Greatest Tearjerkers Films - Scenes and Moments

Greatest Tearjerker Films, Scenes and Movie Moments
of All-Time

Introduction: There are many names for tearjerker films - 'women's pictures', 'weepies' or weepers, melodramas, soap operas (or soapers), and more recently, 'chick flicks'. There are many kinds of touching, emotionally stirring films and dramas that bring a tear to the eye, and cause a swelling in the heart. Pathos-filled tales of doomed or short-lived romance, tragic deaths or losses (loss of life, loss of love, loss of dignity, etc.), recovery (recovery of life, recovery of love, recovery of dignity, etc.), or difficult domestic situations are common plot themes in these kinds of films.
Many sites and film books have attempted to compile listings of the most tearjerking moments, scenes and films throughout cinematic history. See various choices of great tearjerkers in Entertainment Weekly's choices for the Top 50 Greatest Tearjerkers, UK's Channel 4 website of 100 Greatest Tearjerkers (see below), and O Magazine's compilation of 50 Greatest Chick Flicks. The following sources are indicated by icons in this site's compilation:

- UK's Channel 4 website of the 100 Greatest Tearjerkers

- Entertainment Weekly's November 28, 2003 issue of the 50 Greatest Tearjerkers

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Greatest Film Tearjerkers, Moments and Scenes
(alphabetical by film title) - Part 16
Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30

Movie Title
Brief Scene Description Example

Little Women (1933)
#40

The reassuring words of dying Beth March (Jean Parker) to her older sister Jo (Katharine Hepburn): "I'm not afraid anymore! I'm learning that I don't lose you, that you'll be more to me than ever, and NOTHING can part us, though it seems to. Oh, Jo! I think I'll be homesick for you - even in heaven"; and Jo's written ode to her sister titled "My Beth": ("Oh my sister, passing from me / Out of human care and strife / Leave me, as a gift those virtues / Which have beautified your life / By that deep and solemn river / Where your willing feet now stand"); and Beth's last words: "I think I can sleep now. Oh look, Jo. My birds. They got back in time") - at the moment of her death when the birds fly off from the window sill.

The Lives of Others (2006, Germ.) (aka Das Leben der Anderen)

The scene in which beautiful actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) - the devoted lover of successful Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) cleansed herself in the bathtub/shower of the filth (both physically and emotionally) after a forced sexual encounter with Cultural Department head Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) in the backseat of his limousine, in exchange for prescription drugs and protection; also the heart-breaking scene in which a distressed Christa-Maria committed suicide by running in front of a truck after she believed that she had betrayed Dreyman by revealing the location of his incriminating red-ribboned typewriter that he had used to author an anonymous article (ironically about suicide in East Germany) for West German magazine Der Spiegel - made more tragic by the fact that sympathetic "guardian angel" secret police Stasi survelliance agent Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) had just before secretly removed the typewriter from under the apartment's doorsill to protect her and Dreyman - and the scene of Georg's anguish over her bloody death in the street; also the scene in which a demoted Wiesler quietly walked out of his dead-end mail-steaming job nearly 5 years later when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; and the final sequence in which Georg discovered that Wielser had protected him when he read the declassified surveillance transcripts on himself, and discovered a thumbprint smudge of red ink (from the red-ribboned typewriter) next to his official notation HGW XX/7; then, he located Wiesler (now a newspaper deliveryman) but decided not to introduce himself to the humbled man; and the final scene two years later when Wiesler saw a bookstore poster advertising a new book written by Dreyman titled "Sonata For a Good Man" and its dedication: "HGW XX/7 gewidmet, in Dankbarkeit. (Dedicated to HGW XX/7, in Gratitude)", and the film's final line: Wiesler's subdued, double-entendre reply to the cashier's question if he'd like the book he was purchasing gift-wrapped: "No, it's for me."

