saddest movie you've ever seen

[Thanir]

Where the Red Fern Grows

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Grave of the Fireflies
I give this answer every month when this same thread pops up.

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Excellent one and maybe I agree on that one too. Also strongly in the running is My Life as a Dog, but it's so hilarious that sometimes the real depth of sadness in it can be almost glossed over. And, again, it's one centered on kids.

House of Sand and Fog, as someone suggested, is also a very good one.

Jacob's Ladder was pretty damn downbeat too. And Nights of Cabiria was brutally sad at the end yet at the same time preposterously upbeat. A really weird mix I don't think I've seen anywhere else.

The Christmas Tree was another one that was really depressing because a kid died in it, and so was Rage, an old George C. Scott film.

[drugged]

Leaving Las Vegas

[Valsuvious]

Sadly, I'm kinda partial towards The Notebook. Don't ask me why, but I think that it hits too close to home between my fiance and my relationship

[Bostaevski]

The end of Saving Private Ryan where it fades from young Ryan to old Ryan and he's talking to Tom Hanks' tombstone

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Grave of the Fireflies
I give this answer every month when this same thread pops up.

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Agreed. If you don't bawl like a baby after seeing this movie, you have no soul.

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Really? I watched the first half before the DVD died and it was one of those movies where I was thinking "I don't really like this but I hear it's good so I'll force myself to finish it just so I can say I've seen it."

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It doesn't have "Bambi's mom getting shot" moments, it's just after you are done watching the entire movie you'll sooner or later think about it and be overcome by profound grief.

I'm [censored] tearing up just thinking about it.

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Me too.

I think what builds this up so much is not just the death but the horrifying sense of guilt involved. Just such enormous, unshakeable despair that it feels like a sledgehammer to the heart. That it is based on a true story makes it even more astonishingly painful.

And also it gets some of its impact from the world in which these kids live in being so out of control, and their having only the ability of children to try to survive in it. It's awful that that's not even close to enough.

Finally, there are scenes of love between the two kids that are just gentle and quietly beautiful and make your heart swell up in a positive way. The gap between what should have been, and so easily could have been, and what eventually does is really wrenching.

The special features on this are an absolute must, BTW. They explain the background of the war and of the author's own life. Tears your heart out.

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Leaving Las Vegas

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Oof, very good call too.

[Lonhro]

[goodguy_1]

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Terms of Endearment

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[TheDudeAbides]

I can't believe this thread's gone this far without mention of My Life with Michael Keaton.