated in retrospect by a sentimental Laura (Celia Johnson) as she sits by the fire with her husband and imagines confessing all — once she and Alec (Trevor Howard) have said their final goodbyes.
KLEENEX MOMENT In their final days together, Alec knows Laura is slipping away. ''I shall love you always,'' he promises, ''until the end of my life.'' And we boohoo through every last word, knowing they are, indeed, among the last between them.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:46:00 PM
12. OLD YELLER (1957)
When the stray mutt they name Yeller shows up on a dirt-poor family farm, he quickly becomes a loyal companion and gallant protector. While bonding with young Travis (Tommy Kirk), Yeller saves various family members from various dangerous critters, repeatedly displaying the heroism that will be his heartbreaking downfall.
KLEENEX MOMENT Having rescued the family from a rabid wolf, Yeller becomes infected, and the boy who loves him best must put him out of his misery. What gets you most isn't when Travis pulls the trigger, but just before that, when he realizes he has to.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:46:00 PM
11. THE NOTEBOOK (2004)
Why has this unassuming romance — about a young Southern girl (Rachel MacAdams) and a young Southern boy (Ryan Gosling) who struggle to be together while society strives to keep them apart — become such a perennial hit in the few years since its release? Simple: its firm statement that love truly never dies.
KLEENEX MOMENT Forget about choking up at all the kids' stuff — the real tears flow when elderly Allie (Gena Rowlands) realizes that the story her old friend Duke (James Garner) has been telling her...is about them.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:47:00 PM
10. FIELD OF DREAMS (1987)
You want to know the honest truth? Guys are the bigger babies. Get them rattling on about old baseball players, mystical reclusive authors, or having a catch with Dad and — as a species — men are reduced to pathetic, whimpering heaps. And Field of Dreams? Well, Phil Alden Robinson's movie, about a fella named Ray (Kevin Costner) who carves a magical baseball diamond out of his cornfield, meets his childhood heroes, and is offered a reunion with his pop, hits the absolute trifecta of guy gloppiness.
KLEENEX MOMENT Easy. At the very end when Ray's dad comes out of the cornfield and they have a game of catch. It's...uh...you know...just give us a second here...
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:48:00 PM
9. GHOST (1990)
Who could forget that titillating pottery scene set to the Righteous Brothers' ''Unchained Melody,'' or Whoopi Goldberg's Oscar-winning performance as a medium who finally meets a spirit she can talk to? The fun ends, however, when the movie tackles one of our biggest fears: losing a loved one in a senseless act of violence. Every mournful scene — Demi Moore holding a dying Patrick Swayze in her arms, Swayze seeing Moore vulnerable to the man responsible for his death — is made all the more wrenching with the aid of Maurice Jarre's touching score.
KLEENEX MOMENT As Swayze is about to be taken to the next world, he and Moore exchange a bittersweet kiss and the killer line: ''See ya.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:48:00 PM
8. E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
In many ways, the extra-terrestrial in E.T. was just like all the other aliens who had appeared on screen before him. He was curious-looking, superintelligent, and possessed wacky magical powers. But in him, we also saw ourselves. After all, he was doing what all growing boys are supposed to do — scarfing down candy, swiping beer from the fridge, and being chased by the Man during kick-ass bike rides. It was this relatable human element that made it so unbearable when Steven Spielberg actually had the nerve to go and KILL HIM!!!
KLEENEX MOMENT Sure, the little guy comes back from the dead and finds his way home, but still, watching him flatline is one serious ouuuuuuuuuuch.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:48:00 PM
7. BRIAN'S SONG (1971)
Yes, it was made for TV. But, really, there's no way to omit Buzz Kulik's ultimate straight-male love story, the Emmy-winning true-life drama of Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). Mirroring the less refined and even-more-dated Bang the Drum Slowly, this brief tale of two utter opposites whose on-field bond is only strengthened when one develops cancer has always been the tough guy's best excuse to get misty — and to say ''I love you.''
