Never seen Old Yeller because I know what happens in the end. However, the black and white film "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" although a drama has me in floods of tears at the last scene. Even hearing the music makes me want to cry. I have no idea why the idea of Mrs. Muir dying and being reunited with the Captain has this effect on me but it does. Never saw the movie Watership Down but read the book and the last page makes me weep buckets. Who knows what makes us so sad?

I disagree. In my opinion, the saddest movie of all time was "The Way of All Flesh", which starred Akim Tamiroff and Gladys George. This was the talking version of the film originally made as a silent with Emil Jannings in the lead role. I believe Jannings won Best Actor for his role in the silent version. You needed a rowboat to get out of the theater where this supreme tearjerker was shown. The 1979 version of "The Champ" couldn't hold a candle to the earlier version starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper.

Also, Old Yeller is hilarious compared to a British animated film called "The Plague Dogs". It's from the same people who made Watership Down, and even makes that look cheery in comparison. Another animated British film, "When the Wind Blows" is also probably one of the most depressing things ever made. It's about an elderly British couple trying to survive after a nuclear attack, and it goes about as well as you'd expect. Not a movie, but the short anime "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket" is also in the top tier of the most depressing works of fiction. IMHO it's easily as sad as Grave of the Fireflies, and if anything it shows an extremely important perspective of the horrors of war as it's told from someone who hasn't been experiencing the combat and brutality directly (the main character is a young boy living on a colony that declared itself neutral, and in the beginning sees war as little more than something distant and exciting. That changes, OH BOYYY does it change). But yeah, I think it says something when someone who laughed when Mufasa bit it finds something sad.

Yeah, I'm the kind of person who cackles in amusement when Bambi's mom or Mufasa bites it. Not sure this would get the intended results from me. Now, to prove I'm not a pod person, I can't make it five minutes into the last episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica without being reduced to a sobbing wreck. The one time I watched Grave of the Fireflies produced similar results.

Thank yo for showing us this wonderful stuff

For everyone saying Sophie's Choice, read the article. It has to be a scene where no other emotions can be felt, pure sadness. I've seen Sophie's Choice and the scene you're all mentioning didn't make me cry of sadness, but of anger that she was put in that position. Pay It Forward made me cry, A.I., lots of Disney films and anything with kids/animals being emotionally strained. For people saying how can an animal dying be sadder than a kid losing his father; it has to do with the connection kids and animals have and the purity of it. A dog never got mad at a kid, their relationship is pure and there is nothing negative about it. When I saw My Dog Skip, I started crying like crazy. If you have a dog you know how special they can be and how when you are down they are always there and never judge you. As far as fear, I think that would be the hardest to test. Neither of those films would work. I'm a horror movie geek and I can't think of one that would scare me. Show me a drama about WWII and I will have chills. Now that is scary!

The saddest part about the movie isn't just that the Champ dies, but that he dies trying to earn money to buy a pony for the boy, who cries, "I don't want the pony!"

I remember my mom recommending "All Mine to Give" to a neighbor telling her it was such an uplifting movie. When my mom checked with neighbor after the seeing the movie, upon opening the door, our neighbor had the most swollen face and eyes my mom had seen! The neighbor was totally distraught after seeing the film and crying helplessly. My mom laughed so hard at her reaction though...that was my mom's thought of a fun prank. I'd add other "sad" scenes: TV mini-series Holocaust (tons of crying scenes), "The Pianist" (good grief...I never cried so much), "Schindler's List" end, and I hate the scene in "Somewhere in Time" when Christopher Reeve finds the 1979 penny in his inside pocket! (Richard!!!!!)

I agree with some of those that state "Ole Yeller" as the saddest movie ever. For me, I believe it was because I was so young when I saw it and even way back then a staunch dog lover. It was literally also the first movie where the main animal star ended up dying. I cried for hours and even my Mom always remembered how much I reacted to that movie. I would not watch TV for quite some time afterwards. One of the next saddest ones for me was Brian's Song...strange that even in my 60's I can well recall my sadness at these movies. These are the movies that really made me cry, not just tear up abut ones that affected me deeply. I am sure everyone has their own movie or even book that affected them, the one thing we all have in common is how much we recall the pain even if we do not fully remember the movie itself!!

How can death in an animated film be just as sad? Which part is sad? When they stop drawing the animated character? The Champ is one of the saddest films I've ever seen. So realistic. I saw it once when I was young and I've never forgotten the scene when the dad dies.

Oh I left something out of my previous comment; it should be: Old Yeller, Bambi, Land Before Time, Charlotte's Web (73), There's Good Boos Tonight (Casper), Champ.