Longtime Companion (1990)
#6

The famous closing "Fire Island fantasy" in which the three surviving friends Willy (Campbell Scott), Alan/Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey) and Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker) strolled on an empty Fire Island beach where Willy wistfully mused: "I just want to be around when they find a cure"; also the heart-breaking fantasy of the joyous reunion/party of the three survivors and their dead loved ones (in the fantasy, all of the dead reverted back to their healthy selves for a few moments before cutting back to the threesome on the beach alone).

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The farewell finale, in which weary and damaged Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), after succumbing to the One Ring's evil influence atop Mount Doom), bid farewell with Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to the rest of the Fellowship before departing for the Grey Havens (a spiritual death), highlighted by Frodo's good-bye to his best friend Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin), whom Frodo kissed on the forehead after Sam begged: "You don't mean that! You can't leave!"; and Sam's return home to his family as Frodo had told him in voice-over: "My dear Sam, you cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do. Your part in this story will go on."

Love, Actually (2003)
#90

The Christmas morning scene in this sentimental tearjerker in which Karen (Emma Thompson) received a Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas from her straying husband Harry (Alan Rickman), instead of the expensive necklace she discovered in his pocket -- and realized tearfully as she listened to Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" that he was having an affair with his seductive secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) - she forced herself to put on a happy face when she returned from her bedroom to rejoin her family in the living room.

Love Story (1970)
#17
#78

Radcliffe music student Jennifer Cavalleri's (Ali McGraw) famous: "Love means never having to say you're sorry" scene; and the scene in which she was discovered to be terminally ill when she was being tested for pregnancy; and her conversation with WASP Harvard law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) at the hospital in a tear-inducing closing when she made a last request of him: ("You, after all - you're going to be a merry widower." "I won't be merry," he responded. She replied: "Yes, you will be. I want you to be merry. You'll be merry, okay?"); and the actual moment of her death with her young lover laying in bed next to her.

Magnificent Obsession (1954)
#84

The scene in which reckless and wealthy playboy Dr. Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) promised Helen (Jayne Wyman), the blinded widow of Dr. Wayne Phillips, that he would look after her; and the scene in which Helen woke up from her successful operation and told him: "it doesn't hurt as much".

Man on the Moon (1999)

The excruciating scenes in which abrasive comedian and practical joker Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) (and his lounge-singer alter ego Tony Clifton) tried to cure his lung cancer with various quackery and miracle remedies, such as New Age crystals, Philippine Islands faith healers, etc.; and the poignant final scene - a costumed recreation of Tony Clifton's comeback concert appearance a year after Kaufman's death, in which Kaufman and writing partner and friend Bob Zmuda's (Paul Giamatti) "Tony Clifton" character defiantly sang together: "I Will Survive" as Zmuda also looked on! - while music group R.E.M.'s tribute to Kaufman's "Man on the Moon" played.

Manhattan (1979)

The heartbreaking scene when 42 year-old Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) broke up with his 17 year-old girlfriend Tracy (Mariel Hemingway): ("Now I don't feel so good") in a malt shop with Tracy's tearful rejection of his attempts to get her to stop crying; also the scene of Isaac stretched out on a couch recounting all the things that he genuinely loved (his jazz, acting, and sports heroes, and Tracy's face): "Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um... Well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile, uh... Like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Willie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face..."; and then their romantically poignant and touching final scene when the young lover consoles a fearful Isaac after he has rushed to her place - but she is leaving for London for six months: ("Six months isn't so long. Everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people"), concluding with the final shot of Isaac's face and its wry, resigned smiling expression (a farewell version of The Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) expression in City Lights (1931)) followed by a reprise of the opening montage featuring the Manhattan skyline from dawn to dusk to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

The Marrying Kind (1952)

The tragic family picnic scene in which Joey (Christopher Olsen), the six-year old son of bickering couple Florrie (Judy Holliday) and Chet (Aldo Ray), accidentally drowned in a park pond while an oblivious Florence was singing “How I Love the Kisses of Dolores” on a ukelele to her husband.

Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.

