If the spirit of cinema lies in its ability to move, you can not miss these movies to cry, both romantic and drama. Because when we sit in front of the screen, we don’t always want to escape, but also to be touched .
The history of cinema has produced great films that make us empathize with the suffering of their protagonists. These are the best directors, the best performances and the best scenes of tear-jerking cinema in 20 movies .
- You can also read: The 15 best movies based on real events.
The genre: romantic movies and dramas
Although we can cry in other types of genres such as thrillers or even comedies, romantic movies and dramas are the ones that have shed the most tears. This is so because its function is to seek the viewer’s empathy with the characters, their stories and their suffering.
Various resources are used for this: a simple melody can touch our hearts until we cry like cupcakes, but also a sublime performance or an effective and lyrical script. The rest is the magic of cinema.
The romantic genre defines those films whose plot revolves around expressions of love. Especially in the most current cinema, they usually follow a scheme based on falling in love, the appearance of difficulties in conquering love, and the resolution in a positive or negative sense.
Before the difficulties of impossible love, the viewer connects with the suffering of the character, and is cruelly at the mercy of events .
Drama is one of the star genres of cinema because it awakens its most human side: its ability to move, empathize and move. He usually portrays the suffering of the human soul in the face of collective injustice (racism, oppression, discrimination, machismo) or individual pain (accidents, failure, cruelty of fate, deceit).
They usually have a tragic ending, before which substantially increases the amount of tears and mucus discharged.
30 movies to cry over seas
Both the romantic and dramatic genres have been revealed as very effective since the very beginning of cinema, so there is a long history of movies that over the decades have made us cry. These are some of the most relevant.
1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Director Victor Fleming brought to the big screen for the first time an epic drama that ended up becoming one of the best films in history: Gone with the Wind. The passionate love story of Clark Gable and Vivien Leig, that is, the capricious Scarlett O’Hara and the arrogant Rhett Butler, remains in the viewer’s memory .
With the American Civil War in the background, the viewer witnesses a melodramatic love story that is moving, but it is only one of the many particular dramas of a film about the disaster of war and slavery.
2. Bambi (1942)
Bambi connects us to the most primal instinct, the children’s bond with their mother . From him. The beauty of his images at a time when technological development was still scarce for children’s animation, has become an eternal classic that resists over the years.
And viewing it over and over again does not prevent tears from being shed as they empathize with the suffering of little Bambi, traumatized after the death of his mother .
3. How beautiful it is to live (1946)
Frank Capra directed this tearful Christmas drama executed by a wonderful James Steward. In this case, in addition to his interpretation, he is moved by the beauty of his script , which tells the story of an ordinary man who wants to commit suicide on Christmas Eve after having given up on his dreams.
Frank Capra touches the viewer’s heart with the appearance of the guardian angel , played by Henry Travers, who shows the protagonist what life would be like for the people he has helped if he had not existed.
4. Love Story (1970)
This melodrama marked a generation due to the tragedy of the story, which puts the viewer in one of the most dramatic situations imaginable: when death breaks love in his youth.
Love Story, directed by Arthur Miller, presents the conquest of love by two people from different social classes and their defiance of her terminal illness. Jenny’s character left us a phrase for the history of cinema when she, in her hospital bed, before dying, tells her boy: “Love means never having to say sorry.”
5. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Winner of five Oscars, this film also shed many tears due to the cruelty of its situation: on this occasion, a father played by Dustin Hoffman takes care of his son when his wife, played by Meryl Streep , abandons them. Years later, the mother returns in search of her son From her.
Beyond the judicial plot, since the mother goes to court to recover the child, the film reflects on the relationship between the father and the son that, by dint of necessity, goes from rejection to unconditional love .
6. ET (1982)
Steven Spielberg got into the hearts of people with this beautiful film in the middle of the fantastic cinema boom. The story awakens the most human feelings behind the fear and misunderstanding of the encounter with the unknown.
The protagonist, a boy named Elliott meets an alien who wants to return home. Both live endearing adventures while trying to escape the persecution of scientists and the police. The ending, when ET part ways with Elliott to return home, is considered by many to be the most emotional scene in movie history .
7. The Color Purple (1985)
This film also shot by Steven Spielberg poses the social drama of an African-American girl pregnant by her father and sold as a slave to an abuser. The moment in which she is separated from her sister Nettie is heartbreaking.
The adventures of Celine, forced to survive in a world of discrimination and cruelty, express the collective drama through individual tragedy, raising awareness of the abjectness of slavery and racism. It features the wonderful performance of Whoopi Goldberg, Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner.
8. Out of Africa (1985)
Sydney Pollack directed this memorable drama starring Robert Redford and Meyl Streep that had all the ingredients to win seven Oscars, among others the best adapted screenplay and best film .
Based on an autobiographical novel, the film is based on the turbulent love story of a hunter and the manager of a coffee plantation in the days of the British empire in Africa.Love is passionate, but she needs a faithful companion and he is an adventurer. The tragic ending ensures tears in abundance.