I thought this was going to be about Old Yeller, which is still tops for me. And while that scene from the Champ is very sad, I personally find key death scenes in Land Before Time, Dumbo and There's Good Boos To-Night (Casper) to be sadder than Champ's.

I contend that the saddest movie ever is Sophie's Choice. The moment of her decision is heart breaking - a scene that is haunting and of utter despair.

I think the 8-minute love story scene in the animated movie Up will have a better effect on emotions. I have never cried watching a movie. This one certainly moved me.

I think that sensitivity to the tragic dimensions of life may be a gift bestowed on depressed people. It can be overdone, of course, but my responses to particularly poignant and cathartic moments in films are particularly meaningful to me. Come to think of it, the particularly 'sad' moments in film that stand out in my memory are not usually those of irreversible loss, as in 'The Champ', but of particularly vital crises in the lives of principal characters. One of these is the moment in 'The Mission' when the DeNiro character, who murdered his own brother in a duel, finds forgiveness at the hand of a Guarani Indian, whose people the mercenary had enslaved for reward for most of his life. The former has just completed a journey of atonement in which he slogged for days through the rainforest bearing a sack containing his armor (Is that symbolic or what?)to the eponymous mission. Instead of slashing the utterly exhausted man's throat with a knife, a young Guarani cuts the bindings of the burden. My sense of identification with the forgiven man was so strong I could barely contain my sobs, grateful that I didn't arrive at the theater stoned, as was my practice in those years (the late '80s). There are cinematic episodes that have moved me to sustained bouts of extreme, nearly homicidal, rage. The slide show of news photographs of bar raids and arrests of homosexuals in the pre-Stonewall era that prefaces 'Milk'.

In the 1970s Psychology Today reported on the composition of tears. The researchers they quoted reported the use of sad films and found the the original Brian's Song to be the best "tear getter." I still agree.

no, not at all.

Not the saddest but the most inspiring movie scene (also the funniest) I ever saw on tv long after it was in the theaters was Mickey Rooney as a terribly injured skater crawling to the window of his hospital room, pulling himself up and yelling out the window to no one in particular, "I'll skate again!" I use that expression often: I'll [whatever] again!

As far as I'm concerned, the five-minute marriage montage at the beginning of "Up" is the saddest scene in all of film.

@GNR Yeah, because a boy losing his dog is much more tragic than a boy losing his father.

Also, I have to assume that if this was done today, Marley and Me would be a top contender.

The title of this article is misleading. The Champ isn't the Saddest "Movie" in the World, it has the Saddest "Movie Scene" in the World. And even then, it's hard to know how "Old Yeller", didn't win out.

I have never heard of "The Champ" All the people I talk to say that "Old Yeller" was the saddest movie ever.

"Marley & Me" is by far the saddest movie ever made. I challenege anyone to sit through the ending of that movie and not be a wreck afterward.

Do vampires really exist

The entire film "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is sadder than that, imho.

Two films Forbidden Games and Johnny Got His Gun. Both of these show the hidden costs of war.

I was a wet mess over "An Affair to Remember" again this week. But I recall "The Champ" being a classic tear jerker, I had to go into heavy "it's only a movie mode" to avoid a meltdown in front of my date.

It's obvious that who ever wrote this article about the champ made in 1979 has not seen the original version starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper. The movie is the saddest movie ever made, but the version starring Ricky Schroder does not compare to the emotions generated by the original movie. Show me someone who can evoke emotion any better than Jackie Cooper, and I will show you Jackie Cooper.

Sadness induced by watching a film depends on the empathy the watcher has with the watched. My friends and I get nothing from watching kid and dog films. My wife and daughter don't either. Sure, watching some Guatemalan kid shining shoes with his dad in the public square when he should be in school is disturbing. But translating that to the screen cheapens the experience. That bearded bald guy on TV that tries to get money to feed starving children is irritating. Seeing a real starving child in India is sad and get my dollar, but on TV? It's all fake. The Dems have used "for the children" too many times. I think they've desensitized a lot of us to feeling empathy for kids in the movies or TV. We feel like suckers when some kid starts bawling because his dog was shot and we are supposed to care.

What about Immitation of Life????

today I was weepy, missing my son Adam. So I prayed give me another sign Adam ,(when I first saw him after he passed, I felt energy coming from him as I hugged him) somehow that gave me a sense of momentory peace. I ended up here,and saw the reference for where the red fern grows. That was one of Adams favorites and we talked about it. That was my sign,,,Adam died of a drug overdose when he was 21!!

The Champ is a very sad movie, but, have you never seen Old Yeller?

