"Grand Torino" was a recent sad one for me, in no small part to the fact that Clint's character in that movie was a lot like my own dad.
Yeah. I've never much understood or cared for "I Dreamed a Dream" before but Anne Hathaway sang the whole damn song as if it really meant something! I'll be a mighty bit peeved if she doesn't win Best Supporting Actress this year. I'm not quite sure how to classify "sad" for me. The only 2 movies that ever made me cry were Frequency and Toy Story 3. The most depressing movie I ever saw was Donnie Darko. The Dustin Hoffman version of Death of a Salesman is pretty darn sad too. Honorable mention for A.I. I never saw it but just hearing my dad summarize the plot for me made me damn near suicidal. (When I get that low, the only remedy is an immediate injection of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It's impossible for me to be anything but bubbly while watching that movie.)
Brian's Song. A Wind Through the Trees. American Virgin. Miracle Mile. Sophie's Choice. Damn depressing. ed- A.I. I forgot about that one-jesus, it was sad. It affected me for weeks.
YESH. Ebert likes to say that "no great movie is depressing". I generally agree, but man, is that one a downer. But also kind of beautiful in its final moments.
Thought of another one- 12 and Holding. Oh, boy. Hard to describe- but any movie that involves kids dying (not a spoiler- the plot involves the accidental death of a pre-teen and his twin brother's desire for revenge) is going to be a tearjerker. And the original ending was even more grim than what they went with. One bright spot- naked Jeremy Renner in the shower- but he's having an emotional breakdown so it's hardly sexy.
About halfway through "In the Bedroom," it's very sad. "Philadelphia" is another sad one. "My Sister's Keeper" had me in tears the first time I saw it. "The Pursuit of Happyness" is another. But my ultimate tear-jerker is "Pay if Forward."
Once Were Warriors. Has a hopeful ending, but extremely sad before that. And the book it was made from is even sadder.
The Green Mile for sure. Also, The Fountain. Dammit, that one had me. Watch it with my girlfriend, we were both crying in each others arms after that. No bullshit.
Marley & Me was pretty tough at the end. And I cried during Live Free or Die Hard. Star Trek 2009 as well. And Blade: Trinity.
The Mission and The Killing Fields, both from the 1980's. The first couple minutes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, especially Hermione's "obliviating" herself from her parents' memories.
I know there was really no time for it, but that was a scene that was crying out to be mirrored with a reversal where Hermione returned her parents memories. Even a mention would have worked. "I've got to go fix my parents memories."
Yeah, it would've been kind of nice to know what happened to both them and the Dursleys. Problem is, just mentioning it wouldn't have been very satisfying. I'm already wondering how and when she would do it, how they would feel afterwards, how they would relate, and so on. (Hmm, kind of reminds me of Picard coming back to his real life in "The Inner Light".) Wondering how Dudley turned out, too. I don't remember if it showed in the movie, but he was definitely maturing in the last book.
Don't know if anybody's said it yet. If you have, I am with you. What Dreams May Come Even in heaven everybody's sad.
Saving Private Ryan, especially Wade's death. The fact that he was the medic so the character knew exactly how screwed he was, and no "you'll be fine" would possibly have brought him solice, made his death even worse.
To me, sad movies are not necessarily depressing. I have two that will make me sob every single time I watch them. We Are Marshall: entire football team dies in a plane crash, all except for the one team member who didn't go to the game because of his injured shoulder. He makes it his mission, along with the new coach, to take the field again with a new team. There is a scene where he is obviously playing in agony, and the coach repeatedly punches his shoulder to demonstrate that he cannot continue to play. He breaks down, because he is so wracked with survivor's guilt that he feels that he has to carry this whole team. And one of the first scenes, as one of the athletes' dads runs toward the plane wreckage shouting, "Is that our boys?! Is that our boys?!" OMG. The other is Taking Chance, about an honor guard accompanying home the body of a soldier killed in Iraq. Passengers on the airplane lining up on the tarmac in silence as the casket is unloaded. The thousand little ways people pay tribute to this soldier they don't know, honoring his sacrifice. The stoic way the honor guard sits with the casket so that the dead soldier is never alone. I cried all the way through that movie.