Introduction: There are many names for tearjerker films - 'women's pictures', 'weepies' or weepers, melodramas, soap operas (or soapers), and more recently, 'chick flicks'. There are many kinds of touching, emotionally stirring films and dramas that bring a tear to the eye, and cause a swelling in the heart. Pathos-filled tales of doomed or short-lived romance, tragic deaths or losses (loss of life, loss of love, loss of dignity, etc.), recovery (recovery of life, recovery of love, recovery of dignity, etc.), or difficult domestic situations are common plot themes in these kinds of films. Many sites and film books have attempted to compile listings of the most tearjerking moments, scenes and films throughout cinematic history. See various choices of great tearjerkers in Entertainment Weekly's choices for the Top 50 Greatest Tearjerkers, UK's Channel 4 website of 100 Greatest Tearjerkers (see below), and O Magazine's compilation of 50 Greatest Chick Flicks. The following sources are indicated by icons in this site's compilation: - UK's Channel 4 website of the 100 Greatest Tearjerkers - Entertainment Weekly's November 28, 2003 issue of the 50 Greatest Tearjerkers Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.
Greatest Film Tearjerkers, Moments and Scenes (alphabetical by film title) - Part 16 Intro \| Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 \| Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10 Part 11 \| Part 12 \| Part 13 \| Part 14 \| Part 15 \| Part 16 \| Part 17 \| Part 18 \| Part 19 \| Part 20 Part 21 \| Part 22 \| Part 23 \| Part 24 \| Part 25 \| Part 26 \| Part 27 \| Part 28 \| Part 29 \| Part 30
Movie Title	Brief Scene Description	Example
Little Women (1933) #40	The reassuring words of dying Beth March (Jean Parker) to her older sister Jo (Katharine Hepburn): "I'm not afraid anymore! I'm learning that I don't lose you, that you'll be more to me than ever, and NOTHING can part us, though it seems to. Oh, Jo! I think I'll be homesick for you - even in heaven"; and Jo's written ode to her sister titled "My Beth": ("Oh my sister, passing from me / Out of human care and strife / Leave me, as a gift those virtues / Which have beautified your life / By that deep and solemn river / Where your willing feet now stand"); and Beth's last words: "I think I can sleep now. Oh look, Jo. My birds. They got back in time") - at the moment of her death when the birds fly off from the window sill.
The Lives of Others (2006, Germ.) (aka Das Leben der Anderen)	The scene in which beautiful actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) - the devoted lover of successful Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) cleansed herself in the bathtub/shower of the filth (both physically and emotionally) after a forced sexual encounter with Cultural Department head Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) in the backseat of his limousine, in exchange for prescription drugs and protection; also the heart-breaking scene in which a distressed Christa-Maria committed suicide by running in front of a truck after she believed that she had betrayed Dreyman by revealing the location of his incriminating red-ribboned typewriter that he had used to author an anonymous article (ironically about suicide in East Germany) for West German magazine Der Spiegel - made more tragic by the fact that sympathetic "guardian angel" secret police Stasi survelliance agent Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) had just before secretly removed the typewriter from under the apartment's doorsill to protect her and Dreyman - and the scene of Georg's anguish over her bloody death in the street; also the scene in which a demoted Wiesler quietly walked out of his dead-end mail-steaming job nearly 5 years later when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; and the final sequence in which Georg discovered that Wielser had protected him when he read the declassified surveillance transcripts on himself, and discovered a thumbprint smudge of red ink (from the red-ribboned typewriter) next to his official notation HGW XX/7; then, he located Wiesler (now a newspaper deliveryman) but decided not to introduce himself to the humbled man; and the final scene two years later when Wiesler saw a bookstore poster advertising a new book written by Dreyman titled "Sonata For a Good Man" and its dedication: "HGW XX/7 gewidmet, in Dankbarkeit. (Dedicated to HGW XX/7, in Gratitude)", and the film's final line: Wiesler's subdued, double-entendre reply to the cashier's question if he'd like the book he was purchasing gift-wrapped: "No, it's for me."
Longtime Companion (1990) #6	The famous closing "Fire Island fantasy" in which the three surviving friends Willy (Campbell Scott), Alan/Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey) and Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker) strolled on an empty Fire Island beach where Willy wistfully mused: "I just want to be around when they find a cure"; also the heart-breaking fantasy of the joyous reunion/party of the three survivors and their dead loved ones (in the fantasy, all of the dead reverted back to their healthy selves for a few moments before cutting back to the threesome on the beach alone).
