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 21
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

Penny Serenade (1941)

The heart-warming scenes, told in flashback, of childless parents Roger Adams (Cary Grant) and his wife Julie (Irene Dunne) who brought home an adopted baby girl - their nervousness about keeping quiet and their exhaustion after getting up all night with it, and later the heart-wrenching scene of the aftermath for the heartbroken couple following the death of their six-year-old child Trina.

The Petrified Forest (1936)

The death scene at the finale when idealistic and disillusioned writer/world traveler Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) died in the arms of culturally-starved waitress Gabrielle (Gabby) Maple (Bette Davis) after being shot by ruthless fugitive gangster Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) in a run-down Arizona desert cafe (as she recited: "...this is the end for which we twain are met").

Philadelphia (1993)
#33
#27

The moving interpretation by dying, AIDS afflicted ex-lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) from Philadelphia, wrongly terminated from his prestigious law firm, to his initially homophobic lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) about the music in his favorite Maria Callas aria - he spoke over the music and pulled his IV around with him as he accepted his own impending death: ("...The music - it fills with a hope, and it'll change again, listen. 'I bring sorrow to those who love me.' Oh, that single cello! 'It was during this sorrow that Love came to me.' A voice filled with harmony, that said: 'Live still, I am Life! Heaven is in your eyes. Is everything around you just the blood and mud? I am divine. I am Oblivion. I am the god that comes down from the heavens to the Earth and makes of the Earth a Heaven. I am Love! I am Love!'"); also, the hospital scene of Beckett with his long-term male lover Miguel Alvarez (Antonio Banderas) after first bidding farewell to family and friends (Andrew's supportive mother Sarah (Joanne Woodward) whispered: "Goodbye, my angel"), then alone when he dimmed the lights, told Miguel: "Miguel, I'm ready," and then removed his own oxygen mask; in the final scene during the reception held in the Beckett home following the funeral, mourners watched home movies of Andrew's younger days, to the tune of Neil Young's Philadelphia

The Pianist (2002)
#59

The upsetting scene in which Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) was forced to play the piano for a Nazi under threat of death; the disturbing imagery of piles of corpses strewn on the streets of Warsaw; and the scene in which Szpilman's family was carted off to the concentration camps when the Nazis enacted their "Final Solution", and a ragged, bearded Szpilman wandered through the barren, bombed out streets of Warsaw, and found his piano intact.

Pickup on South Street (1953)

The scene in which embittered, world-weary tie-seller and information street peddler Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) told her killer Joey (Richard Kiley) in her dingy rooming house: "So I don't get to have the fancy funeral after all. Anyway, I tried. Look, mister, I'm so tired you'd be doin' me a big favor if you'd blow my head off" - the camera panned to the left and a gunshot was heard - with the final image of her bedside Victrola's needle reaching the end of the record (the popular French tune "Mam'zelle"); and the subsequent scene in which pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) reclaimed Moe's body from a tugboat (taking her in coffin # 11 to potter's field) in order to give her a proper burial ("I'm gonna bury her") - fulfilling her sole wish in life.

A Place in the Sun (1951)

The final prison farewell scene in his death cell before his execution between condemned and doomed poor boy George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and rich society girlfriend Angela (Elizabeth Taylor): (Angela: "...I'll go on loving you for as long as I live." George: "Love me for the time I have left. Then, forget me." (They kiss one last time.) Angela: "Goodbye, George." (She half-turns away and then looks back) "Seems like we always spend the best part of our time just saying goodbye."); George took to his death the superimposed image of dark-haired Angela kissing him.

The Plague Dogs (1982)

The upsetting experimentation on lab animals, including the tests on setter Snitter (voice of John Hurt) who had dreams/memories of his days as a house pet, and the repeated near-drowning of black labrador Rowf (voice of Christopher Benjamin) to see how long he could dog-paddle before he gave up; also the heart-rending scene of a dead puppy being scraped out of its cell; and the ending in which the two dogs swam out to sea - choosing to be dead and free rather than captured: (Snitter: "I can't swim anymore, Rowf...", Rowf: "We must... be near the island...There is. There. Can't you see it? Our island...").

Platoon (1986)

The startling scene in which the saintly and compassionate Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) staggered out of the jungle after being shot by sociopathic, malevolent and murderous Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) and left for dead in the Vietnamese jungle - his arms outstretched upwards in slow-motion in a sacrificial, crucifixion pose (while Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings played) as he was repeatedly shot by VC enemy forces - viewed from a chopper overhead.

Powder (1995)

The scenes of cruelty aimed at mystical outcast albino teenager Jeremy "Powder" Reed (Sean Patrick Flanery) by his peers, and the climactic ending in which Powder ran into an open field and in a flash of blinding light was absorbed into the Earth.

