most emotionally devasting moment in film

[sethypooh21]

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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

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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)

[PaulSF415]

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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.

[KDawg]

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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

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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

[PaulSF415]

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

[Dominic]

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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

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this always gets me, too.

[TheDoubleA]

Great topic. I know some of these have been brought up already, but what the hell:

Saving Private Ryan:
I watched this with my dad when it first came out. We were so so so pumped up to watch this awesome action movie with Tom Hanks. Then the beach sceen came on and that guy had his intestines all over the beach while he screemed "MOMMY". And the knife sceen, brutal.

Land Before Time:
When the mom dies. I was like 5 and that was the worst thing on earth.

Click:
This has more to do with my family, but when Adam Sandler sees his dad for the last time and keeps rewinding it over and over. Jesus I was a wreck. How the hell did he do a movie that make me sad.

[John Cole]

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

[Hey_Porter]

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

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Maybe it's just with my generation, but Cabaret and its message is underappreciated overrall. I saw it with my wife on Broadway, having no idea what it was about, only knowing that my wife liked the songs and performances. I was blown away.

[Triumph36]

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

[Carp Rodeo]

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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.

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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.