I agree with the comment by Caroline Gutierrez Abreu- Grave of the Fireflies is the absolute saddest movie ever. I watched it with my husband when we were dating. I didn't just cry during the movie, I SOBBED hysterically throughout the entire thing! My husband kept asking if I wanted to turn it off, but it was such a well done film, I didn't want to stop watching it. The next day, my friends at work kept asking if I was okay, because my eyes were so puffy. I couldn't even explain the movie without crying again.

no not the saddest it is always "Where the red fern grows"

The article "Unmasking Thomas Jefferson" in the October issue of the Smithsonian Magazine did not change my opinion of Thomas Jefferson. I have considered him to have been a almost total failure as an idol of what the virtuous American could be. His fame rests on his ability to write as shown in the Declaration of Independence, even though what he wrote was heavily edited before it was printed. He can be given credit for the Louisiana Purchase, but that sums up his positives. My antipathy to him is based on some of his negative actions as a politician. First, he refused to function as the second Vice President during the Adams administration. When he became the third President of the United States he immediately destroyed the Navy that Adams had worked so hard to establish. The embargo that he enacted was a direct cause of the War of 1812. This article only confirmed what one would expect about his treatment of his slaves. As a Virginia planter it would be expected that he would own several slaves, and as a Virginia planter it could expected that he would treat them as his peers treated their slaves. A humanitarian he was not.

If we can include animation as well as live action film, I would nominate "Grave of the Fireflies" as the most excruciating and depressing watch I've ever experienced. I can't even view it again, and seeing screen shots still elicits feelings of hopelessness and loss. It is a Japanese anime done as a feature film, no big eyes or craziness, just the dry, cold horror of WWII Japan for a pair of children.

A.I.

Saddest movie I've ever seen was "Madame X" bar none....

Gone With the Wind

I thought for sure it would be "Old Yeller." I guess that was a long time ago and newer movies have upped the tear quotient, but I've never heard of anyone who could watch "Old Yeller" twice.

Good grief. This is what they spend grant money on. Unbelievably inane.

Don't forget "Shane" and "Old Yeller" and, a prediction, the end of the movie that will come from the third book of "Hunger Games" will be very sad, if they are true to the story.

Different kind of sadness, but Slumdog Millionaire (though brilliant) hits me in the gut with a deep sadness to think about mass poverty in India

"Ordinary People" directed by Robert REdford.

I'll never be the same after watching Hachiko with Richard Gere.

"Terms of Endearment" when Debra Winger passes and Shirley Mclaine says something to the effect that she thought it would be a relief when she finally passed from cancer....gets me everytime! The loss of a child, no matter what age, what reason....just not the natural order.

Meryl Streep making her decision in Sophies Choice

Two heart wrenching scenes for me are the funeral in Steel Magnolias when Sally Fields is asking why her daughter died and in My Dog Spot when the boy grows up and the dog dies. Then in the cartoon world when Andy, of Toy Story fame, goes off to college. My Dad used to tease me because I cried at all the Shirley Temple movies, especially Heidi when the Grandfather was looking for her. =whew=

The Notebook is one o my favorite movies of all times,I cry every time they are seperated.

The ultimate fear scene for me is the chainsaw scene from Scarface.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine" That song, I do not know why, made both my grandsons and their mother as well, cry. I guess the part, "please don't take my sunshine away" is what did it. I still do not sing it to them and they are 14 and 19 now! A sad song.....

I am uncapible of crying during sad movies, sad songs,ect. I just don't have that emotional connection to the concept. Or I'm just a robot. Well written article.

I was stunned at how emotionally moved I was by "Life is Beautiful"

"Cast Away" and 2005 remake of "Kingkong" are tear-jerkers as well..

I'm surprised Grave of the Fireflies isn't even mentioned. Saddest. Movie. Ever.

Or what about that one clay animated show from the 70's, about that one little donkey with the long over sized ears..... when I was about 7 years old,I used to cry as hard as I can into my pillow. How ironic though. I'm 41 now and I still get choked up when I see people getting abused,or hurt.

Hello Jan, (Comment #5 from top) I know the song. It's called "turn Around".I believe the sadness you experienced with this commercial may have more than just the song that is the reason for such sadness.The song is filled with a type of loss of a child to his parents by simply growing old so fast. I Believe by watching the video, as well as listening to the song, with the background noise, and a little acknowledgment of the reality of (losing) a loved one, can really put a spell on your emotions ( especially ) if you are prone to this type of sadness. I Listened to a song called "That joke isn't funny anymore" by the Smiths back in the early 90's, and it used to bring such sickening sadness to me, and I could never figure out why this was so sad. But now being 41 years old,I believe I have a reasonable answer. back in the late 80's-early 90's, I was faced with a bad relationship,and no true future for myself; so that when I heard certain types of music(specifically)from the Smiths;I shared all types of miserable feelings that death itself couldn't hide; but yet it made me feel a part of someone else's misery that somehow kept me together. Today, I have no more of these experiences, and sometimes I wish I could hit those high note emotions again, as I believe they are just something God gave some of us to understand how deep Love really is. Take care......Jason Rhyner.