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 21 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
Penny Serenade (1941)	The heart-warming scenes, told in flashback, of childless parents Roger Adams (Cary Grant) and his wife Julie (Irene Dunne) who brought home an adopted baby girl - their nervousness about keeping quiet and their exhaustion after getting up all night with it, and later the heart-wrenching scene of the aftermath for the heartbroken couple following the death of their six-year-old child Trina.
The Petrified Forest (1936)	The death scene at the finale when idealistic and disillusioned writer/world traveler Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) died in the arms of culturally-starved waitress Gabrielle (Gabby) Maple (Bette Davis) after being shot by ruthless fugitive gangster Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) in a run-down Arizona desert cafe (as she recited: "...this is the end for which we twain are met").
Philadelphia (1993) #33 #27	The moving interpretation by dying, AIDS afflicted ex-lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) from Philadelphia, wrongly terminated from his prestigious law firm, to his initially homophobic lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) about the music in his favorite Maria Callas aria - he spoke over the music and pulled his IV around with him as he accepted his own impending death: ("...The music - it fills with a hope, and it'll change again, listen. 'I bring sorrow to those who love me.' Oh, that single cello! 'It was during this sorrow that Love came to me.' A voice filled with harmony, that said: 'Live still, I am Life! Heaven is in your eyes. Is everything around you just the blood and mud? I am divine. I am Oblivion. I am the god that comes down from the heavens to the Earth and makes of the Earth a Heaven. I am Love! I am Love!'"); also, the hospital scene of Beckett with his long-term male lover Miguel Alvarez (Antonio Banderas) after first bidding farewell to family and friends (Andrew's supportive mother Sarah (Joanne Woodward) whispered: "Goodbye, my angel"), then alone when he dimmed the lights, told Miguel: "Miguel, I'm ready," and then removed his own oxygen mask; in the final scene during the reception held in the Beckett home following the funeral, mourners watched home movies of Andrew's younger days, to the tune of Neil Young's Philadelphia
The Pianist (2002) #59	The upsetting scene in which Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) was forced to play the piano for a Nazi under threat of death; the disturbing imagery of piles of corpses strewn on the streets of Warsaw; and the scene in which Szpilman's family was carted off to the concentration camps when the Nazis enacted their "Final Solution", and a ragged, bearded Szpilman wandered through the barren, bombed out streets of Warsaw, and found his piano intact.
Pickup on South Street (1953)	The scene in which embittered, world-weary tie-seller and information street peddler Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) told her killer Joey (Richard Kiley) in her dingy rooming house: "So I don't get to have the fancy funeral after all. Anyway, I tried. Look, mister, I'm so tired you'd be doin' me a big favor if you'd blow my head off" - the camera panned to the left and a gunshot was heard - with the final image of her bedside Victrola's needle reaching the end of the record (the popular French tune "Mam'zelle"); and the subsequent scene in which pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) reclaimed Moe's body from a tugboat (taking her in coffin # 11 to potter's field) in order to give her a proper burial ("I'm gonna bury her") - fulfilling her sole wish in life.
A Place in the Sun (1951)	The final prison farewell scene in his death cell before his execution between condemned and doomed poor boy George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and rich society girlfriend Angela (Elizabeth Taylor): (Angela: "...I'll go on loving you for as long as I live." George: "Love me for the time I have left. Then, forget me." (They kiss one last time.) Angela: "Goodbye, George." (She half-turns away and then looks back) "Seems like we always spend the best part of our time just saying goodbye."); George took to his death the superimposed image of dark-haired Angela kissing him.
The Plague Dogs (1982)	The upsetting experimentation on lab animals, including the tests on setter Snitter (voice of John Hurt) who had dreams/memories of his days as a house pet, and the repeated near-drowning of black labrador Rowf (voice of Christopher Benjamin) to see how long he could dog-paddle before he gave up; also the heart-rending scene of a dead puppy being scraped out of its cell; and the ending in which the two dogs swam out to sea - choosing to be dead and free rather than captured: (Snitter: "I can't swim anymore, Rowf...", Rowf: "We must... be near the island...There is. There. Can't you see it? Our island...").
Platoon (1986)	The startling scene in which the saintly and compassionate Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) staggered out of the jungle after being shot by sociopathic, malevolent and murderous Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) and left for dead in the Vietnamese jungle - his arms outstretched upwards in slow-motion in a sacrificial, crucifixion pose (while Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings played) as he was repeatedly shot by VC enemy forces - viewed from a chopper overhead.
Powder (1995)	The scenes of cruelty aimed at mystical outcast albino teenager Jeremy "Powder" Reed (Sean Patrick Flanery) by his peers, and the climactic ending in which Powder ran into an open field and in a flash of blinding light was absorbed into the Earth.