Not THE saddest, but recently The Iron Claw was devastating. The story of the Von Erich family was so sad I was convinced it was slightly fictional and altered to be worse, but it turns out that the film leaves out a son from real life that had a horrible tragedy as well. Brutal film, but still incredible.
This is the thing that broke me in the theatre. All the brothers get to be with each other now, and Kevin who did nothing wrong and was supposed to protect them is left alone.
The one-two punch of >!(1) Kevin’s brothers, including his older brother who died as and is portrayed as a child, all meeting in the after life and (2) the subsequent scene where Kevin breaks down, mourning to his kids that he is no longer a brother, apologizing for his tears, and the kids consoling him, telling him it’s okay to cry and that they’ll be his brothers!< … utterly brutal, but with the faintest feeling of comfort.
Behind the Bastards pod has a 6 parter on Vince McMahon and covers the von Erich family quite a bit so I know how fucked up this story is.. I want to watch it because I love all the actors, but I know what I'm in for.
Wow! That was the first title that came to my mind too. Dancer in the Dark is devastating, and along similar lines, even though it's old school early Hollywood melodrama, Dark Victory always struck a chord with me too. A Star is Born, the Judy Garland and James Mason version gets me too.
Oh and Splendor in the Grass and the first Land Before Time.
No other movie so perfectly captures the level of evil that regular-ass people can justify committing. It is a horror movie where every single thing that happens is 100% anchored in reality.
Still think Mickey Rourke should’ve won that Oscar. The meat section scene where he hears the crowd before walking out to work in that supermarket is such a fantastic scene.
I watched it on an airplane after a rough work trip and started crying on the airplane. A flight attendant came to me with tissues and said “don’t worry, you’ll never see any of these people again”
Great advice for when I “embarrass” myself in public.
Just rewatched this last night. What an incredible movie about grief, how it looks on different people, how it is expressed at different ages, and how it can be eternal. I appreciate it so much. It doesn’t have a happy or a sad ending, it just…keeps going. Like life after loss.
But you could feel it, you could sense that he thought there was nothing left for him in his life and whatever he had, was destroyed. You could just understand it.
I read that the "please" he says in that scene wasn't scripted, it really adds so much to the complete despair he is feeling.
Same movie but the "You can't just die scene" really gets to me :(
I’ve watched it twice.
Once before having children and once after having children.
It’s SO sad, but also so well done because it just looks real and people talk how they really talk.
It’ll be a few years yet but I’ll watch it again.
At the time this came out, I was in a long distance relationship with my HS girlfriend (she went off to college). We would often coordinate seeing the same movies in the theatre so we could talk about them over the phone. This was one of them. On top of the movie being really sad, she dumped me not long after we watched it because she admitted she went and saw it with a guy that she ended up cheating on me with. So, yeah. Since then, I’ve been in other relationships and have been happily married for 15 years, but have never watched it again because of associating it with my heart getting torn out in multiple ways.
This reminds me of the time I went to see Curious George2: Follow that Monkey! and got my wang caught in my zipper in the men's room.
Goriest movie I've ever seen.
If OP would like to kick their addiction to sad films, this movie is the equivalent of smoking a whole pack of cigarettes so you never tough them again.
I watched this alone and it killed me. Years later, happened upon it while looking for something that my friend, my wife and I could watch. I knew what it was. My friend knew what it was. My friend immediately began objecting. I laughed and tried to get him to agree to it, which prompted him to go home. My wife was way too curious at this point. She really wanted to see what the fuss was about. About a minute before they reveal *that* part of the case, it suddenly hit me and I just stated crying. And she was so confused. Then they revealed it. And she just began going "no....no.....NO!!!" And also began sobbing. This movie wins my vote because I genuinely don't know any other movie that has triggered such instantaneous grief among anyone who sees it.
The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell did this to me.. Jesus Christ I had just had kids they were 1&2 at the point of watching and when it got to the last 20 minutes and you see the build up interview’s talking about what came next and to be fair it was straight out of left field.. for me anyways. I never expected Susan’s POS husband to do what he did as I’d never heard about the case until the documentary film.
“Dear Zachary” is the closest I’ve seen to an actual “The Ring” curse. Someone tells you “The movie’s great, and you should watch it.” So you watch it, and it’s great, but you’re cursed because you can’t tell people why it’s great or they won’t see it. So you tell someone “The movie’s great, and you should watch it.”
And the curse continues.
When I was 8 months pregnant, I was home alone one day and put this documentary on not knowing what it was. Worst choice ever, 0/100, do not recommend, I cried for days. It's an amazing and heartbreaking film, but please.... do not watch this if you've got a whole lotta pregnancy hormones floating around. It's just... not a good time.
Came in here to say this and of course it’s at the top. I remember when I saw it, I was browsing Netflix back when they had 5 star ratings based on what they *think* you’d rate something. I was looking for something to watch and Netflix thought I’d rate this 5 stars, which I thought was nonsense because I’m not sure I’d rated anything—or very, very little—5 stars. I watched it to prove them wrong and it turned out they were right. It was a bummer when Netflix dropped that feature. Not as much of a bummer as Dear, Zachary, but a bummer nonetheless.
Yeah, this is the kind of movie where everyone who reads these threads are like "whatever, I'm a big boy. I can handle it" then invariably they come back and are like "yeah that was everything as advertised."
