"Saddest Movie" .. ever seen in a movie theater?

[Stuart G]

Romeo and Juliet ..1968..Stars: Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery,

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

I was on a movie going binge..Got to see them all..and all. I did know it wasn't a happy film, but I came out of the theater crying it was so sad. Awfully sad. I didn't think it would work so well, but the writer knew how to write sad plays, and also, Zeffirelli knew how to direct sad movies.

[Mister Ed]

1. My personal favorite movie of all time. n/t

[FM123]

2. For me, it's a tie...

Sophie's Choice (1982)
Terms of Endearment (1983)

[Guilded Lilly]

7. Sophie's Choice. Yes. I'm still not over it.

[katmondoo]

22. I started watching it then had to stop, just so very sad but you wonder what you would have done.

[Guilded Lilly]

25. I read the book first...

So I knew what I was up against! I can’t wrap my head around it, still.

[hedda_foil]

23. I have never been able to watch Sophie's Choice.

I can deal with Holocaust films and documentaries. I've read widely on the subject and know how close we are to a repetition right here (though they're unlikely to start with Jewish Americans). I've seen scenes of children separated from their mothers then and now, and can handle it. But being forced to choose which of your children will die has always been too awful for me to bring myself to see it.

[Guilded Lilly]

27. I agree. On my worst blue days, that horrible "choice"...

Can haunt one’s mind.

I find what’s happening at the border now in the “haunting” category.

[LakeArenal]

3. Nope. Old Yeller.

Or the Red Pony.

[Iliyah]

4. "Exodus" with Paul Newman . . .

[Walleye]

5. Bambi

[JimGinPA]

6. Our High School Took Us To See It

A cool field trip with unexpected nudity.

[Mike 03]

8. Probably "Million Dollar Baby"

"Sophie's Choice" was traumatic, almost in a category by itself, "beyond sad" but I didn't see it in a theater.

I might change this if I think of something that affected me more.

"Requiem for a Dream" is devastating but, again, didn't see it in a movie theater.

"Silent Running"

[TexasBushwhacker]

33. OMG Million Dollar Baby

I went to see it with a boyfriend and knew nothing about it except it was about a female boxer and Clint Eastwood directed it. It was the first anniversary of my mothers death, who I had cared for as she was dying of breast cancer. I just EXPLODED in tears.

[rzemanfl]

9. "Fahrenheit 911" although I didn't know it at the time. n/t

[peacefreak2.0]

10. Terms of Endearment.

My brother had just died from brain cancer and the movie hit way too close to home for me.

[MuseRider]

11. ET

I was a grown ass adult bawling like a little baby.

That particular Romeo and Juliet was my first, I was in Jr. High I think.

Someone else mentioned Terms of Endearment, I saw that at home thankfully. The entire thing was sadness the funny then sadness. Well done. I love anything that Larry McMurty writes but when I read the book I was amazed at how different it was from the movie.

[in2herbs]

12. The movie Trip to Bountiful has stuck with me. It was sad but contained a powerful messge about

getting old.

[Coventina]

13. I didn't see that one in the theatre, but it immediately popped in my head.

I saw it just after my grandmother died and it absolutely wrecked me.

[in2herbs]

15. I watched it as a video rental back in the 80s. nt

[Submariner]

14. Little Big Man and Soldier Blue both from 1970

about the continuing breaking of peace treaties and Indian slaughters of the old west. These were the top 2 saddest movies for me, and still bother me.

I saw these movies just after serving in the Navy with some Cherokee and Navajo shipmates. and they were not at all like the savages the nuns taught me about. These were very depressing movies to see in the midst of the anti-Vietnam campus riots back in the day.

[EmeraldCoaster]

16. The biscuit eater.

So so sad.
old movie.

[LisaM]

17. "Anne of a Thousand Days".

I saw it multiple times and it got me every time. I was pretty young and it really affected me.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

18. The Champ

[LenaW]

19. "Life is Beautiful" n/t

[rurallib]

20. "The Pawnbroker"

[Sneederbunk]

32. +100

[malchickiwick]

21. Schindler's List; nothing else even comes close for me.

[Satch59]

31. My choice too...

Almost unbearable. That last portion where Schindler was being cheered but all he could feel was regret for not saving more...

Sophie’s Choice
Terms of Endearment (I had just had my daughter so subject matter and hormones were not a good combo...)

[LanternWaste]

41. Yeah, me too. Any distant second is so far distant.

The "I could have done more" monologue at the end gets me every damn time.

Every damn time.

Damn.

[Cartoonist]

24. Bambi and Dumbo

Disney had me bawling at both of them. It's easy to create such emotional responses. Even though it's fake and manipulative, it always works. Unless you're Oscar Wilde.

"One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without dissolving into tears...of laughter."

[dewsgirl]

26. Dating myself here...Titanic.

[dewsgirl]

28. We went the night it premiered, they stood in front and talked

to us beforehand, they even passed out tissues, my husband and the guy next to him were like no not me, by the time it was over we were all traumatized. I have never had that kind of experience in a theatre before or since.

[OregonBlue]

29. Sophie's Choice and Trip to Bountiful.

[Pachamama]

30. "Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

That movie really got to me....

[bluestarone]

34. Where the Red Fern Grows!!

[jrandom421]

35. Saving Private Ryan

The final scenes of Jimmy Ryan returning to Normandy 50 years later. Gazing at all the grave markers at the cemetery, he turns to his wife and says, "Tell me I've led a good life.Tell me I'm a good man." One of the saddest movies I've seen

[Ahpook]

36. Dances With Wolves got me a bit

The context of the movie is bad enough, but anything with animals hurts me to the core.

The scene towards the end when Two Socks was killed for no reason (which is all to prevalent) is saddening and infuriating.

[hunter]

37. 1984

In a huge old ornate downtown theater.

There were not many people in the theater to begin with, but by the end of the movie it was just me and another guy sitting in the back.

He may have been drunk.

Or dead.

I generally avoid all sad movies.

Had enough in real life.

[JCMach1]

38. Charlotte's Web... every time, every version

Damn it!

[LaelthsDaughter]

39. LaLa Land

I am a woman... I’m very fond of my dramas. Lala land was released in I think 2017/2018. I had just been a stage hand for my local theater’s Beauty and the beast. We all went out to watch LaLa Land. Now... I rarely ever cry for a movie. I’ve only cried for two. Lala Land was one of them. The story is super sweet and slowly turns so sour. The main couple do get together and try to live a really good life reaching thier dreams, but their dreams lead them away from each other. In the end they break up and move on. They have their own lives and everything. Well... they meet again breifly and at the end of the movie it shows the audience everything they could have had together if they had just pushed through the hard times. It’s sooooo sad.

[Paladin]

40. "Testament" (1983)

A small California community goes through its final days, after a nuclear war. With Jane Alexander and William Devane. Grim beyond description; to this day, I regret seeing it.