Come on what about the multi oscar winner ? The Colour Purple that movie does it to me each time I watch it.A big box of tissue always by my side when watching this classic.

I would argue that 'Trip To Bountiful' belongs on thie list. It's a great tear-jerker. I would not argue with 'Old Yeller' at the top of the list. I actually refuse to watch 'Notebook' again.

Philadelphia during the aria scene is very moving. As for the eyes welling up every time, though, it's that droning opening note of Bruce Springsteen's song "Streets of Philadelphia."

I agree about "The Champ". I have to also put my two cents in for the original "A Dog of Flanders". That poor kid losing his grandfather, then trying to fend for himself does it to me every time.

There was a Kodak commercial in the 1960's that used the song with the lyrics, "Where are you going?...my little one , little one..."(I don't know the title);that today reduces me to tears in a matter of seconds(even as I write this I am crying). Just thinking of it produces a strong feeling of sadness and loss. Maybe they should have tried commercials for a response, there are some good ones out there even today like the Folgers ad where the son surprises the mom on Christmas morning. On the other hand I have never cried at the scene in Dr. Zhivago where he has his heart attack at the end and the heart wrenching scene in Sophies Choice is just too shocking to bring tears at that moment. I was also never scared as a child of the witch in the Wizard of Oz, but any realistic Nazi movie scares me to this day; I couldn't even make it all the way through Schindlers List. I am not Jewish either.

Sophie's Choice is too sad to be imagineable, and close behind is Dr. Zhivago, as well as The Thorn Birds and Schindler's List. All such tragic stories!

I have been waiting to say something about this for a long time to someone who might be able to do something about it. Everyone I know that has seen the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler says they cried during a particular scene in which his character is dieing. Now, the thing about it is, the movie is just insufferable. It's just not a funny movie, and everyone acknowledges that it's bad, but we all cry during that scene. I've always wondered why.

reading these posts my throat tightened and tears welled with the mere mention of "Brian's Song" ! When Gayle Sayers said, "I love Brian Piccolo." Well . . .

And of course ditto to the others mentioned . . .

There so many moovies with such great actors and scenes that grab your heart. Dr. Zhivago is one among such moovies.The scene at the end when he dies trying to reach the train on which the love of his life is on...it really got me...and about his child also...
There are so many and that's why they are "Classics"
Merci-Thank you

Please do not forget Penny Serenade with Cary Grant, and the JOy Luck Club. (the theater had tissues waiting on the counter as people left the theater. )

The movie "The Orphanage" (Juan Antonio Bayona) got to me. I felt dooped into watching it and then just being so, so sad after.

Gotta put my two cents in here for "Old Yeller" but I also bawl evertime I watch "Dr. Zhivago" and "Forest Gump."

I am surprised that "Field of Dreams" wasn't mentioned (unless I just missed it). Also, what about musicals? Carousel, Les Miserables --- Camelot chokes me up every time, especially when I connect it with JFK.

Movies I watched that elicited prolonged, out-loud sobbing: Seabiscuit (I think that was the name of a 1940s film about a dog that I saw as a child. The whole first row of the little theater was crying.), Out of Africa, Steel Magnolias and Brokeback Mountain.

Some of the saddest scenes I have ever seen have come from animated movies. Bambi ("Man has entered the forest"), Dumbo, Toy Story 3 (the end is very touching), and the one I would put at the top of my list would be the montage near the beginning of the movie "Up". I think every adult in the theater I was in was trying to hold back tears (unsuccessfully) at the end of that scene.

Hitchcock's "Frenzy." A poor young girl raped and strangled in her office. She says the Lord's Prayer while being raped, perhaps thinking it will all be over soon, not knowing her death is coming after the rape. I don't know why my parents let me see the movie with them---I was ten--but it stayed with me as the saddest thing I've ever seen on the screen.

Am I wrong, but wasn't the original movie with Jackie Cooper and Wallace Berry?

I immediately thought of The Color Purple - just thinking of the title makes me feel devastatingly sad!

My husband and I both thought the same thing immediately: Sophie's Choice.

I was told after my heart attack that for some reason. I would cry more and it seems to be true. As for the latest movie I've seen "Taking Chance" with Kevin Bacon gets my vote.

I agree with Joan Solswisch. I avoid watching "Schindlers List" and "Saving Private Ryan" both because of the ending.