9. Ghost (1990)
Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore starred in one of the most atypical couples of romantic cinema: the ghost of a boy and his beloved . Ghost won an Oscar for best original screenplay, another for supporting actress Whoopi Goldberg, and the hearts of an entire generation with a sad and endearing story.
The movie is the story of a boy who dies and his spirit is trapped between two worlds, being aware that he has died. In addition to trying to solve the mystery of his own murder, he tries to keep his love affair with his partner Molly from him.
10. Untamed Heart (1993)
According to the MTV Awards, Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei had the best kiss of 1993 in the movie Indomitable Heart, a romantic and dramatic movie in which he saves the girl from rape and they start a relationship full of difficulties.
The film reflects on the power that love has to change people , since she is a person traumatized by the incident, and he is an introverted boy marked by the suffering of the past. Both know through love the magic of life… until the rapists return to take revenge on the boy.
11. Forest Gump (1994)
One of the movies that we all have burned into our memory, with one of the most popular scenes: Tom Hanks, in the role of a young man who wore braces on his legs as a child, runs desperately in a marathon around the world to search for his beloved.
Forrest Gump is one of the most beautiful movies in cinema because it puts before the viewer the story of overcoming and his innocent search for love . He won several Oscars, including best actor, best screenplay and best film.
12. The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Accustomed to seeing Clint Eastwood as a tough guy in western movies and the Dirty Harry saga, many were surprised by his masterful execution of a dramaromantic that over the years has become a classic.
In this film he does a duet with Meryl Streep, both interpret a love story between a housewife and a photographer, whose love story, going beyond the limits of the forbidden because she is married with children, ends up becoming a passionate adventure of four days that will change their lives.
13. Life is Beautiful (1997)
Undoubtedly one of the most beloved films by the public for its innovative ability to mix comedy and tragedy in an ironic as well as cruel way of describing the drama of the Nazi holocaust. It won seven Oscars, among others for best film.
The audience is moved during the film by the attempts of a Jewish father (Roberto Benigni) to explain to his son the reality of the concentration camp where they are as a game . The cruel denouement of the game just before the Americans liberate the camp is one of the most harrowing scenes in living memory.
14. Titanic (1997)
For many years it was the highest grossing film in cinema, it is still one of the most popular, and for some the best in history. The love story of a bohemian lower-class artist with a girl from high society is the backdrop to rescue the historic catastrophe of the transatlantic Titanic.
The sensuality transmitted by Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet, faced with the tragic reality of their end, in a wonderful scene in which they try to survive the shipwreck holding on to a piece of wood, brought tears to millions of people.
15. The Green Mile (1999)
This is one of those films in which the personal drama goes beyond the personal sphere and becomes a reflection on social and human conditions .
It is the story of an old officer (Tom Hanks) who remembers when he ran a prison for death row inmates. There he had among his prisoners a being with supernatural powers, who moves the public for being a kind personalityunfairly confronted (in the end it is revealed that she is innocent) to a cruel world.
16. American History X (1999)
Another socially critical film that was very popular among the young generation at the time was American History X, a reflection on the mixture of racism and poverty in the United States.
The film is much more: it deals with the inner change of a young man who, through contact with reality while in prison, is rehabilitated and goes from being the leader of a Nazi gang that organizes beatings of blacks to a peaceful young man. who tries to save his brother from the same fate. The ending is heartbreaking.
17. The Pianist (2002)
Adrien Brody plays the role of his life in a historical drama that became one of the best films about Nazism. The beauty of his images, the historical rigor and a brutal interpretation make it a classic . Beyond the historical context is a reflection on suffering and the human soul.
Brody gives life to the prototype of the Jew who in the thirties and at the gates of World War II tries to survive the Nazi hunt for Jews. Some scenes, like the grandfather that the Nazis throw from the balcony or the fight between two men over a pot of lentils, chill the blood and touch the deepest part of the soul .
18. Sea Inside (2004)
The genius of Alejandro Amenabar was put at the service of the drama with a melancholic and moving portrait of the tragic story of Ramon Sampedro , a man with quadriplegia who was a pioneer in the fight for the right to die.
Javier Bardem embroiders a masterful interpretation putting himself in Sampedro’s skin and transmitting his endearing mixture of suffering and optimism. He is accompanied by Belen Rueda in the role of the lawyer who helps him, and Lola Duenas as Rosa, his unconditional friend. His death scene filmed is a chilling four minutes .
19.Crash (2004)
The movie Crash, in addition to being a tender and moving movie, created a tendency to explain crossed dramas that connect at one point. Its original script and the choral performance of great figures such as Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Chris Bridges and Brendan Fraser earned it the Oscar for best picture and best screenplay.
The personal stories of several characters with their specific circumstances end up crossing in a collective drama that reflects on racism and discrimination and ends up becoming an acid critic of American society.
20. Noah’s Diary (2004)
It is perhaps the most accomplished of the romantic youth dramas of recent years, told in an original way and narrated with an adequate rhythm by its director Nick Cassavetes, the film knows how to touch the viewer’s heart at the right moments.