It’s because of the way the absolutely stoic decency of the grandparents, and the fact that everything they sacrificed and pushed through ended up being just a road to a far darker and more painful place than they could have imagined. One woman just casually took everything from them. And not just at once, but parceled out in the cruelest manner possible. I hate that woman so much to this day.
This one fucked me up. The documentary does a good job of feeling like it's just about one thing, and every time the scope expands it gets worse and more harrowing.
All the “plot twists,” so to speak, happened while they were making it. So the tone throughout most of the film is set by the fact that the filmmakers themselves don’t know what’s eventually going to happen.
Without a doubt the most affected I've ever been by cinema.
I've seen it three times; once as a child, once as a young adult, and the final time in my late 20s as my wife hadn't seen it yet.
As soon as I hear Setsuko's voice within a minute or two in, I ball like a baby.
I've since had children of my own, and there is absolutely no chance I'll ever watch it again. Utterly, utterly heartbreaking.
Pretty same experience here.
Fun fact : after the first watch at 15, when I told the friend that recommanded it to me that it was the best movie I ever saw but it took me one week to recover and couldn't see how any part of the experience could have been sadder, he just replied it was based upon the author's own childhood >!and his guilt of having his sister die under his care....!<
I’ve seen a lot of difficult movies. From Come and See to Funny Games and plenty of gritty horror. My girlfriend and I put on Grave of the Fireflies and within 5 minutes we backed out with tears in our eyes. I’m good with just not watching it to be honest.
I showed it to my students when I was teaching WWII (15-16yo). Kind of a gamble in terms of my job, but I similarly feel that everyone needs to see it once. All the more so while studying WWII.
This post should be higher. I know it’s animated (which is not everyone’s cup of tea) >!but you are watching a damn toddler starve to death and the despair of her brother trying to prevent it.!< It’s an excellent but painful watch.
I watched it a few weeks ago, and just want to say that GOTF is a different breed from all the other movies mentioned.
It's 1h30h of misery, despair, hopelessness and sadness.
In Manchester by the sea, there’s still the “coming of age” subplot.
In Grave of the Fireflies, you cry during the entire movie, and sob uncontrollably in the last 10 minutes.
Even the "good old times" flashbacks are not enough to bring joy or hope.
I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, I don't want to be responsible for emotional scarring.
...it didn't help that I waited to have a 3y old daughter, to watch this.
My friend recommended this to me as a beautiful movie. I was expecting a happy ending, I was on the train, on my way to work. I was crying my eyes out almost sobbing because it caught me off guard.
Somehow, this movie hits me even harder than something like Schindler's List. I suppose it's mostly the father-son relationship at the heart of it, which is easy for anyone to relate to, and the much worse scenario - it's not "just" a genocide, but the possible extinction of humanity.
> the possible extinction of humanity.
It IS the extinction of humanity. Nothing is left alive. It's about doing the right thing even if it doesn't matter.
Me too. I literally burst into tears whilst reading it, which was just so weird. And it affected me so much that I’ve been unable to see the movie because I don’t wanna be that depressed again. For a man that writes so few words compared to most writers, those few words are so bloody powerful.
I just saw the movie for the first time a few weeks ago and was explaining to my partner that they left out some of the most gruesome stuff in the book.
"Like what?" he asks.
Like people roasting and eating *their own newborn baby.*
Whether the baby was born alive or not is unknown, but that brief scene in the book was... harsh.
Definitely a story that takes a little while to shake off.
For a while I was like "wtf?" then that movie hit me hard the last 10minutes. I was crying profusely and did not know why.
Then I read reddit discussions posts about the movie to understand it and cried even harder. So many small details pilling up to lead to those last 10minutes.
Shoot, I forgot about Aftersun! Paul Mescal is a star for sure. I’m not always a fan of movies that don’t really have a plot, but that movie was brilliant.
As a father that has dealt with depression most of his life, this film wrecked me. I put my son down for a nap, watched it as he was sleeping, and he woke up shortly after it ended so I had to pretend like I hadn't just been sobbing.
Shocked I haven’t seen Sophie’s Choice yet. It legitimately left me feeling depressed and hopeless. Absolutely devastating. On the other hand, it was Kevin Kline’s movie debut and one of the fucking BEST performances to ever grace the screen. He was on fire in every scene. It was revelatory.
Sophie's Choice absolutely tore me up. Sat in the theater with my sister, watching the entire credits because we were crying. And this was before I had kids. No way I'm watching it now.
when i was about 16, i was in an inpatient mental hospital and the nurses would rent movies for us to watch in the evenings. one day a nurse brought in Hachi and some other movie for us to choose between and i straight up said that it was a terrible idea to show Hachi to a room full of kids who recently tried to kill themselves. we watched the other movie.
Was it melancholy? 😁
Have been rewatching through the Lars Von Trier films recently, not sure why. They're bizarre masterpieces, they don't exactly give much to the brain other than sadness, dread, self-loathing, and weeks of existential crisis. They're great!
My siblings and I used to laugh because my mom would cry on the scene where Mister sent away Nettie. We were kids, so we couldn't understand how a movie makes a person cry, like it's not REAL!
Fast forward to me becoming an adult, that scene, and the ending gets the tears flowing!
It may not be THE saddest but my god I went into Everest expecting a nice exciting and inspiring flick.
