Yes. Devastating is the word.


The netflix disc is sitting on top of my TV as we speak; I'll see in a few days.

Also,

This one gets a mention from me as well. Along with all of Schindler's List. I often comment that it shouldn't be critiqued alongside other movies because its in a category of its own.

The most emotionally affecting scene in the(terribly overrated) Saving Private Ryan is the scene where the medic tells the story about his mother mentioned above. Not the knifing. That scene may have been tense, but it's a bad thing that happens to a major character in a montage of bad things happening to major characters. It's a rough way to go, but it's not a stomach punch.

Kurt, you won't regret the Oldboy Netflixing. I'm a sorry I gave even the minor spoiler there.

If we aren't allowed to use The Wire, Grave of the Fireflies runs away and hides with this award. Lots of movies can make the audience feel sadness, Grave of the Fireflies can make the audience feel grief.

I know that we have been posting fictional scenes only. I am surprised that more scenes have not been identified.

However, I want to post a non-fictional scene that fits the thread perfectly. Emotionally devastating . This piece of film that captures so much, all through the actions of a true hero, David Purley. Heroism when all around him are hopelessly ambivalent. If you are interested, it is worth searching for some background on this incident, and the comments from other non-participants - since Purley is the only bloke trying anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRYgW6Q0p6s&mode=related&search=

Okay I know you people will think me a wussy for actually being affected by a total chickflick, but one that gwts me is the scene in Terms of Endearment where Debra Winger, dying, talks to her sons. Her 12 year old is being really bratty and she tells him forcefully that she knows he loves her even though he won't ever admit it, and she doesn't want him to be angry at her for not getting the chance to tell her that when he gets older.

Dom,

Quick Sophie's Choice story:

About twenty years ago my brother and parents and I are all assembled for the first time since our pre-teens to watch a movie together (in this case on tape) which was my pick Sophie's Choice (believe it or not I actually read the book).

Anyway we get all the way to the exact moment Sophie is about to be presented with her choice and the f'in phone rings. This is just after 9:00 pm and in my parent's house a call this late means somebody in the family died or worse so everybody hits the panic button (or at least my parents did). Turns out it was one of my brother's friends calling about some hook up; this conversation lasts about five minutes. My Dad then decides to go to sleep and my Mother eventually watched the ending with me out of pity.

Ever since then I won't watch a group movie unless the phone is off the hook which means I avoid group movies period

~ Rick

PS I'm going to skip the thread after skimming it and seeing somebody complain about giving away a key scene in season four of "The Wire".

If we're talking non-fiction, then it's the plane hitting the WTC, followed by people jumping to escape the fire. Nothing on that scale has ever been captured on film. If not that, there's plenty of Holocaust footage floating around that will put me on tilt for a week.

People on Youtube have made a ton of vids of Band of Brothers set to music.

This video is terrific and shows the relationship between the medic Eugene Roe and the Belgian nurse that I mentioned earlier.

Every time that I remember that this really happened, that there really was a Eugene Roe and the people he served with really did live and die; it's like a kick in the gut. I was in the military, but in peacetime, so never suffered more than loss of sleep. Thinking about what they went through really works me over.


edit: Here's another Doc Roe video with the nurse.

Ok, probably not the most, but here are a few that definitely get me really sad off the top of my head.

Remember the Titans - car crash
Bridge to Teribithia - so glad I wasn't in a theater for this
My Girl - similar event to Bridge
Land Before Time - Littlefoot's mom dies (at least this was at the beginning)

Of Mice and Men - Lennie

Rick,

I wonder if most people still observe that 9:00 pm rule for phone calls. My pulse always races a bit when I get calls past this time, too. For some reason, I think we may be among the few here who have had that feeling.


John

Nobody ever calls me anyway so it really isn't a problem

~ Rick

Just after the "Cease fire" bit in Children of Men, after leading the girl and the baby past the soldiers, when a rocket shoots out of the window and the fighting begins again.

Clip

I was still jacked up from adrenaline from the gunfight scene (same scene actually) just a few minutes earlier, and the awestruck looks on the soldier's faces coupled with the baby's crying lulled me into this state of shocked calm. I nearly jumped out of my seat when the shooting started again. It wasn't until after the movie ended that I realized how horribly [censored] up it was.

Im gonna watch Sophie's Choice and Grave of Fireflies because of this thread.

Movie- Last scene in Zwick's 'Glory'.

TV show- I get more emotional during the last 5 minutes of the last episode of Six Feet Under than anything else i have seen in film and tv. not sure why.

I have been enjoying this thread and have decided to add:

When Jon Voight dies and Ricky Schroeder is by his side telling him to "get up" in The Champ, I was 10 when I saw it and I balled

Someone already mentioned One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The strangling scene just after Billy's suicide always hit me the hardest.