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	The farewell finale, in which weary and damaged Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), after succumbing to the One Ring's evil influence atop Mount Doom), bid farewell with Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to the rest of the Fellowship before departing for the Grey Havens (a spiritual death), highlighted by Frodo's good-bye to his best friend Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin), whom Frodo kissed on the forehead after Sam begged: "You don't mean that! You can't leave!"; and Sam's return home to his family as Frodo had told him in voice-over: "My dear Sam, you cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do. Your part in this story will go on."
Love, Actually (2003) #90	The Christmas morning scene in this sentimental tearjerker in which Karen (Emma Thompson) received a Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas from her straying husband Harry (Alan Rickman), instead of the expensive necklace she discovered in his pocket -- and realized tearfully as she listened to Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" that he was having an affair with his seductive secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) - she forced herself to put on a happy face when she returned from her bedroom to rejoin her family in the living room.
Love Story (1970) #17 #78	Radcliffe music student Jennifer Cavalleri's (Ali McGraw) famous: "Love means never having to say you're sorry" scene; and the scene in which she was discovered to be terminally ill when she was being tested for pregnancy; and her conversation with WASP Harvard law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) at the hospital in a tear-inducing closing when she made a last request of him: ("You, after all - you're going to be a merry widower." "I won't be merry," he responded. She replied: "Yes, you will be. I want you to be merry. You'll be merry, okay?"); and the actual moment of her death with her young lover laying in bed next to her.
Magnificent Obsession (1954) #84	The scene in which reckless and wealthy playboy Dr. Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) promised Helen (Jayne Wyman), the blinded widow of Dr. Wayne Phillips, that he would look after her; and the scene in which Helen woke up from her successful operation and told him: "it doesn't hurt as much".
Man on the Moon (1999)	The excruciating scenes in which abrasive comedian and practical joker Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) (and his lounge-singer alter ego Tony Clifton) tried to cure his lung cancer with various quackery and miracle remedies, such as New Age crystals, Philippine Islands faith healers, etc.; and the poignant final scene - a costumed recreation of Tony Clifton's comeback concert appearance a year after Kaufman's death, in which Kaufman and writing partner and friend Bob Zmuda's (Paul Giamatti) "Tony Clifton" character defiantly sang together: "I Will Survive" as Zmuda also looked on! - while music group R.E.M.'s tribute to Kaufman's "Man on the Moon" played.
Manhattan (1979)	The heartbreaking scene when 42 year-old Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) broke up with his 17 year-old girlfriend Tracy (Mariel Hemingway): ("Now I don't feel so good") in a malt shop with Tracy's tearful rejection of his attempts to get her to stop crying; also the scene of Isaac stretched out on a couch recounting all the things that he genuinely loved (his jazz, acting, and sports heroes, and Tracy's face): "Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um... Well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile, uh... Like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Willie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face..."; and then their romantically poignant and touching final scene when the young lover consoles a fearful Isaac after he has rushed to her place - but she is leaving for London for six months: ("Six months isn't so long. Everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people"), concluding with the final shot of Isaac's face and its wry, resigned smiling expression (a farewell version of The Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) expression in City Lights (1931)) followed by a reprise of the opening montage featuring the Manhattan skyline from dawn to dusk to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
The Marrying Kind (1952)	The tragic family picnic scene in which Joey (Christopher Olsen), the six-year old son of bickering couple Florrie (Judy Holliday) and Chet (Aldo Ray), accidentally drowned in a park pond while an oblivious Florence was singing “How I Love the Kisses of Dolores” on a ukelele to her husband.