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What movies make you emotional or cry by their craftmanship?


filmmusic

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The thing is this:

Looking forward to the Bluray of E.T., i just watched a couple of scenes (the beginning, and the flying sequences).

And although i've seen the film more than a dozen times, I cried again (now in my 32) and got goosebumps.

This would be another thread but I was wondering if my view that those movies have a higher lever of craftmanship is subjective, or is it objective (because I saw them when i was a kid and they marked my childhood etc.)?

I mean, kids of today would feel /are feeling the same watching Avatar or Super 8?

anyway, back to my topic, which films (which don't have to be dramatic) have a great emotional impact on you or even make you cry?

for me the 2 top in my head are E.T. and Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

but I could equally get emotional by Indiana Jones and the temple of doom (which i consider the best adventure film ever made), Superman or even Spacecamp! ( a movie that i also watched dozens of time in VHS when i was a kid).

well, now that I think about it, 50% of my emotions is that these films are part of my childhood.

(I'm sure lots of people would deny the craftmanship of Spacecamp! hehe)

So, feel free to answer the question in bold. ;)

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Blade Runner (not the rooftop scene in particular though but the feeling of loneliness throughout the film)

Elephant Man (only saw it once and I couldn't stop crying - I never want to see it again)

Never Cry Wolf (the title of the film said "cry" so I did)

Empire Of The Sun ("I don't remember what my parents look like" does it every time for me - it comes so unexpected)

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the ones I can think of at the moment: ROTK, pay it forward, forrest gump, green mile, cast away, philadelphia (hehe I like hanks), shawshank, E.T., I am sam, click, dead poets society, big fish, requiem for a dream.

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Elephant Man (only saw it once and I couldn't stop crying - I never want to see it again)

So strong emotions scare you?

No, they scare you, that's why you turn everything into a joke, Steef.

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Things that take us back to our dearest childhood memories always have this kind of effect. I completely understand that.

Anyway, answering your questions, I have a lot movies which causes me deep emotional reaction, almost to the point of being moved to tears or being washed over with joys. Lots of them are mainly because of the masterful combination of direction, music, editing, acting and photography, but mainly because they means the most toward my love for cinema. Here's my picks (I also singled out moments with really high emotional peaks for me):

Star Wars (Tie Fighter attack scene)

E.T. (the flying sequence and the start of the bicycle chase)

Superman (the helicopter sequence)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (the truck chase)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Jill arriving at the station)

2001: A Space Odyssey (the whole movie, actually)

Vertigo (the love scene)

Blade Runner (the opening and Batty's monologue)

Jaws (the "Sea Attack n°1" scene and the orca chase)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the beginning, the mashed potato scene and the whole final 25 minutes)

Back to the Future (the clocktower scene)

Citizen Kane (the finale)

The Accidental Tourist (the finale)

The Godfather Part II (Vito arriving in NY and the Don Fanucci's murder)

The Red Shoes (the ballet scene)

Once Upon a Time in America (the whole movie, actually)

Plus a host of others now I don't have the time to list :)

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Transformers 2 made me cry. It's craftmanship, to be precise.

Karol

Be honest. Be manly.

The truck scene of Raiders makes your cry, Maurizio?

Alex

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Babe. That final scene alone, where Babe and his owner prove everyone wrong, is just perfect. So simple, hardly any sound, no tear jerking music, and - yes, yes - it really gets to me every time.

Breaking The Waves also gets me really emotional as does Fucking Amal. Amal ends on a positive note and - like Babe - that can be just as emotional as a tragic story conclusion.

E.T. of course.

Those final minutes of FOTR work for me too, mostly because of the music.

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The truck scene of Raiders makes your cry, Maurizio?

Well, not exactly crying, of course :) But, you know, the whole set-piece is so cinematic, that when Indy starts riding the horse... then chases the truck... then goes out of the window and goes under the truck... and then goes on board again, beats the Nazi and escapes away... all of this accompanied with a great music score... there's a sense of exhilaration, a perfect tension-and-relief mechanism that pays off in such an exuberant way that I can't help but getting misty-eyed just for the pure sense of joy this great movie never fails to give me.

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I do not cry when watching films. Crying is a sign of weakness.

It truly is. It's tragic that in this era of ambiguous gender roles, men are losing their stolidity, as though expressing their emotions somehow makes them more human or something.

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I cryed at the end of Saving Private Ryan, and the ending scenes of War Horse.

Be sure to make a blood sugar test afterwards.

Elephant Man (only saw it once and I couldn't stop crying - I never want to see it again)

This one was hard, i admit.

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It's such a regular occurrence for me, there's just too many movies to count which can make a tear form, but the design and execution of the final few moments of E.T. as the ship launches into the sky are probably the pinnacle of my emotional appreciation of masterful film craft.

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A few on the top of my head:

E.T. The Extraterrestrial - The finale gets me every time no matter how I have decided I won't shed a tear this time.

Schindler's List (yes I went there)

The Lion in Winter - The finale in the cellar is one of the most poignant I have ever seen.

Empire of the Sun

Lord of the Rings trilogy

To Kill a Mockingbird

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Pay It Forward, The Passion of the Christ, United 93, World Trade Center, Forrest Gump, The Green Mile and The Lion King (but only when I watched it for the first time as a 13-year old kid, and only when Mufasa died :P).

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weak men do not cry.

I cannot name all the movies that made my cry.

I know Without a Trace, the Color Purple, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Term's of Endearment probably had the strongest effect. I remember watching grown men sob in the Color Purple through my own tears.

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I remember watching grown men sob in the Color Purple through my own tears.

If they were crying it's because they couldn't bear watching Spielberg abuse the cinematic idiom for his own crassly manipulative purposes.

