Oprah had the guys who invented You Tube on her show today. They have recently sold it for $1.6 billion. I don't think these guys are even 30 yet, I'm not sure and I don't want to think about it for fear of sobbing without end. She had the most popular YouTubers on: the skateboarding bulldog, the English ex-cellphone salesman now turned opera singer, and the English couple who did the Dirty Dancing number for their wedding were among my favorites. The English couple performed the dance for the audience and halfway through Patrick Swayze came out to surprise them, which was fun and for some reason brought tears to my eyes and not just because I saw the amount of plastic surgery Swayze had done. The couple was genuinely surprised. Later listening to the opera singer, again some tears came, something about the music and his voice was just too emotional. I suppose that's why opera is hardly ever done with the banjo.
I'm not overly emotional, and I don't think I cry at the drop of a hat, but certain things can wring out a few tears in me. I'm not talking about things like losing loved ones, getting good or bad news at the doctor's, you know, life. I'm talking books or movies or television or plays. Art (yes, sometimes television is art; you just have to know where to look). What is it about art or entertainment that brings us to tears? Why do we cry? Is it just emotional flotsam and jetsam or is it an embedded image in our past that's tripped by a line of dialogue or a camera angle?
I don't know, but I do know what makes me cry genuinely, supremely and most profoundly at the movies even at repeated viewings.
Here's the list:
1. Glory-This Civil War feature starring Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington holds the record for a personal crying jag. I do believe it's the last 15 minutes of the film. I've only seen it once.
2. The Color Purple- I've seen this thing about a thousand times. I cry all through the film and it's a fabulous cleansing weeping. Good for cold and flu season.
3. E.T.--Yeah, I know, everyone always cries at the end. I don't. But I always, and I do mean always cry the very first time Eliot and E.T. take flight on that bike. To this day, I have no idea why.
4. Defending Your Life--Love this movie about the afterlife, love it and the end is so tender and so lovely that it does make me weep with a little joy.
5. The Shawshank Redemption- the end, what a great ending, again it's a happy cry.
Some new entries:
Dreamgirls--when Effie sings THAT song. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I cried for every man that ever treated me like crap even though that was over 21 years ago and counting. That song and the way she sang it broke my heart.
Million Dollar Baby--Holy crap. That last scene. Just Clint and Hillary Swank. Lordy, lordy, lordy. I could not catch my breath. The scene doesn't last long, but it was like a granade to the heart. Ohh.
And for LJ, especially, I have only one more feature to add, even though it was a made for TV movie. The original Brian's Song.
So to my peeps, and I'm not talking the little yellow and sometimes pink or blue marshmallow chicks, what are the movies that make you cry like a little girl?
8 comments:
I saw the same Oprah today while waiting to pick up my car from the shop. The funniest moment to me was reliving the motivational speaker-dance guy's video. Somehow seeing a middle aged white guy doing the "Ice Ice Baby" dance makes me forget that Pakistan has the bomb.
A movie to add to your list... Schindler's List. From the first few minutes to the last frame, it is devastating. I don't think I've ever been in a theater with so many people sobbing for so long. After the movie, my abdominals actually hurt from trying to keep myself from becoming audible with my crying. Maybe it was because I saw the movie on Christmas day and most of the audience were Jews, but that movie certainly captured all of humanities horrors and triumphs without compromise.
I must add another; Terms of Endearment (when the dying mother is telling her son that she knows he loves her, and not to feel guilty later in life for not showing it). I dare anyone to watch it without a tissue.
You saw Schindler's List on Christmas Day? Did you see Sophie's Choice on your birthday?
O.K. one more... and it's only one word; Bambi. I wonder how many people out there can trace their first realizations about death to sitting in the movie theater with Grandma or mom, popcorn on their lap innocently watching that cute cartoon, only to have the wind knocked out of them and their world forever changed.
Sophie's Choice! Of course! No, I believe I saw that on Valentine's day.
Yep, he's a real romantic. Movies about death on Valentines Day. I was going to add Terms, but he jumped my comment. Damn. I must add West Side Story to the list of doom.
I guess I'm just a cynical bastard becuase I've never sad cried at movie in my life. I got happy choked up during Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry casts his patrounus and saves Sirius from the dementors. I love defiance in the face of overwhelming odds and an extraordinary kid coming into his own.
OK.. I've cried at lots of movies--definitely the ones Cora listed. Definitely Glory. definitely Million Dollar Baby--OMG! That was too much.
I've also cried at Life is Beautiful and Shakespeare in Love.
I'm like you, Cora. I cry at weird little moments--a note of music, a proposal on Oprah, or embarassingly, a joyous birth on one of those baby shows on cable. (I didn't watch those before I was pregnant...)
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