Have to agree with all the Brian's Song folks. As mentioned by others, even though I have not seen the movie in years, if I hear that music, I feel the tears start welling up. That speech that Billy Dee Williams (as Gayle Sayers) gives at the award ceremony---that was the first time I ever remember not being able to hold "the sob" back during a movie.

Same problem with the movie "My Life" during the scene when Michael Keaton's character is having his face shaved by his dad. It is an incredibly touching moment.

I also cried quite a lot during A Beautiful Mind. I felt such empathy for Nashes battle with mental illness, and such admiration for his effort to live with it.

It's interesting to read the results of this effort. I have heard about Hachi and just knowing about the story is enough for me to not ever watch the movie. I understand that others wouldn't be as affected by this subject, so though I doubt I'd be as affected by the scene in the Champ, I understand it's a relative ranking.

For me, Old Yeller, Bambi and probably the scene referred to in Shane would be up there, but Elephant Man had several scenes in it I'd rank objectively high on the standard sadness scale ;-) It's also interesting to admit that I don't have a ready access to sad movie scenes to recall. I've seen plenty, but I don't choose to readily access those feelings. Your Moviesadness May Vary.

I lost a child the day before his 8th birthday and made the statement to friends that it was the most amazing thing to have been there when he came into my life and the sweetest thing to have been there when he left my life...so imagine my surprise to hear almost those same words said during the movie "Steel Magnolias". I cry every time when the mother leaves the hospital to go find her grandson.
Also another favorite is "My Dog Skip"....love the ending even though I cry.

I think that a lot of people who are posting their "saddest movie" are missing the point of "The Champ" (although, to be fair, it IS the name of the article). Many of the movies posted may well be much sadder, and much more emotionally affecting. However, many of those films build up that emotion over the course of the movie. This single scene is understandable in and of itself. "Hachi" may be very sad, but would a single two minute scene of the dog waiting for an absent master convey this, or would people wonder where the master had gone? "Old Yeller", for example, requires people to understand that the dog has bonded with the family, and has defended them from the rabid animal, before it makes nearly as much sense why it is so sad to euthanize a sick dog.

As I was going to this link and before the answer was revealed, I too thought to myself, "Hmmm. Saddest clip? Old Yeller." Saw it once as a kid. Bawled at the end. I could never watch it again. It still gets my vote. Now if they did most depressing, my vote would be "House of Sand and Fog." No one gets off free or redeemed. COMPLETE downer from beginning to end. Be warned.

I can't even hear the music from "Brian's Song" (the story of Brian Piccolo) without feeling as sad as I did the first time I saw the movie over 30 years ago. My husband and I were newly married at the time and it was the first time I'd really seen him cry.

I consider 2006's "Pan's Labyrinth" by Guillermo Del Toro an extremely sad movie throughout. One can't help but fear the faith of the girl Ofelia. I burst into tears when she finally gained immortiality in the cave.

Who did this study? Did they ask the rest of the universe??? The Champ?? Really, come on. The saddest rated movie, according to the study done by ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, as a challenge to these so-called scientists at Berkeley, determined that it was "Old Yeller," followed closely by "Imitation of Life." Personally the saddest movie that I ever saw, that really affected me, was "Hachi, A Dog's Tale."

I second "Old Yeller" and would also add the scene at the end of "Shane" with the boy calling "Shane! Come back!" I don't know why so many westerns seem to be tear-jerkers.

"Lorenzo's Oil" has gut-wrenching scenes. Scenes in which Lorenzo loses his ability to walk, to use a fork... we had to take a break in the middle for respite from all my sobbing.

I just saw the movie "The Help" today. I used every tissue, and there was a wad of them, in my purse. I still feel very emotional just sitting and thinking about it.

the saddest movies for me ..and there are many..is We Were Soldiers...Philadelphia n .....Million Dollar Baby !

The saddest movie I've seen lately was "Hachi." I cried so hard when the dog, Hachi, waited every day for his master (Richard Geer) at the train station not knowing that his master had died.

There was a Japanese drama called "One Liter of Tears" (Ichi Rittoru no Namida, I think), based on a true story about a girl with a neuromuscular degenerative disease. She does not know about the nature of her illness for much of her high school attendance, but in the end must leave school when the symptoms become too pronounced. In the scene where she is leaving her class, her classmates sit briefly in their room, and then explode out the door to see her one last time. They gather together and sing a choral piece that they had performed under her direction, before her disease was known about. It is heartbreaking and uplifting to see them choking on their tears as they sing their hearts out for her.

Scenes of loyalty and sacrifice always hit me hard.

Another type of sad 'movie' is a short music video entitled "Kudryvaka" (I may not have that right); about the dog better known as "Laika", who was sent into space by the Soviet space program. The song is sung from the dog's perspective. She is loyal and wants to please her master, even though she doesn't know what it's all about. She is frightened by the conditions of being shot into space. The most heartbreaking line in the song goes: "The last water you gave me was slightly salty." (with the trainer's tears falling into them).