KLEENEX MOMENT Sayers accepts a courage award by dedicating it to his stricken friend: ''I love Brian Piccolo. And I'd like all of you to love him, too. And tonight when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.'' Touchdown.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:48:00 PM
6. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)
Ang Lee's awe-inspiring Western masterpiece follows Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a tight-mouthed tough guy who falls in love with his fellow cowpoke Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) but is unable — or, rather, unwilling — to take the relationship past the occasional tryst. Two years since its release, there's no denying that the whole hoopla over Brokeback and its frank sexuality overshadowed a poignant part of its narrative being: proof that cowboys most certainly do cry.
KLEENEX MOMENT His lifelong love dead, crestfallen Ennis clings for dear life to Jack's tattered old shirt.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:48:00 PM
5. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
The misty awwws for Frank Capra's crisp holiday classic start as soon as the film opens with prayers for George Bailey (James Stewart). Bewildered angel-in-training Clarence will get his wings if he can save a distraught salt-of-the-earth Everyman faced with losing his good name, his family, and everything for which he's sacrificed his own dreams. Clarence shows Bailey how different tiny Bedford Falls — and the lives of its citizens — would be without him, and when Bailey joyously returns home, embraces his family, and witnesses the love of his friends, tears start to swell in all of us on the other side of the screen.
KLEENEX MOMENT One by one, the townsfolk chip in to help pay Bailey's bank debt. Then, war-hero brother Harry gives the emotional summation: ''To my big brother George, the richest man in town.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:49:00 PM
4. AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957)
Mention the top of the Empire State Building and women everywhere swoon. After all, ''it's the nearest thing to heaven.'' Romantics know it's the meeting place for Nicky (Cary Grant) and Terry (Deborah Kerr) six months after they fall madly in love while sailing back from Europe. The catch? She's hit by a car on her way to meet him. There he stands for hours, never noticing the sirens on the street below. Terry may never walk again but she insists Nicky never know until she can stand to greet him.
KLEENEX MOMENT Nicky confronts his beloved but she still refuses to share her secret. He paces and accuses, all while she remains supine on the sofa. It is only as he prepares to leave her forever that he finally grasps the truth.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:49:00 PM
3. SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982)
Almost from the instant you meet Sophie (Meryl Streep, who earned, along with an Oscar, her Queen of the Accents crown here, with mastery of three different dialects), you understand that she's a damaged, haunted heroine who's not likely to live happily ever after. But the real poignance lies in Sophie's tremulously maintained illusion of hope. Hers is a brave but fragile front that conceals the depth of her guilt and sorrow as a Holocaust survivor. You don't cry for Sophie because she dies so young, but because she has suffered so long.
KLEENEX MOMENT In flashback, Sophie relives the dark night that a Nazi officer forced her to choose: Which of her two young children would she get to save, and which would be sent to a death camp?
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:50:00 PM
2. BAMBI (1942)
From the stillness of a doe and her newborn fawn to the fade-out, in which he watches over his own newborn offspring, Bambi enchantingly touches on all the important stages in the cycle of life. Most of what The Lion King got right, it got from Bambi. But few films can match this movie's visual beauty, or its depth of emotion.
KLEENEX MOMENT That day when ''Man'' enters the forest, wild things flee, a shot rings out — and Bambi learns he'll never see his mother again. You witness this scene as a child and it stays with you forever.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:50:00 PM
1. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)
Blame it all on Huckleberry Fox. The towheaded tyke was only 8 years old when Terms of Endearment was filmed, but Fox, who played Debra Winger's younger son, Teddy, in the cancer-in-the-heartland comedy-drama, delivered perhaps the most sob-worthy performance in screen history. Of course, Fox was surrounded by a perfectly schmaltz-free cast — including Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, whose riotous December-December romance earned them both Academy Awards. And he was beautifully guided by that master of unforced emotion, James L. Brooks, who won three Oscars for the film (for adapting Larry McMurtry's novel, directing, and producing). Still, no performer, prepubescent or otherwise, has ever had such power over our tear ducts as Fox. One third of the way into the movie, when Mom comes up a few dollars short on the supermarket checkout line, young Huckleberry brings on the throat lumps by relinquishing his prized Clark bar, saying, ''I don't need it.''
Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:50:00 PM
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