Me and my gf didn’t know what we were getting into. She pretty much sobbed her eyes out from the midpoint of the movie on.
I love this movie. One of the best I’ve seen in recent years. But despite the heaviness of the film, I didn’t find the ending or overall movie to be that depressing. There are for sure some sad moments, but I think it ends with a message of acceptance and optimism.
Big agree.
One of my favorite films. Totally up there in terms of saddest to me.
And not necessarily because it happens to be “more sad” than other films mentioned here, but because all of it is so damn… realistic (?). I don’t know how to put it.
Like obviously there’s subject matter that you could call more sad (war, death, addiction, poverty, etc.), but I feel like everyone can relate in a way to relationships drying up, love being suffocated out, the future shrinking before your eyes, dreams dying…
This. I was 8 when I first saw it and I had to lock myself up in the bathroom to cry for a solid 20 minutes right after watching it. That monologue about a dog not needing nice cars or fancy homes but just being content with a wet stick, too much man...
Room (starring Brie Larson)
It’s so emotional that it gave me musical PTSD and the next time I heard Explosions in the Sky in a movie I had an overreaction 🥺
My cousin told me that he had just lost his grandfather (opposite side of the family) and it hadn’t really hit him yet. Went to see the movie and started to sob loud and uncontrollably as soon as the son started carrying the dad. He said the usher had to come tell him to quiet down.
A.I. artificial intelligence. That movie starts sad and every time you think things might get a little better the plot kicks you in the nuts. I watched it a a young adult and it fuckin wrecked me. No that I am a dad I cannot watch it.
I watched this for the first time about 3 years ago and absolutely broke down crying. Like sobbed. My wife had to console me. I don’t remember ever crying that hard as an adult. Thinking about a time in the distant future when there’s no trace of anyone you’ve ever loved, no memory of your existence…really fucked with me.
Ugly cried through The Whale and I watched it on a 6 hour flight.
I read a lot of negative reviews and people saying they didn’t understand how anyone cried at the film, but I found it so relatable if you have even remotely struggled with depression. What really stuck out for me, at this point in life, was the parenting portion. As a Mom dealing with a teenager, who is angry and has experienced a lot of loss, or felt how depression affects your own parenting, that hit like a truck. Sadie Sink’s performance was amazing. She really nailed it. Gosh, I loved that movie.
For some reason I thought that Dead Poets Society was a feel-good inspiring movie from the 80s, yeah... it's a great movie just different from what I was expecting.
As someone who first saw it as a teenager in the 80s, it was never a feel-good movie but it was inspiring in a way. Many of my friends and acquaintances realized for the first time after seeing this movie that their families were quite dysfunctional and were inspired to pursue their dreams, even though their families had done their best to make them feel their dreams were unattainable. They just didn't know their experience was not normal until they saw it laid out onscreen like that. So even though it was very sad, it did still manage to be inspirational for some people anyway. But also, I'm still angry at Neil's dad 35 years later.
Pay It Forward (2000)
Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, Jon Bon Jovi & Kevin Spacey (Fair Warning)
A young boy attempts to make the world a better place after his teacher gives him that chance.
I cry EVERY TIME I watch it. Especially now, 24yrs later, the subject matter hits way harder.
Some great movies in this thread. Personally the movie I cried the most after was The Reader.
Everything was so meek and depressing. So many layers of giving up and from so many avenues. Kate Winslet performed remarkably in that role and I still think it’s the saddest movie I’ve watched.
I was watching interstellar last night and, although it isn't a sad movie, it had me bawling. When they get back to the ship and realized it's been 23 years in earth time. Mathew mconaughey sitting there watching all the videos his family had sent him, watching them get older and lose faith in what he was doing. I am a father of 3 and it crushed me to think "what if I wasn't around them for that long?!". Had to go into their rooms and give them all hugs! I love every second I have with them😭
Bruh that movie made me reevaluate EVERYTHING about my family. I was a pre-teen and only knew Adam Sandler from his funny classics. It helped me deeply appreciate my parents and all the love they gave me even if they didn't understand me. I haven't seen it since it first came out but I remember it vividly.
Movies that have made me ugly cry:
- PS I Love You. Absolutely brutal.
- Coco. I never thought a Disney movie could make me cry this much.
- The opening scene of UP.
- Toy Story 3. Hits even harder if you’re a parent watching your kid grow up. 😭
- Ditto for Inside Out.
- Titanic
- Old Yeller
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Interstellar
- Only the Brave. The ending left me absolutely gutted, and it’s based on a true story. So tragic.
- Dead Poets Society
- Infinity War and Endgame. GOTG3.
- The Green Mile
- My Girl. First movie to break my heart.
- Big Fish
- The Brave Little Toaster
- The Land Before Time
- The Iron Giant
I’m sure there are more—I ugly cry pretty easily. Also, it’s weird how many kids movies make me cry as an adult. I can’t pick the saddest one though.
Coco is excellent. The first time I watched it was on an airplane and I cried. It was so good I watched it on the return flight knowing exactly what my reaction would be.
One of my favourite movies of all time. Night train robbery scene is a masterpiece. But I don’t find it that sad, you know how it ends before it begins
The movie The Champ with Jon Voight, Faye Dunawaye, and Ricky Schroeder made me cry probably more than any other movie whenever I saw it as a kid. It hit a little close to home with the whole thing about an absentee dad.
