SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD: "Behind Blue Eyes," and I'm hearing the version by Limp Bizkit. I sat outside of our local grocery store and listened to the radio, while sitting in the driver's seat. It is such a nice day and I feel so dumb for sitting here next to this damned computer.
Today was a good day of school. In my film class, we read the article out of Entertainment Weekly, "Top 50 Greatest Tear Jerker's of all Time." It was a good article, I've read it before, BUT...a lot of those movies are ones that I haven't seen. I own "Kramer vs. Kramer," but I've never seen it. "Sophie's Choice," nope. "Terms of Endearment" was number one, I own it, but I've never seen it. Our teacher told us to write down ten that we disagreed with or agreed with and told us to add some.
So I have made my own list of my top ten greatest tear jerker's of all time, and tear jerkers are exactly that, these can be happy tears too
TOP TEN FAVORITE TEAR JERKER'S: Note: Major plot points are given away.
1. "Stepmom." Though there are plenty of happy tears throughout this wonderfully made film, the hardest one to keep the tears from leaking is near the end where Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts talk in the restaurant. Julia talks about how she'll have to mother the kids when she will always be compared to their mother. The next hardest part is when Susan talks to her children on Christmas morning, and they say that they will miss her. Oh man, I need to go onto the next movie before I tear up right here.
2. "The Sixth Sense." Bruce Willis realizing he's dead was not as emotional as it should have been. The part where I always tear up is the scene where Cole (Haley Joel Osment) decides it is time to talk to his mother about his sixth sense. He can see the dead. His mother, of course, would think he's crazy, so he talks about his grandma, his mother's mom. "She saw you talking to her at her grave, and she says you asked her a question. She said the answer is...'Everyday.'" What was the question?"
The mother, in tears, manages to get out "I asked her...'Did I make you proud?'"
3. "Patch Adams." His love, who is a hard studier and bitchy in the beginning, turns out really nice when she decides to go to Patch's hospital to cure people using laughter. One of the patients murders her and kills himself. The scene where Patch mourns her over her tombstone includes a love poem and then he cries "I love you so much!" Critics hated this movie, but I can't help but cry. In the end, when Patch is put on trial in order to stay in school, he gives a speech about laughter and doctors, and the happiness is a great feeling. The movie ends with Robin mooning an audience at graduation and you leave the theater wiping your eyes.
4. "We Were Soldiers." There are a couple of scenes where the letters arrive home, and finally the taxi driver comes up to Mel's character's wife's house. It turns out that he couldn't find somebody elses house, but for the whole movie, the wife is terribly afraid of her husband getting killed. Mel is in the battlefield acting really tough and like a great leader. In the end, when he finally arrives home, he gives his kids hugs and his wife a kiss, and I always tend to spill my emotions out. That scene is my favorite scene, too.
5. "Scooby Doo." I know, you're wondering why the hell this cheesy kids movie would be on this list. Scooby Doo is taken by Rowan Atkinson (also known as Mr. Bean) as a sacrifice to complete his plan on...absorbing human spirits or something like that. Scooby is taken up to this weird lookin machine while a cool and creative song is sung by the monotoned zombie-like people who are on the funky island. Shaggy steals one of the badguy's costumes, and goes out to save his canine friend. He persuades Scooby to believe in friendship again. Matthew Lillard says, in the most cute voice "Who you're best pal in the whole wide world?"
Scooby's eyes, all teary, says "You."
6. "Ransom." Mel Gibson gives the most awesome performance as a wealthy father who is paying for it, though not paying for the ransom of his son. In the phone conversation in the end, he and the badguy are screaming at each other. Mel doesn't want to pay, because he thinks the badguy will kill his son anyways, and the badguy wants the money. "You kill him, and you will wish you weren't born. I will dedicate my life to hunting you down" are some of the lines Mel gives into the phone. The badguy yells back and then pulls the trigger and for about a minute, Mel is in shock. Me, as the audience, feels the same pain any father would feel if he was in the situation. He starts crying, and every single time I see this movie, I cry with him. Great camera motions show both sides, the badguys and Mel and the FBI, and Mel's character's wife...who slaps him for yelling on the phone. The kid lives because the badguy wasn't stupid enough to shoot him. The rest of the movie is thrilling.
