Popcorn & Kleenex - "Up" and Other Movies that Make Us Lose It
You know how it goes...the moment when you're watching a movie and you're tearing up a little bit, attempting a quiet sniffle, averting your eyes or taking deep breaths. But then something snaps and you decide to just ride it out, let loose and enjoy the cleansing catharsis of sobbing your heart out. I'm an unabashed crier - overly emotionally responsive to everything...a movie, book, song...if I'm in the right (wrong) mood, just about anything can set me off, but it's a rare occasion when I experience that end-of-the-road-totally-lose-it-moment. And I kind of love it...am I the only one?
The last time this happened to me was completely unexpected. Heading into a weeknight 3-D showing of Up, I'd heard rumblings that it was a little emotional, but I certainly didn't expect to end up sobbing behind my awesome 3-D old man glasses. And boy, did I sob. I considered leaving the theater to catch my breath and my friend started giving me sincerely concerned looks. Eventually I pulled it together and so thoroughly enjoyed Pixar's latest masterpiece that even before the Oscar-buzz season begins, I'm confident in saying it's my absolute favorite movie of 2009. The really sad stuff is over in the first 15 minutes (but what a beautiful 15 minutes!) and the rest of the film is hilarious, moving, exciting and really, in my opinion, just about perfect.
Amanda already blogged about the romantic films that make her cry like a baby, but I was curious about the other-non-Notebook-y type movies that destroy us (in the best possible way) and here a few responses from my movie-addict friends here at Amazon.
Angela: Million Dollar Baby
"I bought the DVD in the morning, watched it that night, promptly gave it away the next day because I knew I could never subject myself to that much of a sob-fest ever again."
Ellen: The end of Schindler’s List, when Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) looks at the items of luxury around him (his car, his ring) and imagines how many more Jews he could have saved. It was me and four other people in the theater at a weekday matinee, so that gave me freedom to let the waterworks go. I don’t cry in movies that often, but this was like a heaving-shoulders-sputtering-using-sleeve type of crying, a level of cinematic reaction only matched by the end-title sequence of Philadephia, when home movies of Tom Hanks’ character as a happy (alive) boy play over the Neil Young title song.
Stephanie: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Yes, I am revealing the depths of my geekitude here, but when Spock sacrifices himself for the Enterprise, his farewell to Kirk … well, I’m tearing up just thinking about it. The way he straightens his coat when he rises to greet his superior officer (a gesture you see echoed by Zachary Quinto in the new Trek). “I have been and always shall be your friend” he says, his voice reduced to a croak.
I completely echo Ellen for that end-title sequence in Philadephia - I've got to be armed and ready with tissues and twizzlers to make it through that. The final episode of Six Feet Under also destroys me so completely each and every time that's it's become my go-to viewing for the random occasion I actually want to feel like that. What's your "Lose It" movie or TV show?
Up comes out tomorrow - order the 4 Disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack before Wednesday and get a second Disney Blu-ray movie for $10 off. Check out all the details here and get your kleenex ready (though I readily admit that my reaction was probably not typical :) ---Kira
CSmith on November 09, 2009 at 04:37 PM
I, too, can get overly emotional with certain movies and books. I cried all through the end of the Goblet of Fire (book) which no one else I know did!
For movies- I cannot watch the end of Serenity without sobbing, Gladiator is a gorgeous tearjerker, and Atonement just makes me so bitter with sadness.
Romeo + Juliet, too, Luhrman handled that moment better than anyone I've ever seen (and I work with actors and directors doing Shakespeare for a living!) Thanks for the note about Up! I choked laughing on tears during that movie!
Liz on November 09, 2009 at 05:23 PM
You're not the only one. Movies, TV, books, etc. make me tear up or cry. I'm watching those four back-to-back episodes of Ghost Whisperer on the Syfy channel right now and I almost always cry at the end of those episodes. Be at ease, you're in good company and I hope you take tissues with you to the movies!
David on November 10, 2009 at 08:49 AM
"A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town."
Kellie on November 11, 2009 at 09:28 AM
When I was a little kid, my mother had to remove me from the theater during the scene in ET when ET nearly dies. I nearly vomited I was crying so hard.
More recently, the movie "Iris" about Iris Murdoch's life, marriage, and slow decay from Alzheimer's made me blubber with abandon in the theater--it was a matinee and I was nearly alone, but for a few other quiet weepers. I was supposed to be studying for my doctoral exams, but played hooky and went to this movie instead and found myself intermittently sobbing the entire rest of the day. Kate Winslet, Dame Judi Dench, and so on. Fabulous.
I totally hear you on the final scene of Six Feet Under--that show made me bawl many MANY times.
joesen on November 03, 2010 at 12:10 AM
I bought the DVD in the morning, watched it that night, promptly gave it away the next day because I knew I could never subject myself to that much of a sob-fest ever again."
xiao on November 16, 2010 at 05:37 PM
watched it that night, promptly gave it away the next day