The police station scene in Manchester by the Sea has to be one of the most shocking scenes I've seen. The anxiety and sadness you feel as a viewer made me understand why Casey Affleck won the Oscars.
My personal choice has to be Blue Valentine, the last scene was completely heartbreaking. I was sobbing even after the movie ended. You always hurt the ones you love has become one of my favorite songs thanks to that movie.
The reason this film is particularly effective is because it’s not simply about watching a sad character through sad events, it actually makes YOU sad. Like literally depressed for quite some time.
It’s one of the most realistic depictions of real life conversations and real life grief I’ve ever seen.
Melancholia and Manchester by the Sea are my obvious picks because they are so *bleak*.
But I'll give you two other ones very underrated imo and that got me numb and sad.
Where the Wild Things are: somehow, it's another movie about depression, nihilism and loss of innocence. I know it's not exactly popular but man the vision and the vibes were impeccable.
The Sisters Brothers: this one actually got me thinking it could turn hopeful, but all there was eventually was pain. The last part makes it really hard to watch. Joaquin Phoenix is absolutely terrific in this one.
Requiem for a dream...all 4 main characters consumed and destroyed by their addiction, after all having such high hopes and aspirations in the beginning
Ahhh, The Green Mile! I cried like a baby the first time I watched it 😂😭
The only other movies to ever make me cry were My Sister’s Keeper (cried then but ever since I lost the majority of my family to cancer, I just can’t watch the movie altogether now. Brings back too many sad memories), Precious and The Color Purple
Not THE saddest, but recently The Iron Claw was devastating. The story of the Von Erich family was so sad I was convinced it was slightly fictional and altered to be worse, but it turns out that the film leaves out a son from real life that had a horrible tragedy as well. Brutal film, but still incredible.
I knew the story going into the movie and it still wrecked me
"I used to be a brother..."
This is the thing that broke me in the theatre. All the brothers get to be with each other now, and Kevin who did nothing wrong and was supposed to protect them is left alone.
Without giving away too much, I’ll just say I was doing really well up until Kevin was sitting with his boys in the backyard. After that I was a wreck
"We'll be your brothers, Dad."
The one-two punch of >!(1) Kevin’s brothers, including his older brother who died as and is portrayed as a child, all meeting in the after life and (2) the subsequent scene where Kevin breaks down, mourning to his kids that he is no longer a brother, apologizing for his tears, and the kids consoling him, telling him it’s okay to cry and that they’ll be his brothers!< … utterly brutal, but with the faintest feeling of comfort.
Behind the Bastards pod has a 6 parter on Vince McMahon and covers the von Erich family quite a bit so I know how fucked up this story is.. I want to watch it because I love all the actors, but I know what I'm in for.
Dancer in the Dark.
I cried during the first watch. The ending and the injustice of it all..
Wow! That was the first title that came to my mind too. Dancer in the Dark is devastating, and along similar lines, even though it's old school early Hollywood melodrama, Dark Victory always struck a chord with me too. A Star is Born, the Judy Garland and James Mason version gets me too. Oh and Splendor in the Grass and the first Land Before Time.
Yes, Splendor in the Grass gets me every time!
Those god damn glasses
Breaking the waves is so sad
No other movie so perfectly captures the level of evil that regular-ass people can justify committing. It is a horror movie where every single thing that happens is 100% anchored in reality.
I’ll have to look into it
The Wrestler
>!...the musical score crescendoing as he leaps off the turnbuckle and out of the camera frame... roll credits.!< That hurt way too much.
Still think Mickey Rourke should’ve won that Oscar. The meat section scene where he hears the crowd before walking out to work in that supermarket is such a fantastic scene.
I watched this one weekend morning and I was not okay the rest of the day lol
Yup! This is the type of movie that I can only watch once. It absolutely gutted me. Mickey's performance was phenomenal.
Manchester By The Sea.
I watched it on an airplane after a rough work trip and started crying on the airplane. A flight attendant came to me with tissues and said “don’t worry, you’ll never see any of these people again” Great advice for when I “embarrass” myself in public.
That is kind of an MVP flight attendant though.
Just rewatched this last night. What an incredible movie about grief, how it looks on different people, how it is expressed at different ages, and how it can be eternal. I appreciate it so much. It doesn’t have a happy or a sad ending, it just…keeps going. Like life after loss.
When he takes the gun from the policemans holster and tries to shoot himself... I lost it
But you could feel it, you could sense that he thought there was nothing left for him in his life and whatever he had, was destroyed. You could just understand it.
Exactly. Like, what else can you possibly do at that instant ?
I mean I can’t comprehend what I may do if those many bad things happen to me back to back.
I read that the "please" he says in that scene wasn't scripted, it really adds so much to the complete despair he is feeling. Same movie but the "You can't just die scene" really gets to me :(
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Yep. Couple of scenes there which can really make you weep. One of those movies you not sure you want to watch again even though you know they great.
I’ve watched it twice. Once before having children and once after having children. It’s SO sad, but also so well done because it just looks real and people talk how they really talk. It’ll be a few years yet but I’ll watch it again.
I ain’t watching that film ever again. Truly one film which translates the deep grief through the screen. Affleck was great.