7. "Armaggedon." After choosing straws to find out who is supposed to stay on the giant asteroid heading towards the sweet planet earth, Bruce Willis takes Ben Affleck down to the yucky surface of the asteroid to say goodbye. Ben Affleck was the chosen one, but breaking his air supply off, Bruce decides that he's the one to stay. The one who stays is the one who pulls the trigger that nuke's the asteroid in half, which would make it miss the planet earth, saving billions of lives. Bruce's last transmission is his last talk with his daughter. He tells her to marry Ben, who he has disliked the whole movie. He accepts Ben as a husband to his daughter. This is the part where I always have wet eyes. Then he tells his daughter to tell certain people he "couldn't do it without him." This scene wouldn't have been so emotional if it wasn't for the whole cast of characters in the movie listening to the conversation between him and his daughter, and crying too. Bruce tells her "I love you very very much," and then the daughter, played by Liv Tyler, cries and tells him not to leave her as he says "I gotta go now, sweetheart." The asteroid explosion was actually really beautiful.
8. "Ice Age." This movie is too cute. There are so many funny parts, and I love all of the voices. John Leguizamo made up his own voice and it was really awesome. Ray Romano was the reason I even saw the movie, and he was great in it. He was totally different than his show. The character "Raymond" on the show needs everybody to love him. The movie character's name is "Manfred," and he just wanted to be left alone. The plot is three animals take care of a baby and try to find her family. After beating a herd of mountain lions, who had set up an ambush to kill two of the friends who weren't mountain lions. The mountain lion played by Denis Leary decides his new friends are better than his mountain lion mob. He helps the friends get the baby out of there, though he is injured in the process, and Manfred and the sloth have to leave him to get to the baby's family. In this final scene, no words are used when the family of the baby sees the large mammoth, Manfred, carrying the little baby, who has been so cute throughout the movie. No words used, I said. It is still emotional because it is a big "Goodbye" scene. After the baby is taken away by the father, the mountain lion shows up, alive. He covers his eyes and says "Wheeeeere's the baby?" like he had done to calm the baby down when she was crying during the movie. It was a cute movie, and I can't help but cry out my happiness.
9. "What Dreams May Come." In the beginning, the movie is very fast paced for such a drama. Robin Williams meets a nice woman, gets married, has two children, and then watches his children get driven away by the nanny. "That was the last time Annie and I ever saw them alive." The next scene is at the funeral, and Williams' tears are heartbreaking. During the movie there are flashbacks to the funeral. One is a speech Robin Williams gave at the funeral for his son, and it is equally heartbreaking.
Robin drives home one night to see his wife on his anniversary, and sees an accident happen right before his eyes. He gets out, and being the doctor he is, tries to help the injured people. While helping a woman upside down in her car, another car jumps out of nowhere and hits him. Robin dies about 20 minutes in the movie. Like I said, it's fast paced. His wife mourns him on earth, and these scenes are so heartbreaking too.
In the end of the movie, after Robin had gone to hell to get his wife after she commited suicide, and because she commited suicide, (suicides go to hell) he decides to stay with her in hell. He wakes up in his dream house, and soon finds his wife there with him. SO much emotion, so much happiness...but not as happy as when he sees his children in his heaven also. Then he and his wife choose to live another life, and they meet each other again. Such a happy ending. This movie takes you through a whole life, its an amazing movie, very well made, and has great special effects.
10. "Con Air." This movie is about a war hero sent to prison because he killed someone. He killed the person out of self defense, but the judge of his trial thought differently. The movie is awesome, the characters are great, the directing is fast paced and action packed, and the story is fun to see over and over. In the end, after killing John Malkovich's character, "Sirus the Virus," he sees his family in the crowds of police who are all over Las Vegas. Cameron Poe, played by Nicolas Cage, was getting out of prison this day and flown to see his wife, but that plan changed when a group of convicts took over the plane, Con Air. In the end though, Cameron finally sees his wife and his daughter...he had never seen his daughter before. He takes out the bunny that he had bought in prison and gives it to her. His shy daughter hides behind her mother, looking at the bunny, who had been opened and was muddy. When his daughter accepts the bunny after Faith Hill's song plays, I can't help but cry for their happiness and the life he will be living.
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Those are the GREATEST tear jerkers of all time, in my mind. They sure aren't the only ones. I'm sure I am forgetting some really sad movie, but if I can't think of it now, it must not have been so great, right? Other ones that could have been put here are "Signs" and "Braveheart." I think Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis and of course Robin Williams are the best actors to make you cry.
This has to be one of my most favorite entries I have ever written, because I felt like crying, picturing each scene in my mind, and writing about it. This made me so happy and so sad. But I like crying. Not out of my own pain, of course.
When I see other's cry, I cry. That's how it has always worked. I cry with people. I don't ever want to cry for people, I wanna cry with them. That'll bond a friendship more than most things.
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