Kudryvaka is very sad because of the juxtaposition of the dog's unwavering loyalty and faith in her master, and her uncomprehending suffering. It always makes me cry.

Hands down: 1993's "Shadowlands," with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, about C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. Heartbreaking. But there may not be just one scene. And I'm not gonna watch it again just to find out.

I've been known to cry watching commercials. There are two scenes in Dances With Wolves that bring tears every time. Early on after Kevin Costner pulls on the boot and mounts his horse he rides up and down between the warring sides with his arm outstretched in seeming surrender. The other is after he arrives at the soddy in the plains and he looks and discovers only wide open space stretching miles and miles. Such utter lonliness.

There are times I forego watching a movie because I just can't countenance the emotional cost. Schindler's List is one such movie.

The Passion of the Christ. The scene in which Jesus's flesh is ripped to shreds.

I openly bawled during "Terms of Endearment" -- and hated myself for doing so, knowing the movie was sentimental claptrap and shamelessly manipulating me and everyone else in the audience.

To me the saddest (ever) video scene actually did take place in Memphis, TN; It is Elvis' Funeral Procession especially when these lyrics are heard:

"Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton; old times there are not forgotten look away, look away, look away Dixieland;
....hush little baby, don't you cry...All my trials Lord, soon be over".

And his trials WERE finally over when he found his "PEACE IN THE VALLEY". His gospel recordings are uplifting as well as touching!

"True Grit," either the original or the remake. When Rooster is forced to ride Mattie's horse, Little Blackie, to death to save her life, I'm almost catatonic.

"Dances with Wolves" also comes to mind when Dunbar encounters cavalrymen, he can see through his experiences who the real savages are. (They also shoot his horse). (I don't know how the movie ends. For all I know, the cast linked arms and sang "Puttin' on the Ritz," but I was crying too hard.)

Brians Song. Just hearing that music still chokes me up.

Chas, the remake with Rick Schroeder was made in 1979. I watched this movie with my father. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.

Saddest movie scene ever? After Deborah Kerr is hit by a taxi on her way to the Empire State Building to marry Cary Grant, he searches New York for months only to discover her in a wheelchair. Who can watch this recognition scene without weeping??!!

There is a difference between the saddest movie and the saddest scene from a movie. If the criterion is that the clip be only two or three minutes long, then the one from the 1979 re-make of The Champ works well. (Btw, the article did specify that it was the 1979 re-make.)
The "choice" scene from Sophie's Choice also stands on its own as gut-wrenching, but the emotion is not strictly sadness. There is also horror and anger at the injustice of putting Sophie in the position of making that choice.
Other films mentioned have a sadness that builds, and a short clip of one scene would lack the impact of the film as a whole.

Try watching THE DOCTOR with William Hurt. Raindrops will fall.

The saddest movie to me, hands down, was "Old Yeller".

Brokeback Mountain moved me to tears.

The scene in "Snow White" (1939) where the dwarfs are kneeling beside her glass coffin weeping or when in "Bambi" baby Bambi realizes his Mom is dead. And of course all of the Lassie movies. That poor dog (dogs) went through a lot and so did the audience. "Stella Dallas" "To Each His Own" "Anna Karennenia" (sp.?)"Gone With the Wind" and other "3 Hanky" womens' movies were also tear jerkers.

Certainly one of the most emotional movies ever is "Sophie's Choice," based on the novel by William Styron. Near the end of the movie, the audience realizes what the choice entails. At that point, in the theater where I saw the movie, many people were crying, and some were actually sobbing aloud. I had read the book before seeing the movie, but still found the scene devastating.

You have the wrong movie.

This movie is a remake of the Jackie Cooper/ Wallace Beery movie.

There is no way Ricky Schroder could have made a movie in 1931!!

---Chas---

Titanic

Forrest Gump and Million Dollar Baby are two flicks that made me reach for the tissues!

I agree Old Yeller is sad. Also Love Story.

Like Old Yeller its a Dog and Boy movie, but The Biscuit Eater wrenches the tears and sobs. I get teary just posting this. Thank God their are puppies or you would just go hang yourself.

Saddest movie for me? A Spanish film called Mar Adentro, starring Javier Bardem. I spent about half an hour trying to contain my tears, then I just gave up. The scene that did it for me is when he is taken away by an ambulance and a little boy is running after it.

Tearjerker's "Oscar Gold"

How about the last scene in The Elephant Man where he decides to put his head down on the bed and kill himself. That's brutal to watch.

Ponette is by far the saddest movie ever made.