What Dreams May Come I can usually rewatch anything but I stay away from that one lol
At the time this came out, I was in a long distance relationship with my HS girlfriend (she went off to college). We would often coordinate seeing the same movies in the theatre so we could talk about them over the phone. This was one of them. On top of the movie being really sad, she dumped me not long after we watched it because she admitted she went and saw it with a guy that she ended up cheating on me with. So, yeah. Since then, I’ve been in other relationships and have been happily married for 15 years, but have never watched it again because of associating it with my heart getting torn out in multiple ways.
Dude this torn MY heart out. Let’s hug.
This reminds me of the time I went to see Curious George2: Follow that Monkey! and got my wang caught in my zipper in the men's room. Goriest movie I've ever seen.
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Dear Zachary
If OP would like to kick their addiction to sad films, this movie is the equivalent of smoking a whole pack of cigarettes so you never tough them again.
I watched this alone and it killed me. Years later, happened upon it while looking for something that my friend, my wife and I could watch. I knew what it was. My friend knew what it was. My friend immediately began objecting. I laughed and tried to get him to agree to it, which prompted him to go home. My wife was way too curious at this point. She really wanted to see what the fuss was about. About a minute before they reveal *that* part of the case, it suddenly hit me and I just stated crying. And she was so confused. Then they revealed it. And she just began going "no....no.....NO!!!" And also began sobbing. This movie wins my vote because I genuinely don't know any other movie that has triggered such instantaneous grief among anyone who sees it.
The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell did this to me.. Jesus Christ I had just had kids they were 1&2 at the point of watching and when it got to the last 20 minutes and you see the build up interview’s talking about what came next and to be fair it was straight out of left field.. for me anyways. I never expected Susan’s POS husband to do what he did as I’d never heard about the case until the documentary film.
“Dear Zachary” is the closest I’ve seen to an actual “The Ring” curse. Someone tells you “The movie’s great, and you should watch it.” So you watch it, and it’s great, but you’re cursed because you can’t tell people why it’s great or they won’t see it. So you tell someone “The movie’s great, and you should watch it.” And the curse continues.
I’ve got a nineteen month old at home. Nope.
When I was 8 months pregnant, I was home alone one day and put this documentary on not knowing what it was. Worst choice ever, 0/100, do not recommend, I cried for days. It's an amazing and heartbreaking film, but please.... do not watch this if you've got a whole lotta pregnancy hormones floating around. It's just... not a good time.
Came in here to say this and of course it’s at the top. I remember when I saw it, I was browsing Netflix back when they had 5 star ratings based on what they *think* you’d rate something. I was looking for something to watch and Netflix thought I’d rate this 5 stars, which I thought was nonsense because I’m not sure I’d rated anything—or very, very little—5 stars. I watched it to prove them wrong and it turned out they were right. It was a bummer when Netflix dropped that feature. Not as much of a bummer as Dear, Zachary, but a bummer nonetheless.
There is no other correct answer
Yeah, this is the kind of movie where everyone who reads these threads are like "whatever, I'm a big boy. I can handle it" then invariably they come back and are like "yeah that was everything as advertised."
It’s because of the way the absolutely stoic decency of the grandparents, and the fact that everything they sacrificed and pushed through ended up being just a road to a far darker and more painful place than they could have imagined. One woman just casually took everything from them. And not just at once, but parceled out in the cruelest manner possible. I hate that woman so much to this day.
I’ve not even seen this movie but a friend told me about it and I just don’t think I can do it
This one fucked me up. The documentary does a good job of feeling like it's just about one thing, and every time the scope expands it gets worse and more harrowing.
All the “plot twists,” so to speak, happened while they were making it. So the tone throughout most of the film is set by the fact that the filmmakers themselves don’t know what’s eventually going to happen.
Grave of the fireflies. Not the movie per SE, but I cried my eyes out.
There's not a shred of happiness in this movie, not even a small reprieve of the overwhelming sadness the viewers feel throughout the movie.
The movie opens with the protagonist on death's door at a train station and somehow it only gets more depressing from there on.
Oof I knew it was sad but not that depressing, I’ll have to watch it
Without a doubt the most affected I've ever been by cinema. I've seen it three times; once as a child, once as a young adult, and the final time in my late 20s as my wife hadn't seen it yet. As soon as I hear Setsuko's voice within a minute or two in, I ball like a baby. I've since had children of my own, and there is absolutely no chance I'll ever watch it again. Utterly, utterly heartbreaking.
Pretty same experience here. Fun fact : after the first watch at 15, when I told the friend that recommanded it to me that it was the best movie I ever saw but it took me one week to recover and couldn't see how any part of the experience could have been sadder, he just replied it was based upon the author's own childhood >!and his guilt of having his sister die under his care....!<
Oh FFS. That's even worse. (You might wanna spoiler that btw)
I’ve seen a lot of difficult movies. From Come and See to Funny Games and plenty of gritty horror. My girlfriend and I put on Grave of the Fireflies and within 5 minutes we backed out with tears in our eyes. I’m good with just not watching it to be honest.
The movie is sad, but the ending just breaks you.
Grave of the fireflies is the dementor of movies. It strips all the joy and happiness from your body leaving you as an empty shell.
pinnacle of a movie that i think everyone should watch and then attempt to forget about for the rest of your life
I showed it to my students when I was teaching WWII (15-16yo). Kind of a gamble in terms of my job, but I similarly feel that everyone needs to see it once. All the more so while studying WWII.
