Movie that Made Me Cry (shed a few manly tears of sorrow)
by Amthermandes | created - 23 Sep 2012 | updated - 25 Jan 2021 | PublicThese are movies that have made me cry over the last several years. The top few in the list get me every time.
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1. The Mighty (1998)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
Two young boys are social outcasts in their community due to their disabilities and broken home lives. When they are paired together, they form a bond over their shared circumstances.
Director: Peter Chelsom | Stars: Kieran Culkin, Elden Henson, Sharon Stone, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 13,911 | Gross: $2.64M
It's obvious when it hit me. It hit me hard the first time, too. I recommend this movie highly, it's a powerful story of friendship.
One word: laundry.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,497,542 | Gross: $216.54M
Two parts got me: When the army officials were arriving to bring the news to the mother of her 3 sons' deaths, and the scene in the field when the soldier was dying and crying for his mother.
3. Saints and Soldiers (2003)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Drama, War
Four American soldiers and one Brit fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.
Director: Ryan Little | Stars: Corbin Allred, Alexander Polinsky, Kirby Heyborne, Larry Bagby
Votes: 21,427 | Gross: $1.31M
Two parts got me here too: When Deacon recognized the German soldier from his mission, and toward the end with the cigarette.
4. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,452,038 | Gross: $96.90M
The whole movie is powerful, emotional, sad and depressing, but the part that got me was the end when Schindler was realizing how many more people he could've saved.
5. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,480
This movie gets me every time at the end. It makes me feel gracious for everything I have, and it warms the heart and helps you remember the power of human kindness.
6. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 518,450 | Gross: $59.89M
The color-blind test scene.
7. Big Fish (2003)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange
Votes: 459,089 | Gross: $66.26M
At the end when he's bringing his father down to the river, and all his friends are there.
8. Of Mice and Men (1992)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Western
A nomadic farm worker looks after his dimwitted, gentle-giant friend during the Great Depression.
Director: Gary Sinise | Stars: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Ray Walston, Casey Siemaszko
Votes: 47,327 | Gross: $5.10M
Kinda obvious when.
9. Crash (I) (2004)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Karina Arroyave
Votes: 449,135 | Gross: $54.58M
The scene that contains the picture on the left
10. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 639,214 | Gross: $233.63M
When he loses Wilson at sea. For the 4 years he was on that island, Wilson was the closest thing to human companionship he had. So when he lost him, I bet that was the loneliest he ever felt. It finally pushed him over the edge and he realized how alone and hopeless he was.
11. The Truman Show (1998)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 1,197,675 | Gross: $125.62M
The ending, when he's banging on the wall.
12. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
PG-13 | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.
Director: Terry George | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali
Votes: 372,419 | Gross: $23.53M
13. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Not Rated | 89 min | Animation, Drama, War
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi, Yoshiko Shinohara
Votes: 310,828
I'd heard this was a tear-jerker and I told myself I wasn't gonna get suckered into crying. I was wrong.
14. The Fountain (2006)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Sean Patrick Thomas, Ellen Burstyn
Votes: 248,851 | Gross: $10.14M
When emotions run high.
15. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 899,391 | Gross: $3.64M
The rock-bottom ending.
16. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama
A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 254,237 | Gross: $9.17M
When he was hitting his brother, who didn't have a clue why.
17. American Sniper (2014)
R | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Cole Konis
Votes: 529,705 | Gross: $350.13M
Not a dry eye in the audience at the end. I've never heard it so silent leaving a theater.
18. Only the Brave (2017)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of elite firefighters who risk everything to protect a town from a historic wildfire.
Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly
Votes: 77,453 | Gross: $18.34M
Without spoiling anything, I expected something tragic to happen, but the magnitude of it was completely unexpected and hit ALL of us hard at the theater. So many people were crying.
19. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, War
Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Zac Mattoon O'Brien
Votes: 246,774 | Gross: $9.03M
The ending.
20. A Christmas Story (1983)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz
Votes: 168,650 | Gross: $20.61M
Ok, let me explain this one: First of all, this movie hits home for me. It's not only a phenomenal Christmas movie, but it's a lot about family and tradition; it's extremely relatable for me. It hits me twice: The scene toward the end when his father lives vicariously though his son as he opens his "final gift," and the scene when Ralphie's mother stops his fight, and he starts to cry. The latter scene hits me, as I was no stranger to being bullied as a kid, but I never had the courage, nor was I ever pushed far enough, to feel so beaten and cornered to lash out like he did, so I emotionally empathized with Ralphie, poor guy. And the way his brother looked out for him by grabbing both his glasses and mother, and even FURTHER, the way his mom avoided telling the details of the fight to Ralphie's dad, leading to the source of the final tear down my cheek, when Narrator Ralphie explains that after that, his relationship with his mother had grown ("From then on, things were different between me and my mother").
21. Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
G | 97 min | Drama, Family
Where the Red Fern Grows is the heartwarming and adventurous tale for all ages about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.
Director: Norman Tokar | Stars: James Whitmore, Beverly Garland, Jack Ging, Lonny Chapman
Votes: 3,775
Childhood classic emotional ride. Not just the ending, but the "axe" scene always kinda got to me as well.
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