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 5
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

The Champ (1931)
AND
The Champ (1979)
#38 (1931)
#8 (1979)

The emotional locker room death scene of mortally wounded boxer Billy Flynn (Jon Voight) with his young son T.J. (Ricky Schroder) at his side - a remake of the original classic 1931 film starring Wallace Beery as boxer Andy "Champ" Purcell and Jackie Cooper as young son Dink.

Charlotte's Web (1973)

The moving death of spider Charlotte (voice of Debbie Reynolds) on a wooden beam while singing the last lines of "Mother Earth and Father Time," after sacrificing herself for ill-fated friend Wilbur the pig (voice of Henry Gibson) and producing her magnum opus (an egg sac) -- and Wilbur's despairing cry of "CHARLOTTE!" when he realized she was gone forever.

Charly (1968)
#23

The sorrowful scene in which former 59-IQ Charly Gordon (Cliff Robertson) found out that his newfound super-intelligence was only temporary and then told former teacher and lover Alice Kinnian (Claire Bloom) to leave him (after she had proposed marriage to him); and the tearjerking freeze-frame shot of Charly, once again mentally retarded but smiling and care-free, playing with other children on a see-saw.

Chinatown (1974)

The tragic ending scene in LA's Chinatown, when Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) fled in a convertible and was shot in the back of the head - with the sense of loss and dread as the car slowed to a stop in the far distance with its horn blaring as her daughter Katherine (Belinda Palmer) screamed, and the revelation of Evelyn - shot through the head from behind as her face was horribly blown apart through her flawed eye; and the haunting closing line to a stunned and saddened private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson): "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown".

A Christmas Carol (1951) (aka Scrooge, UK)

The sad moment that Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) learned the fate of Bob Cratchit's (Mervyn Johns) son "Tiny" Tim (Glyn Dearman) when he visited the future with The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come (C. Konarski), beautifully signified by the shot of an empty stool with a small crutch leaning against the wall next to it; and Scrooge's visitation of his own grave, and his pleading to the ghost: ("Why show me this, if I am past all hope"); and the joyous redemptive ending in which a reformed Scrooge visited the Cratchit family on Christmas morning, and Tiny Tim's famous last line: "God bless us, every one!"

Cinema Paradiso (1989, It.)
#48
#58

The touching moment when middle-aged, world-famous Italian film director Salvatore (Jacques Perrin) found a reel of censored amorous film kisses spliced together by his childhood friend/mentor, projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), who had just passed away, and the scene of his watching the long montage of romantic screen kisses spliced out of numerous films (i.e., His Girl Friday, The Gold Rush, The Outlaw, The Sheik, The Adventures of Robin Hood, etc.).

City Lights (1931)

One of the greatest endings in cinema history, in which the now-wealthy Flower Girl (Virginia Cherrill) encountered the vagrant Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) in an accidental meeting for the first time since the Tramp selflessly sacrificed his own money to restore her sight -- when the Flower Girl recognized him, the Tramp's face showed a bevy of mixed emotions: shame, fear, bravery, pain, tentativeness, love, bliss and joy. At first, she appeared slightly dismayed and confused - he looked so completely different from what she expected - and then she was moved. The Tramp smiled and his eyes lit up when she recognized and accepted him for who he was.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The finale in which the doors opened and humans who had been missing emerged - and young Barry (Cary Guffey) was reunited with his mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon); and when Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) was chosen or 'adopted' and taken into the 'mother-ship' craft, and one of the aliens said farewell with hand signals to UN scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) before the Mother Ship departed, and the final shot of Roy ascending into the wondrous, ethereal heart of the mothership as John Williams' soared in triumph - incorporating "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio (1940).

Cocoon (1985)
#29

The sad scene of the reckless behavior of retirement home residents who unwittingly drained the life-giving qualities of the nearby magical swimming pool - and caused the death of one of the ancient Antarean aliens (one of the ground crew) in one of the cocoon pods; also the heart-breaking scene of the death of Rosie (Herta Ware) - the wife of Bernie Lefkowitz (Jack Gilford) - after which he carried her over to the non-functioning life-giving pool near the Florida retirement community, completely rife with guilt over forbidding his wife to sample the pool's power - out of fear and timidness; the poignant scene of Ben Luckett (Wilford Brimley) telling his grandson David (Barret Oliver) goodbye - while standing in knee-deep water fishing - and what he would miss on Earth (grandsons, fishing holes, hotdogs, baseball games, etc.) by going away forever to another planet - but also the benefits: ("When we get where we're going, we'll never be sick, we won't get any older, and we won't ever die"); and the finale in which the boat-load of seniors were transported upwards into a departing Antarean spaceship for the unknown planet and immortality.

