most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

fictional works only, please...

My pick:

Sophie's Choice - her choice, obviously.

I don't remember ever being more emotionally distraught over a scene in a movie than watching Meryl Streep forced to choose which child she can "keep," her young son or her toddler daughter, and which child shall be taken away to a concentration camp and/or killed.

It happens in such a trivial moment...one minute Sophie and her two children are being herded towards a train with Jews...she approaches a Nazi Officer and tells him there's some mistake, she's not Jewish, she's Polish - Aryan - like he is. His reply is simply evil:

"You may keep one child."

At first, she doesn't understand...but he explains it to her: she either chooses which child shall remain with her and which will go with the German, or he will take both of them from her.

She begins to plead and the German finally goes to take both children from her when she thrusts her daughter at him and screams, "take her, take my baby!"

And he does.

The look of complete and utter horror on Streep's face kills me, every time. In fact, I always vow to never watch the movie again after that scene comes on. But I can't keep that promise because Streep and Kline and MacNichol and Pakula made a perfect, glorious film.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

"Irreversable" the whole friggin' thing.

"Lilya 4 Ever" When the main character starts prostituting, but that may not be the worst of it.

"Platoon" The part where Dafoe is running in the field to be shot down.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Wow. Nice topic. I can't possibly choose a single moment, so I'll just mention one for suggestion. The death scene at the end of Menace 2 Society was particularly brutal for me, because when watching it, you not only feel for the character but all the people dying on the street day after day, it was just a shot to the gut for me. I know this film and Boyz From The Hood will always be compared, but this one was far more powerful to me because of its stark realism and the way it didn't hold back in the process.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

The old man on the swingset in Kurosawa's "Ikiru" will always be the most powerful image for me. As Roger Ebert said, it is one of the few movies that might actually move you to lead a better life.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Going by results, though I can't figure out WHY this moment destroyed me the way it did: Martin Sheen's death in The Departed

EDIT: oh, and in Saving Private Ryan when Adam Goldberg gets stabbed in the attic, oh my I wish I didn't see when I was so young

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

The ending of Au Hassard Balthazar. And, for all the wrong reasons, the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" number in Cabaret, an underappreciated masterpiece.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

I probably haven't seen enough films to comment, but the ending of Decalogue I is just heartbreaking.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

In Mystic River where Sean Penn learns his daughter is dead. As the set up for the whole movie, you know it's coming, and yet it's written and acted so well that it just absolutely hits you like a hammer.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
fictional works only, please...

My pick:

Sophie's Choice - her choice, obviously.

I don't remember ever being more emotionally distraught over a scene in a movie than watching Meryl Streep forced to choose which child she can "keep," her young son or her toddler daughter, and which child shall be taken away to a concentration camp and/or killed.

It happens in such a trivial moment...one minute Sophie and her two children are being herded towards a train with Jews...she approaches a Nazi Officer and tells him there's some mistake, she's not Jewish, she's Polish - Aryan - like he is. His reply is simply evil:

"You may keep one child."

At first, she doesn't understand...but he explains it to her: she either chooses which child shall remain with her and which will go with the German, or he will take both of them from her.

She begins to plead and the German finally goes to take both children from her when she thrusts her daughter at him and screams, "take her, take my baby!"

And he does.

The look of complete and utter horror on Streep's face kills me, every time. In fact, I always vow to never watch the movie again after that scene comes on. But I can't keep that promise because Streep and Kline and MacNichol and Pakula made a perfect, glorious film.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. Obviously one of those gems I just never got around to seeing yet. Just reading your post has blown me away. Really. I will see it now. Thank you.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Robbie Benson's confession to his GF (Glynnis O'connor) in Ode To Billy Joe after sleeping with a man absolutely was a punch in the gut. The subsequent fallout from his suicide for O'connor and the (final?) scene where she is talking to the man Benson slept with (you may know him as Roscoe P. Coaltrain) is just...wow. Great movie and backstory.

Honorable mention: Laura Palmer, her innocence lost and her life past the point of no return, explaining to BF James Hurley how the girl he loved disappeared. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]

EDIT: oh, and in Saving Private Ryan when Adam Goldberg gets stabbed in the attic, oh my I wish I didn't see when I was so young

[/ QUOTE ]

First thing I thought of on seeing the thread title. I watch this movie probably 3 times a year, but I don't think I've seen this scene more than twice. I just can't watch it.

My other choices are the first time they shwo ground Zero in 25th Hour, the ending of Castaway, and the entirety of The Sweet Hereafter

Oh yeah, and when Wash dies in Serenity (right after "I'm a leaf on the wind")

There are some other moments that are oddly effecting also for no good reason, like when Radha Mitchell's character gets jacked at the end of Pitch Black...

(SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


Also, different category, but Bodie's last scene in "The Wire"

(/SPOLIER)

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

<response to spoiler>

Bodie's death didn't nearly get to me nearly as much as Wallace. I guess I'd put D and Stringer before Bodie as well. And I suspect Dukie's death when it happens in season 5 will be the worst of all.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

I didn't even love the movie, but the end of Requiem for a Dream just gutted me.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
Going by results, though I can't figure out WHY this moment destroyed me the way it did: Martin Sheen's death in The Departed

[/ QUOTE ]


cause a few of us in here had seen Infernal Affairs and had already been shocked by that death [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

seriously though, I still can never get over the youngest brother in Legends of the Fall getting torn to bits by a german machine gun in that WWI scene. It messed with me when I was a kid, it messed with me when my brother was in Iraq, and it messes with me now. As an older brother, it's just gut wrenching to watch and put yourself in Tristan's position

Hell, the entire film of 21 grams was insanely devastating and just left me brutally cold after watching it

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

21 Grams is an example of too much devastation. It didn't add to the story, it was the story.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Saving Private Ryan

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

when jennifer connelly give the black guy a bj for crack in requiem for a dream was pretty brutal. he was like 'les let it breathe'. i almost collapsed.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Well there was this clip posted in BBV just the other day.....