His followers will never forget the magic of the Ryan Gosling-Rachel McAdams couple in the role of Noah and Allie, two young people from different social classes who are first separated by their parents and then separated by war. However, before they live their love story in a passionate summer.
21. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Clint Eastwood won critical and public praise for this film that marked the way for him to later make other works (such as Gran Torino) with the same approach: a grumpy and reserved man awakens to life by the arrival of someone who loves him . It will teach the value of friendship .
In this case, someone is a young boxing enthusiast (Hilary Swank) who admires an old trainer (Clint Eastwood) who first despises her for being a woman and then naturally assumes a fatherly role to a soul full of suffering. The ending of the film is as tender as it is hard : impossible not to cry profusely.
22. Hotel Rwanda (2005)
The historical tragedy brought to the big screen assumes dramatic and epic dimensions in this masterful and critical film, because in addition to crudely and realistically portraying the civil war in Rwanda , it questions the role of the international community in the face of that genocide.
The film also allows us to discover a monumental Don Cheadle in the role of a man who helps save lives in the face of the passivity of world organizations. His argument, reminiscent of the mythical Schindler’s List, confronts us with the worst of the human soul and puts us in front of the mirror.
23. Postscript I Love You (2007)
In this romantic drama love and death cross againand it does so with renewed fresh air breathed in by Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. Despite some melodramatic excess, it is effective for its audience.
It is aimed at a teenage audience that is captivated by an original and cruel but romantic story: the character of Hillary Swank continues to cling to the unconditional love for her husband after his death , who left her several letters with the same postscript: “I love you.” ”.
24. Siete almas (2008)
This movie guarantees crying and anguish in abundance, as it is one of those movies whose fate of the protagonists penetrates the depths of the viewer’s soul. The empathy is due to an original script, a rhythmic and deep narration, and a brilliant performance by Will Smith and Rosario Dawson..
What makes this film so effective is that Will Smith’s character hides a secret that will only be discovered at the end. Meanwhile, he falls in love with Rosario Dawson’s character and her passionate story that will shake her plans. Death as proof of love makes us cry like never before in the final minutes.
25. Camino (2008)
This Spanish film also managed to move the most compassionate feelings towards the character, in this real case, of Alexia Gonalez-Barros, a girl with a terminal tumor who discovers love and maintains the strong religious convictions of she.
Javier Fesser masterfully directed this emotional plot in which the human and the real mix with the mystical and transcendental and makes us reflect on life and death, pain and suffering, and finally, on the triumph of love and the fleeting of existence.
26. Always by your side. Hachiko (2009)
Sometimes animals manage to awaken the deepest of our feelings and, in this case, the endearing fidelity of a dog towards the absence of its dead owner reaches our soul and makes us fill several packs of clinex with tears.
Richard Gere stars as the owner of a dog, Hachiko, with whom he has a very close relationship. The dog accompanies his master every day on the trip to the station to go to work,a loyalty that seems unwavering despite the man’s death.
The viewer’s soul breaks seeing how the dog remains at the station for years and years, while his condition deteriorates waiting for his master to return.
27. Precious (2009)
When all the misfortunes of the world are fattened with one person, and this story is narrated with the mastery of Precious and the acting talent of Gabourey Sidibe, it is impossible not to empathize even with the most heartbroken tears.
This film is a social criticism centered on the figure of Precious, an illiterate and obese teenager who, in addition to suffering rejection due to her physical and racial condition,she becomes pregnant by her own father and gives birth to a son with Down syndrome. Despite having everything against her, Precious fights for her happiness.
28. The Impossible (2012)
Antonio Bayona made a name for himself in the cinema elite thanks to the harrowing narrative of a family’s struggle to reunite after the tsunami that devastated the Thai coast in 2004. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts star in a performance luxury in the role of parents looking for their children after the flood.
The brutal images of the tsunami, with special effects and a vertiginous narrative rhythm, leave the viewer breathless to plunge him, then, into a permanent anguish due to the fight against time of some parents to find their children alive.
29. 12 Years a Slave (2014)
The drama of slavery in the southern United States has been portrayed in many films, and few with as much harshness and sensitivity as in 12 Years a Slave, the story of Solomon Northup, a free black who fights to regain his freedom after he is sold as a slave to a landowner .
The harsh living conditions to which he is subjected and the tyranny of the slavers puts our hearts in a fist and transcends the context of the time: it is a scathing criticism of any form of discrimination and a desperate cry for freedom and dignity. of the man.
30. Love (2013)
The master of psychological terror Michael Haneke also revealed himself as a sensitive and brilliant storyteller in the field of drama and romance. In this case, the romantic genre loses all melodramatic excess and becomes a raw and sincere story : that of the love of two grandparents put to the test by illness.
The value of love in extreme situations is revealed when the woman suffers from hemiplegia that leaves her incapacitated in bed, and her husband must take care of her. The very image of Anne’s corpse covered in flowers in her apartment throws us off balance, and she introduces us to a compassionate movie without any kind of compassion.
- It may interest you: 30 heartbreak songs to cry even more.
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