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but film as a medium is inherently manipulative. It's expressly manipulative. That is the point.

the ones I can think of at the moment: ROTK, pay it forward, forrest gump, green mile, cast away, philadelphia (hehe I like hanks), shawshank, E.T., I am sam, click, dead poets society, big fish, requiem for a dream.

I can see how the ending of Click can be emotional.

it's easy that jason doesn't get it because adam sandler is easy to dismiss.

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I'm a sucker for little Carol Anne in Poltergeist as well. Loads of teary moments in it, but one beautifully delicate standout is during the scene where her mother calls out for her over and over, and she finally says "Hi daddy," as he turns on the lamp. Craig T. Nelson's "hello sweetpea" response is just so subtly observed and Goldsmith handles the high emotion right there with the most gentle musical touch of his career, it's shivers down my spine stuff. That movie has done me in since I was a very young child and it hasn't lost any of its power thirty years later. One of the most honest portrayals of a young family's life ever filmed.

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It's such a regular occurrence for me, there's just too many movies to count which can make a tear form...

It's hard for me to think of anything specific right now, but if I went and took a glance at my Blu collection I'd probably start listing them out. Nothing else makes me cry as much as LOST does, however. I think really great television does it better than film because you've invested more time into the characters and stories. Gervais' The Office did it on a handful of occasions.

Then there's this:

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Things that take us back to our dearest childhood memories always have this kind of effect. I completely understand that.

Anyway, answering your questions, I have a lot movies which causes me deep emotional reaction, almost to the point of being moved to tears or being washed over with joys. Lots of them are mainly because of the masterful combination of direction, music, editing, acting and photography, but mainly because they means the most toward my love for cinema. Here's my picks (I also singled out moments with really high emotional peaks for me):

E.T. (the flying sequence and the start of the bicycle chase)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Jill arriving at the station)

2001: A Space Odyssey (the whole movie, actually)

Vertigo (the love scene)

Jaws (the "Sea Attack n°1" scene and the orca chase)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the beginning, the mashed potato scene and the whole final 25 minutes)

Citizen Kane (the finale)

The Godfather Part II (Vito arriving in NY and the Don Fanucci's murder)

Once Upon a Time in America (the whole movie, actually)

Agreed! :up:

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click

:blink:

I can see how the ending of Click can be emotional.

it's easy that jason doesn't get it because adam sandler is easy to dismiss.

indeed. I'm not saying I loved the movie (but it certainly wasn't terrible either), it just makes me cry like a baby and I know exactly why.

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Alice I get misty eyed at the end of 50 First Dates. The honest ending is very touching and sad and yet happy.

and this gets me

“Let her off the plane! No! No! Did she get off the plane?!?” “I got off the plane.”

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and this gets me

“Let her off the plane! No! No! Did she get off the plane?!?” “I got off the plane.”

awwww! I know right. ross is my dream man! next to marshall eriksen.

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Star Wars (Tie Fighter attack scene)

Good pick. There are plenty of movie scenes that can make me cry (I've long ago decided that watching a movie is pointless if you don't participate emotionally), but this is a good example of a case where it's not the content of a scene, or the actually projected emotions that move me but the brilliance of how it's put together.

Here's one bit where both types come together - and it's only the opening of the film!

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while I don't cry in the movie Carrie I am immensely sad that she's so thoroughly enjoys herself and her shell is about to be broken when the pigs blood happens

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it's easy to forget that a film like Carrie is filled with excellent performances, especially the two main characters.

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it's easy to forget that a film like Carrie is filled with excellent performances, especially the two main characters.

For years I HATED Laurie Piper. Hated. She was sooooo effectively wicked, she was like a witch to me - after I first watched when I was about thirteen.

Years later (this year, actually) she would surprisingly pop up in Twin Peaks in a major role, which was initially a very repugnant element for me as I begun the show. But over time, she became one of the most watchable characters in it. Now I think she's great! A fantastic actress who oozes class and sophistication, she owns the ice cold bitch role whilst clearly having a lot of fun with it.

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Thank you for your inputs but I think many of you didn't quite understand me.

I didn't ask about films that make you emotional through their dramatic plot (eg. someone dies etc.)

but I was talking about films that you get goosebumps and get emotional by their level of craftmanship, and the connection of all the elements (photography, music, scenery etc.) which take cinema in a higher level..

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My David had never seen it, only the tv remake which was okay. At the end he actually screamed aloud. It was awesome. 36 years later the ending is as effective as it was then. It was a great emotional response of pure terror.

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Yes, The Office got me at the end as well, which is especially brilliant (and welcome) since it was NEVER expected.

That ending really hit me hard. I mean seeing Steve Carell like that....it was just really moving...I didn't think a tv sitcom could do that to me...

Some films include:

- E.T.

-Schindler's List

- Return of the King

- King Kong (2005)

- Toy Story 3

Yup this a more recent list

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Thank you for your inputs but I think many of you didn't quite understand me.

I didn't ask about films that make you emotional through their dramatic plot (eg. someone dies etc.)

but I was talking about films that you get goosebumps and get emotional by their level of craftmanship, and the connection of all the elements (photography, music, scenery etc.) which take cinema in a higher level..

acting is craftsman ship just as surely as photography, music, scenery, setwork, staging, etc.

someone dying isn't enough to make you emotional, there has to be a connection for it to work. I'm not sure you get this.

It's the combination of the elements that gives it a total package.

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No, I know what filmmusic was getting at, but the thread sort of veered away from it a bit, as to be expected I suppose. He was asking if people here love film craft so much that they have a strong emotional response to its design and construction - purely on a technical level. Do people weep with joy at the masterful direction and marriage of music during the Raiders desert chase? Yes they do.

Sleight of hand when flexed by artists like Steven Spielberg is an absolute joy to witness, often tearfully so.

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