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

For those who haven't seen it, the look on Chaplin's face at the end of City Lights when the formerly blind girl realizes her benefactor was The Tramp. The single most memorable shot in cinema, including everything.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
oh, and in Saving Private Ryan when Adam Goldberg gets stabbed in the attic, oh my I wish I didn't see when I was so young

[/ QUOTE ]

this always gets me, too.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
For those who haven't seen it, the look on Chaplin's face at the end of City Lights when the formerly blind girl realizes her benefactor was The Tramp. The single most memorable shot in cinema, including everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

i'll have to agree with you on that.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
when jennifer connelly give the black guy a bj for crack in requiem for a dream was pretty brutal. he was like 'les let it breathe'. i almost collapsed.

[/ QUOTE ]

The whole ending sequence of Requiem is just outrageously manipulative and devastating. I don't mean it in a good way.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

jesus [censored] christ. how do you people manage to spoil season 4 wire moments in a "most emotionally devastating movie moment" thread? i have held off even reading forum threads and essays about the earlier seasons specifically to avoid this sort of thing, and you can't hold off even in a movie thread? unbelievable. and in this sort of thread which is very much a "skimread looking for names that might jolt a sentiment within you" typing SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then putting it just below the exclamation marks in plain text which through presentation stands out does not exactly help.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Pretty much everything in this thread will be a spoiler, so it's probably best to name the movie first then discuss the scene. If I were in Seabeast's shoes I would be twice as pissed.

The Thin Red Line: there is a scene when one of the privates, who has been using the memories of his wife back home as motivation to get through his tour, receives a dear john letter... it sends a chill down my spine every time I see it, even though I expect it now. Absolutely gutting.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
jesus [censored] christ. how do you people manage to spoil season 4 wire moments in a "most emotionally devastating movie moment" thread? i have held off even reading forum threads and essays about the earlier seasons specifically to avoid this sort of thing, and you can't hold off even in a movie thread? unbelievable. and in this sort of thread which is very much a "skimread looking for names that might jolt a sentiment within you" typing SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then putting it just below the exclamation marks in plain text which through presentation stands out does not exactly help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice! I managed to miss it somehow!!!

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

The final scene in Gallipoli

The final scene in Breaker Morant

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
The final scene in Gallipoli

The final scene in Breaker Morant

[/ QUOTE ]

okay, now i'm depressed after reading this thread...man, those two movies just have to make you shed a tear at the end.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

The final scene in Grave of the Fireflies

The photo album montage in Oldboy. The rollercoaster of emotional responses during that scene is the reason that people watch movies.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

The suicide scene, Swing Kids.

'nuff said.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
when jennifer connelly give the black guy a bj for crack in requiem for a dream was pretty brutal. he was like 'les let it breathe'. i almost collapsed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Crack? Did you even watch the movie?

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

American History X- Its an obvious choice I guess, but the amount of character progression for both the father and son in the film was so amazingly uplifting- Just to be crushed in the last scene. The film takes you emotionally full circle, relighting belief in humanity one moment and crushing it the next.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
jesus [censored] christ. how do you people manage to spoil season 4 wire moments in a "most emotionally devastating movie moment" thread? i have held off even reading forum threads and essays about the earlier seasons specifically to avoid this sort of thing, and you can't hold off even in a movie thread? unbelievable. and in this sort of thread which is very much a "skimread looking for names that might jolt a sentiment within you" typing SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then putting it just below the exclamation marks in plain text which through presentation stands out does not exactly help.

[/ QUOTE ]



this thread is BS. there are spoilers for season 5 of the wire in it. wtf.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
including everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Including everything in the film and including everything in cinema history.

BTW, the scene where the Tramp first meets the blind girl "required" over three hundred takes.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Yes, I've heard that; was it that Chaplin couldn't figure out how to make her aware of the "fact" that he was rich?

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

BTW, the smile Uma Thurman gives Bryan Greenberg at the end of Prime reminded me very much of Chaplin's last shot in City Lights.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

I think he had the concept from the beginning, but the scene just didn't work right. He was a bit of a fanatic. He fought so much with the Virginia Cherril (sp.?) that he fired her with a week of shooting to go but then rehired her when he decided refilming with another actor would take too long.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

Older and younger brother.

I'm wondering if, years from now, we look upon Norton, rather than Dicaprio or Depp, as the finest actor of his generation.

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

I just checked; my two nominations are definitely not spoilers. Besides, how many of you are going to run out and see Au Hassard Balthazar (even though you should)?

Re: most emotionally devasting moment in film
 

[ QUOTE ]
American History X- Its an obvious choice I guess, but the amount of character progression for both the father and son in the film was so amazingly uplifting- Just to be crushed in the last scene. The film takes you emotionally full circle, relighting belief in humanity one moment and crushing it the next.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the film I would choose, but the most devastating moment for me is the "curb stomp" scene. I have a younger brother, and I will never forget the look of horror on the younger brother's face as he watches his older brother/hero commit that terrible crime. I really can't watch this scene again.