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 5 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
The Champ (1931) AND The Champ (1979) #38 (1931) #8 (1979)	The emotional locker room death scene of mortally wounded boxer Billy Flynn (Jon Voight) with his young son T.J. (Ricky Schroder) at his side - a remake of the original classic 1931 film starring Wallace Beery as boxer Andy "Champ" Purcell and Jackie Cooper as young son Dink.
Charlotte's Web (1973)	The moving death of spider Charlotte (voice of Debbie Reynolds) on a wooden beam while singing the last lines of "Mother Earth and Father Time," after sacrificing herself for ill-fated friend Wilbur the pig (voice of Henry Gibson) and producing her magnum opus (an egg sac) -- and Wilbur's despairing cry of "CHARLOTTE!" when he realized she was gone forever.
Charly (1968) #23	The sorrowful scene in which former 59-IQ Charly Gordon (Cliff Robertson) found out that his newfound super-intelligence was only temporary and then told former teacher and lover Alice Kinnian (Claire Bloom) to leave him (after she had proposed marriage to him); and the tearjerking freeze-frame shot of Charly, once again mentally retarded but smiling and care-free, playing with other children on a see-saw.
Chinatown (1974)	The tragic ending scene in LA's Chinatown, when Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) fled in a convertible and was shot in the back of the head - with the sense of loss and dread as the car slowed to a stop in the far distance with its horn blaring as her daughter Katherine (Belinda Palmer) screamed, and the revelation of Evelyn - shot through the head from behind as her face was horribly blown apart through her flawed eye; and the haunting closing line to a stunned and saddened private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson): "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown".
A Christmas Carol (1951) (aka Scrooge, UK)	The sad moment that Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) learned the fate of Bob Cratchit's (Mervyn Johns) son "Tiny" Tim (Glyn Dearman) when he visited the future with The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come (C. Konarski), beautifully signified by the shot of an empty stool with a small crutch leaning against the wall next to it; and Scrooge's visitation of his own grave, and his pleading to the ghost: ("Why show me this, if I am past all hope"); and the joyous redemptive ending in which a reformed Scrooge visited the Cratchit family on Christmas morning, and Tiny Tim's famous last line: "God bless us, every one!"
Cinema Paradiso (1989, It.) #48 #58	The touching moment when middle-aged, world-famous Italian film director Salvatore (Jacques Perrin) found a reel of censored amorous film kisses spliced together by his childhood friend/mentor, projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), who had just passed away, and the scene of his watching the long montage of romantic screen kisses spliced out of numerous films (i.e., His Girl Friday, The Gold Rush, The Outlaw, The Sheik, The Adventures of Robin Hood, etc.).
City Lights (1931)	One of the greatest endings in cinema history, in which the now-wealthy Flower Girl (Virginia Cherrill) encountered the vagrant Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) in an accidental meeting for the first time since the Tramp selflessly sacrificed his own money to restore her sight -- when the Flower Girl recognized him, the Tramp's face showed a bevy of mixed emotions: shame, fear, bravery, pain, tentativeness, love, bliss and joy. At first, she appeared slightly dismayed and confused - he looked so completely different from what she expected - and then she was moved. The Tramp smiled and his eyes lit up when she recognized and accepted him for who he was.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)	The finale in which the doors opened and humans who had been missing emerged - and young Barry (Cary Guffey) was reunited with his mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon); and when Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) was chosen or 'adopted' and taken into the 'mother-ship' craft, and one of the aliens said farewell with hand signals to UN scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) before the Mother Ship departed, and the final shot of Roy ascending into the wondrous, ethereal heart of the mothership as John Williams' soared in triumph - incorporating "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio (1940).
Cocoon (1985) #29	The sad scene of the reckless behavior of retirement home residents who unwittingly drained the life-giving qualities of the nearby magical swimming pool - and caused the death of one of the ancient Antarean aliens (one of the ground crew) in one of the cocoon pods; also the heart-breaking scene of the death of Rosie (Herta Ware) - the wife of Bernie Lefkowitz (Jack Gilford) - after which he carried her over to the non-functioning life-giving pool near the Florida retirement community, completely rife with guilt over forbidding his wife to sample the pool's power - out of fear and timidness; the poignant scene of Ben Luckett (Wilford Brimley) telling his grandson David (Barret Oliver) goodbye - while standing in knee-deep water fishing - and what he would miss on Earth (grandsons, fishing holes, hotdogs, baseball games, etc.) by going away forever to another planet - but also the benefits: ("When we get where we're going, we'll never be sick, we won't get any older, and we won't ever die"); and the finale in which the boat-load of seniors were transported upwards into a departing Antarean spaceship for the unknown planet and immortality.