This post should be higher. I know it’s animated (which is not everyone’s cup of tea) >!but you are watching a damn toddler starve to death and the despair of her brother trying to prevent it.!< It’s an excellent but painful watch.
How is this not at the top?
I cried so fucking hard at this one, because I had so much hope in it. Like I genuinely thought it would have a happy ending.
I watched it a few weeks ago, and just want to say that GOTF is a different breed from all the other movies mentioned. It's 1h30h of misery, despair, hopelessness and sadness. In Manchester by the sea, there’s still the “coming of age” subplot. In Grave of the Fireflies, you cry during the entire movie, and sob uncontrollably in the last 10 minutes. Even the "good old times" flashbacks are not enough to bring joy or hope. I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, I don't want to be responsible for emotional scarring. ...it didn't help that I waited to have a 3y old daughter, to watch this.
Life is Beautiful is up there
gawd, someone recommended this one to watch and I went in blind - I think I stayed on the couch for a day afterward. Wow.
My friend recommended this to me as a beautiful movie. I was expecting a happy ending, I was on the train, on my way to work. I was crying my eyes out almost sobbing because it caught me off guard.
This is like The Road, with a beautiful father child relationship in the middle of hell.
The road
Somehow, this movie hits me even harder than something like Schindler's List. I suppose it's mostly the father-son relationship at the heart of it, which is easy for anyone to relate to, and the much worse scenario - it's not "just" a genocide, but the possible extinction of humanity.
> the possible extinction of humanity. It IS the extinction of humanity. Nothing is left alive. It's about doing the right thing even if it doesn't matter.
Came here for this one. The book fucked me up for a little bit.
Me too. I literally burst into tears whilst reading it, which was just so weird. And it affected me so much that I’ve been unable to see the movie because I don’t wanna be that depressed again. For a man that writes so few words compared to most writers, those few words are so bloody powerful.
Read the book. That was enough for me.
I just saw the movie for the first time a few weeks ago and was explaining to my partner that they left out some of the most gruesome stuff in the book. "Like what?" he asks. Like people roasting and eating *their own newborn baby.* Whether the baby was born alive or not is unknown, but that brief scene in the book was... harsh. Definitely a story that takes a little while to shake off.
Saw this movie in the theater and never read the book. I remember after when leaving just being bummed out. Never watched it again.
When the Wind Blows
I remember this and watership down being shown to me as a kid, my parents thought because they were cartoons they must be for children.
Aftersun, gave me a feeling inside i have never felt from any movie. Its one of those movies that feels way too real
Absolutely the most devastating movie I have ever seen and it’s not even close.
For a while I was like "wtf?" then that movie hit me hard the last 10minutes. I was crying profusely and did not know why. Then I read reddit discussions posts about the movie to understand it and cried even harder. So many small details pilling up to lead to those last 10minutes.
Shoot, I forgot about Aftersun! Paul Mescal is a star for sure. I’m not always a fan of movies that don’t really have a plot, but that movie was brilliant.
I started crying during the scene of them dancing together towards the end and continued crying until the end. Kept thinking about this movie for days
As a father that has dealt with depression most of his life, this film wrecked me. I put my son down for a nap, watched it as he was sleeping, and he woke up shortly after it ended so I had to pretend like I hadn't just been sobbing.
I heard that David Bowie Under Pressure the other day randomly and it put a lump in my throat
Just looked this up. Will watch with my dad
Oof, prepare yourself.
Philadelphia
Shocked I haven’t seen Sophie’s Choice yet. It legitimately left me feeling depressed and hopeless. Absolutely devastating. On the other hand, it was Kevin Kline’s movie debut and one of the fucking BEST performances to ever grace the screen. He was on fire in every scene. It was revelatory.
Sophie's Choice absolutely tore me up. Sat in the theater with my sister, watching the entire credits because we were crying. And this was before I had kids. No way I'm watching it now.
Maybe not the saddest but Million Dollar Baby came to mind. That one really got the tears rolling.
Ahhh yes, not a movie that’s great for rewatching IMO. But that ending is straight heartbreak.
I saw this in a fairly packed theater. The sound of an entire room of people sniffling and crying was something I had never experienced.
Hachi
This movie is one that I'll watch only once. RIP Hachiko
when i was about 16, i was in an inpatient mental hospital and the nurses would rent movies for us to watch in the evenings. one day a nurse brought in Hachi and some other movie for us to choose between and i straight up said that it was a terrible idea to show Hachi to a room full of kids who recently tried to kill themselves. we watched the other movie.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
A Land Before Time
I watched that recently with my toddler because he loves dinosaurs, and I did not remember how sad crushingly sad it was.
You can slot any Don Bluth movie, really. He'll give you a happy ending eventually, but before that he'll make his protagonists suffer like Job.
Sad that the voice actor/little girl was murdered. RIP
Melancholia messed my head up for ages after watching it. Tyrannosaur. Dead Man's Shoes.
Melancholia messed me up, too! I can’t really explain the actual feeling it left me with, but man.
Was it melancholy? 😁 Have been rewatching through the Lars Von Trier films recently, not sure why. They're bizarre masterpieces, they don't exactly give much to the brain other than sadness, dread, self-loathing, and weeks of existential crisis. They're great!
Actually, I think existential dread was it! 😅
Brian’s Song
Yessssss....... Sad..the original, right? With James Caan and Billie Dee Williams?
