re: What's the saddest movie?

As a mother, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was heart wrenching.

As a sport's fan, Brian's Song was the same. I still tear up when I hear the theme song from the movie.

Saving Private Ryan always gets me at the very end, without fail.

The Road is one of the most depressing movies I watched.

Also movie scenes with kids crying; Finding Neverland, The Last Samurai, Crooklyn, The Cider House Rules, What Dreams May Come.

Simon Birch

Dances with wolves made me sad when the wolves got shot

No mention of Hachi?

I'm conflicted on whether "saddest" and "most depressing" are interchangeable. My list is mostly movies that I don't regret watching but, holy frick, they're so depressing that I will never watch them again because I don't want to put myself through.

As already mentioned, "Grave of the Fireflies" is Japanese Depression Cinema (a category which seems to cover a lot of their animation) on steroids. Others include "Lilya 4-Ever," which is a soul-killer, as are the better-known "Requiem for a Dream" and "Dancer in the Dark." "Enter the Void" is depressing as hell. I'd probably add "Bridge to Terabithia" but that book destroyed 8 year old me, so I've never watched the movie.

And I'm going to single out one that lots of people don't agree with: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." I consider that as nasty a piece of emotional work as any director, let alone Spielberg (and Kubrick) ever put out. That "happy ending" was essentially "Mom can come back but, in doing so, is utterly annihilated. What? Oh, no, we're just super-advanced robots, we can't make a fake robot mother to fool you into real happiness or anything. What would be the fun in doing that?" And the rest of the movie is one of the darkest takes on the pain and destructiveness love brings to those who feel it that you'll ever see in a Hollywood movie.

Sansho The Bailiff

The Good Lie messed me up.

quote:

---

Dances with wolves made me sad when the wolves got shot

---

the Horse too.