The Dirty Dozen. gets me all chocked up every time :)

When my girlfriend and I were youngsters, we went to this movie and about halfway through, we shouted out "he dies at the end!" wow. you are amazing. Classic idiot alert more like it.

Two films come to mind:

Groundhog Day: There's an old homeless character in the film, it get's to a point in the film where Bill Murray's character has slowly been interacting with him more and more. We finally see his repeated attempts to improve the old man's life, it get's to a point though where we see the old man die right in front of him, he can't do anything about it. Just the look on Murray's face, very sad moment that always makes me cry.

Schindler's List: The whole film is just a shock to the system, it culminates in the last scene where the survivors give him a gold ring, as he breaks down and thinks about the other people he could have saved by selling his car, or using the gold in his nazi party membership badge. This scene always makes me cry as well.

Saving Private Ryan: Just after the death of Capt. Miller it finally fades back to the present, we see Ryan as an old man. He breaks down and asks his wife "Tell me I have led a good life, tell me I'm a good man".

"My life" with Micheal Keaton by far sadest movie ever.

Myself, I was heartbroken that Ned Beatty's Bobby and Billy McKinney's mountain man didn't end up together at the end of "Deliverance". After their passionate love-making scene, I just ASSumed they were star-crossed. It's difficult for me to watch that claasic anymore, without emptying half a box of Kleenex. For my tears you sickos!!!

I've got to second "Grave of the Fireflies." Setsuko's death scene has got to be the most tragic scene in the history of animation. (And yes, I'm including Bambi's mom dying.)

The two saddest movies for me are "Imitation of Life" and "Backstreet'-both with Lana Turner and John Gavin.

'Life is Beautiful'. The end gets me every time. Twice, when the tanks show up.

"Nobody Knows" -One of the best movies I've ever seen, but I haven't been able to get through it a second time because it's so unbelievably heartbreaking.

Do they call this the Voight-Schroeder test?

I've never seen it but I saw part of the footage of the end, which seems like it's really the only "sad" part, where the dad dies and the kid is all like wake up. Well granted it was out of context but I just saw a child actor sobbing. That just seemeed annoying. But aside from the fact it probably wouldnt make me cry at all, i also think that you CANT show a clip out of context and get the same emotion. Often times theres a sort of emotional investment, you watched the whole movie, maybe you get attacched to old yeller. if you just see the clip where he dies, you're lessening the impact, possibly removing it entirely even.

Guaranteed to make you cry-The Champ.

ET, the Extra Terrestrial because you don't want him to leave, but you know he can't stay. Makes me cry EVERY time!

I agree with "Another Jake"....Grave of the Fireflies is hands down the saddest movie ever made.

The final scene in "Cyrano de Bergerac", (Jose Ferrer version). Cyrano is supposed to only be reading it, but instead he recites from memory the final love letter that Roxane's husband Christian supposedly) wrote to her just before a huge battle, and which Cyrano really wrote. Roxane then realizes for the first time that Cyrano has been in love with her all along and that it was he who spoke words of love to her one night under her balcony. Then Cyrano has to tell her that he is dying after having been ambushed by his enemies.

The movie audience has seen the ambush and knows in advance that Cyrano is dying, so when he recites the words "Farewell, Roxane, because today I die" from the letter, you feel like bursting into tears.

what's really sad are these "comedies" they make now days that aren't funny

I second "Grave of the Fireflies", I balled like a little girl, and felt down in the dumps for 2-3 days... I watched it a couple months later and had the exact same effect.

Lots of movies made me cried. But the saddest one for my own, must be A.I. When David's mom dumped him in the forest, I cried like a river. Couldn't stop even until I was home.

For me personally, anytime Emma Thompson cries in a scene, I'm right there with her - even if I've seen it a number of times before. Specifically the two crying scenes in Sense and Sensibility (although in one of those, she's crying tears of joy) and Love Actually always leave me sobbing.

Hardball. G-Baby's eulogy.

"The Green Mile". Gets me every time.

But I suppose the scene I refer to wouldn't work as effectively on its own as the scene from "The Champ", because it requires that you emotionally invest in the characters in the preceding hours first.

One hell of a movie, though, even if its scientific merits are low.

"Researchers are using the tool to study not just what sadness is, but how it makes us behave. Do we cry more, do we eat more, do we smoke more, do we spend more when we’re sad?"

Are you kidding me? What sadness is? People actually think research like this is necessary and/or usefull ?

"Let Him Have It"

Saddest scene in a movie: when Emma dies in Terms of Endearment; I lose it every time.

Once scene in Ghost,
the last scene in Schindler's List when the real families are introduced,
my male friends always say the movie Dad,
First 15 minutes of Up,
Sophie's Choice,
of COURSE Old Yeller,

Have you ever seen the movie "All of Mine to Give"? Try that one out!