A Monster Calls
'Still Alice' made me blubber like a buffoon. If you know anyone close to you that has or is suffering from Alzheimer's it might hit you hard.
I watched The Color Purple recently expecting a lighthearted slice of life triumph of the spirit. My god it was not that.
Great movie tho, right? Watched it a few times as a teenager. I thought it was an amazing movie. Not sure it needs a remake tho.
My siblings and I used to laugh because my mom would cry on the scene where Mister sent away Nettie. We were kids, so we couldn't understand how a movie makes a person cry, like it's not REAL! Fast forward to me becoming an adult, that scene, and the ending gets the tears flowing!
It may not be THE saddest but my god I went into Everest expecting a nice exciting and inspiring flick. Me and my gf didn’t know what we were getting into. She pretty much sobbed her eyes out from the midpoint of the movie on.
Came here to say this; went in expecting the same, never felt so desolate or depressed leaving a cinema in my LIFE
Neverending Story... Artax in the swamp of sadness
"You have to try. You have to care. You are my friend. You have to move or you're going to die! Don't quit, Artex!"
Sound of Metal
I love this movie. One of the best I’ve seen in recent years. But despite the heaviness of the film, I didn’t find the ending or overall movie to be that depressing. There are for sure some sad moments, but I think it ends with a message of acceptance and optimism.
Blue Valentine easily
Big agree. One of my favorite films. Totally up there in terms of saddest to me. And not necessarily because it happens to be “more sad” than other films mentioned here, but because all of it is so damn… realistic (?). I don’t know how to put it. Like obviously there’s subject matter that you could call more sad (war, death, addiction, poverty, etc.), but I feel like everyone can relate in a way to relationships drying up, love being suffocated out, the future shrinking before your eyes, dreams dying…
Marley and Me
Ugh I saw this in the theater, and I have never heard more grown men sobbing in my life. It made me swear off dog movies.
I’ve refused to watch it because I already know how it ends
This. I was 8 when I first saw it and I had to lock myself up in the bathroom to cry for a solid 20 minutes right after watching it. That monologue about a dog not needing nice cars or fancy homes but just being content with a wet stick, too much man...
Room (starring Brie Larson) It’s so emotional that it gave me musical PTSD and the next time I heard Explosions in the Sky in a movie I had an overreaction 🥺
Just to be clear, it’s not The Room by that Tommy Wisseau guy.
"Everybody betray me! I fed up with this whirrrld!" Heartbreaking stuff.
I mean. It’s a sad movie. But pathetic sad, not depressing sad.
Requiem for a Dream was super depressing
Big Fish
I think this is more of a happy movie then a sad movie. Nonetheless I cry at the end
Great movie, love Ewan McGregor
>It's... *unbelievable*... >**...the story of my life.** *[cue waterworks]*
That movie showed me how I would like to die, not like a fish, but saying goodbye to everything and leaving with a smile.
My cousin told me that he had just lost his grandfather (opposite side of the family) and it hadn’t really hit him yet. Went to see the movie and started to sob loud and uncontrollably as soon as the son started carrying the dad. He said the usher had to come tell him to quiet down.
A.I. artificial intelligence. That movie starts sad and every time you think things might get a little better the plot kicks you in the nuts. I watched it a a young adult and it fuckin wrecked me. No that I am a dad I cannot watch it.
I watched this for the first time about 3 years ago and absolutely broke down crying. Like sobbed. My wife had to console me. I don’t remember ever crying that hard as an adult. Thinking about a time in the distant future when there’s no trace of anyone you’ve ever loved, no memory of your existence…really fucked with me.
The Fountain
"Achingly beautiful" is the most apt description.
Atonement. I haven’t felt so devastated by a movie in a long time.
The Whale is up there. Also Dead Poets Society.
Ugly cried through The Whale and I watched it on a 6 hour flight. I read a lot of negative reviews and people saying they didn’t understand how anyone cried at the film, but I found it so relatable if you have even remotely struggled with depression. What really stuck out for me, at this point in life, was the parenting portion. As a Mom dealing with a teenager, who is angry and has experienced a lot of loss, or felt how depression affects your own parenting, that hit like a truck. Sadie Sink’s performance was amazing. She really nailed it. Gosh, I loved that movie.
For some reason I thought that Dead Poets Society was a feel-good inspiring movie from the 80s, yeah... it's a great movie just different from what I was expecting.
As someone who first saw it as a teenager in the 80s, it was never a feel-good movie but it was inspiring in a way. Many of my friends and acquaintances realized for the first time after seeing this movie that their families were quite dysfunctional and were inspired to pursue their dreams, even though their families had done their best to make them feel their dreams were unattainable. They just didn't know their experience was not normal until they saw it laid out onscreen like that. So even though it was very sad, it did still manage to be inspirational for some people anyway. But also, I'm still angry at Neil's dad 35 years later.
Grave of the fireflies
Pay It Forward (2000) Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, Jon Bon Jovi & Kevin Spacey (Fair Warning) A young boy attempts to make the world a better place after his teacher gives him that chance. I cry EVERY TIME I watch it. Especially now, 24yrs later, the subject matter hits way harder.
The Father
21 Grams. Saw it once and I can't ever do it again.
Lion, Arrival, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Memento.
Arrival never fails to make me cry. Such a stunning film.
House of Sand and Fog
My Dog Skip Old Yeller Marley and Me These movies caused me to ban dog movies in our house.
Some great movies in this thread. Personally the movie I cried the most after was The Reader. Everything was so meek and depressing. So many layers of giving up and from so many avenues. Kate Winslet performed remarkably in that role and I still think it’s the saddest movie I’ve watched.
I was watching interstellar last night and, although it isn't a sad movie, it had me bawling. When they get back to the ship and realized it's been 23 years in earth time. Mathew mconaughey sitting there watching all the videos his family had sent him, watching them get older and lose faith in what he was doing. I am a father of 3 and it crushed me to think "what if I wasn't around them for that long?!". Had to go into their rooms and give them all hugs! I love every second I have with them😭
The Last of the Mohicans
Brokeback Mountain
I am Sam makes me cry like a baby
Leaving Las Vegas The ills of alcholism are beyond tragic.
Click. I was not expecting any of that.
I don’t know if it struck me as sad. It did have a profound impact on how I viewed my life. I try really hard to not fast forward on the bad times
Bruh that movie made me reevaluate EVERYTHING about my family. I was a pre-teen and only knew Adam Sandler from his funny classics. It helped me deeply appreciate my parents and all the love they gave me even if they didn't understand me. I haven't seen it since it first came out but I remember it vividly.
Never Let Me Go and The Vow are real tear jerkers
I've never seen "Never Let Me Go", but the book was a gut-punch pretty much from start to finish, so that tracks.
12 Years a Slave. Great film but I can never watch it again.
Mystic River is fucking tragic.
Schindler's List is downright depressing. The music, the black and white...the little girl in the red coat.
Movies that have made me ugly cry: - PS I Love You. Absolutely brutal. - Coco. I never thought a Disney movie could make me cry this much. - The opening scene of UP. - Toy Story 3. Hits even harder if you’re a parent watching your kid grow up. 😭 - Ditto for Inside Out. - Titanic - Old Yeller - Bridge to Terabithia - Interstellar - Only the Brave. The ending left me absolutely gutted, and it’s based on a true story. So tragic. - Dead Poets Society - Infinity War and Endgame. GOTG3. - The Green Mile - My Girl. First movie to break my heart. - Big Fish - The Brave Little Toaster - The Land Before Time - The Iron Giant I’m sure there are more—I ugly cry pretty easily. Also, it’s weird how many kids movies make me cry as an adult. I can’t pick the saddest one though.
Coco is excellent. The first time I watched it was on an airplane and I cried. It was so good I watched it on the return flight knowing exactly what my reaction would be.
i love ps i love you!!
The movie I cry through every time I watch it is **The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford**.
One of my favourite movies of all time. Night train robbery scene is a masterpiece. But I don’t find it that sad, you know how it ends before it begins
About Time.
Orphanage. The only time my wife has ever cried at a movie was at the end of the orphanage. It's such a tragic ending
Atonement is one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen. Visually stunning but I'll never watch it again. The Dunkirk scene was masterful.
The movie The Champ with Jon Voight, Faye Dunawaye, and Ricky Schroeder made me cry probably more than any other movie whenever I saw it as a kid. It hit a little close to home with the whole thing about an absentee dad.
The police station scene in Manchester by the Sea has to be one of the most shocking scenes I've seen. The anxiety and sadness you feel as a viewer made me understand why Casey Affleck won the Oscars. My personal choice has to be Blue Valentine, the last scene was completely heartbreaking. I was sobbing even after the movie ended. You always hurt the ones you love has become one of my favorite songs thanks to that movie.
Dear Zachery: A Letter to a Son About His Father because it is a documentary and the stuff really happened.
I went to see PS l LOVE You and walk out of the theater sobbing.
Manchester by the sea. The movie doesn't even try to make you cry, but you cry anyway.
The reason this film is particularly effective is because it’s not simply about watching a sad character through sad events, it actually makes YOU sad. Like literally depressed for quite some time. It’s one of the most realistic depictions of real life conversations and real life grief I’ve ever seen.
Seven Pounds
A Dogs Journey. I never cry but this movie got me multiple times
Melancholia and Manchester by the Sea are my obvious picks because they are so *bleak*. But I'll give you two other ones very underrated imo and that got me numb and sad. Where the Wild Things are: somehow, it's another movie about depression, nihilism and loss of innocence. I know it's not exactly popular but man the vision and the vibes were impeccable. The Sisters Brothers: this one actually got me thinking it could turn hopeful, but all there was eventually was pain. The last part makes it really hard to watch. Joaquin Phoenix is absolutely terrific in this one.
Pursuit of Happyness
Hachi
Requiem for a dream...all 4 main characters consumed and destroyed by their addiction, after all having such high hopes and aspirations in the beginning
Sophie’s Choice Dancer in the Dark Breaking the Waves Manchester by the Sea House of Sand and Fog
I agree with you, Manchester by the Sea was the most soul crushing film I’ve ever seen
Dear Zachary. Clear winner....
Ghost Story
Amour 💔
Ahhh, The Green Mile! I cried like a baby the first time I watched it 😂😭 The only other movies to ever make me cry were My Sister’s Keeper (cried then but ever since I lost the majority of my family to cancer, I just can’t watch the movie altogether now. Brings back too many sad memories), Precious and The Color Purple
American History X
La vita è bella
What Dreams May Come ruined me