What the hell? No "Bicycle Thieves"? You can't have a list of the saddest movies of all-time without that movie. The ending alone is the most devastating moment in film.

I'll always remember the Scene from Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" (1921), where they forcefully take the kid away from Charlie, screaming and crying. Just the fact that you can show such emotions in a silent movie, testaments its greatness.

Hey, what about Hachi, sooooo sad and Marley and Me.

"My Girl" is the saddest movie.

The Bicycle Thief

"Love Story" with Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw

I was inconsolable after watching The Champ as a 10year old child. Utter heart break for sure.

My vote goes to "Imitation Of life" starring Lana Turner one of the great classics

Isn't it interesting that the "saddest movie in the world" is out of a survey containing only american movies?

I agree with Peter! The article leaves out what the other films were and a whole lot more. He is using a study done in 1995. Where has the field of study gone since then? What was the methodolgy of picking the films?

Oh, and don't forget Brian's Song!

There are some good clips from Steel Magnolias and Terms of Endearment, but c'mon...if someone did a formal poll of this, NOTHING would beat Old Yeller, hands down!

I feel that the saddest movie scene from "The Champ", is not the saddest I have seen. The scene from the movie "Radio" with Cuba Gooding when his Mother dies. Nothing is good about a Mom passing. It hurts.

How about "Sophie's Choice" when the Mom is asked to choose which kid gets to stay with her and which one goes to the concentration camp.

The Bicycle Theif(es), Sophie's Choice, God Bless The Child, Million Dollar Baby, Paths of Glory, They Shoot Horses Don't They? are really great tragic films for people who want to cry at movies.

I am not an emotional person, but when I was pregnant I cried at everything. My husband had been trying to get me to watch Grave of the Fireflies for months.I sobbed throughout the whole film. When the little girl is hallucinating from hunger and thinks the rocks are rice... oh man. Heartbreaking!

Obviously, you have NEVER watched the deathbed scene in Terms of Endearment (1983) between Debra Winger and Huckleberry Fox (George Miller Fox, born 6 Oct 1974).

Imitation of Life is the best tear jerker. The scene at the end during the funeral when the daughter realizes its too late.

"Bang the Drum Slowly" or "Brian's Song"

I think the saddest tear movie is " Brian's Song " Thank You

Old Yeller or dumbo not the Champ it made me laugh...Jackie coogan is better

Ghost!

The Champ? I don't think so...Madame X with Lana Turner and John Forsythe in my book has got The Champ beat habds down.

"Love Story"

saddest movie "Imitation of Life" with Lana Turner. The end of of the movie when Sarah Jane weeps for her mother Annie during the funeral procession.

My wife and I both agree Old Yeller was the sadist movie ever.

How about Sophies Choice when she had to decide which child to take and which to leave behind. How can you deny that?

Where the red fern grows .....saddest movie .

Sorry but this is not the saddest movie Imitation of life is .it will have u crying the entire movie.

Definitely, E.T. When E.T. and Elliot are in the tents being tested and E.T. almost dies...it doesn't get any sadder than that! :(

Brain Song death scene Love Story when Ali M dies Ol Yeller when he has to shoot dog

The Thorn Birds - when the Cardinal dies with Meggie at his side.

Brians song!!! racial barriers broke..cancer..friends death! saddest ever....

I am curious to know if U.S. tax payers footed the bill for this study.

When my girlfriend and I were youngsters, we went to this movie and about halfway through, we shouted out "he dies at the end!" Classic spoiler alert.

The Champ - the last scene is etched in my mind forever. I would not want my daughter to go through such a harrowing experience that is portrayed by Ricky Shcroider - everytime I watch this scene I convulse with tears and struggle to breathe. It stars Angelina's Dad and George from Seinfeld bought a car owned by John Voight - just a spin-off comment! I am 40 years old.

Fear = "Requiem of a Dream" 4 anyone who got paranoid while using drugs.

"Awakenings" when Leonard is dancing in the cafeteria. If you don't cry during that scene, you don't cry at movies.

"My Life Without Me" I cried through the entire movie.

"Grave of Fireflies"

Spoiler Warnings much???

This isn't a well known film anymore. In fact, I would wager a random poll of people under 30 have never heard of it and those over 30 probably have never seen it.

A film is an EMOTIONAL RESPONSE thing and now anyone (and that would the vast majority of the public) who was not aware of the ending have been denied the emotional payoff of the climax.

How do you write this article and not even include a link to the list of film clips?

OLD YELLER IS THE SADDEST MOVIE EVER!!

"Jaws"

The dual death scene in Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet.