Part I: Hoey's List
Read 'em and weep, boys. Read 'em and weep.
Okay, this one was sort of tough. I came up with four very obvious
choices -- one that stuck right out in my mind -- but I had trouble coming
up with the fifth choice. But then the films, like the tears, came
tumbling out. I won't deny it, I am one weepy bitch. So, here goes,
in no particular order:
In America
I'd be hard-pressed to think of a time when I cried more
in a movie. I mean, I just sobbed. This one just hit me and I don't
know what it was. There's this beautiful moment in the last scene of
the film, a brief two-line exchange between the father and one of his
daughters that just killed me. It totally snuck up on me and though
I'd been expecting to watch sort of a sad movie, I didn't realize it
would hit me quite so hard. It was completely unexpected and I
started crying without even noticing. A truly great, powerful little
movie.
Dead Poets Society
The old standby. One of the few where I think
it's okay for guys to admit they cried when watching it. I cried when
Robert Sean Leonard committed suicide in his twig-branch crown. I
cried when Ethan Hawke ran out into the snow and sobbed and had to be
given a mouthful of snow to keep him calm. I cried at the end when
they all get up on their desks, in defiance of the new teacher and in
admiration of the departing Robin Williams, all of them crying out "O
Captain, My Captain." When I was young and first saw it, I cried.
I think it was the first movie to ever get me really emotional. And to
this day, it still gets me.
Antwone Fisher
Okay, so it was sort of sappy and a bit
over-sentimental. But it hooked me. Derek Luke is a knockout and his
search for identity and family is pretty riveting at times. It was
the sequence at the end that did it for me, though. When he finally
tracks down his relatives and enters a home full of excited, eager
faces, welcoming him with open arms, giving him a real home for the
first time in his life, I'll be honest, I blubbered. I gushed. But
come on, you'd have to have a heart made of stone for this sequence
not to tug at your heartstrings at least a little.
Seven
A controversial choice, I'm sure, to be dissected ad nauseam
later, but I offer a worthy argument for its inclusion. It's not a
melodrama, it's a police procedural thriller, not a typical choice for
a list such as this. There is one reason for its inclusion, though
and one reason alone. It all comes down to one particular scene, not
a particularly long scene, but one that is infused with a lot of
emotion. It's the scene in the diner where Gwyneth Paltrow and Morgan
Freeman open up to one another. He tells her about his early life and
an old girlfriend who had an abortion, while Gwyneth opens up about
her own pregnancy and her confusion over what to do. Freeman tells her that if she chooses not to have the baby, that she can never tell her husband (Brad Pitt) that she was
even pregnant. But if she does choose to have the baby, she needs to spoil that
kid every chance she gets. As he says this, she gets choked up and
teary-eyed and I swear, this moment gets me every time.
The Shawshank Redemption
I'm having difficulty recalling if I cried
at any point during the course of the movie, any particular scene that
got me choked up and teary-eyed. I'm not sure. The end certainly
did it, though. When you see Red walking toward Andy on the beach and
there's a brief moment where they look at one another and wave and
then as the camera pulls back and from a distance you can see the two
of them embrace, a years-in-the-making, once-in-a-lifetime,
friendship-defining hug. Okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit, but
it's a pretty damn powerful moment. Why do my picks keep revolving around
Morgan Freeman? Oh well. This is another man's man flick, I think.
One where it's okay to get choked up when watching. I
mean, we've all done it. Right? Guys?
Hoey's Honorable Mentions
- Moonlight Mile
- Billy Elliott
- Saving Private Ryan
- Braveheart
- The Full Monty
What can I say? I'm an emotional basketcase. I've been known to get
teary-eyed when watching Dawson's Creek or even long-distance
telephone commercials. I can't help it. I'm too sensitive. I'm
probably going to start crying right now.
-- Hoey
The Film Junkies Respond to Hoey's Picks
FISH: I'm not going sit here and tear into Hoey's picks ... one man's weepy
bitch material is another man's ... well, fodder? I'm sorry, I can't
resist. I must comment.
Without going into specifics as to why, Hoey's Honorable Mentions
for some reason include Braveheart and The Full Monty? Huh? I wish I had your
reasons for these picks. Your explanation for Seven's inclusion is
completely justifiable, especially since you graduated from the school
of "If There's One Cool Character/Scene/Line of Dialogue in a Film
That's Good, I Like the Film," and I have to say, that scene in Seven
is the emotional core of the whole movie. The shocking ending, and
really the above scene's context in a movie of coldly composed shots,
really made your heart (and neck) ache. It made the movie a great
movie.
I have a movie like that (mentioned in my Honorable Mentions), but I
cannot allow you to leave Braveheart and The Full Monty on this list.
They must be justified, or removed. Immediately.
Shawshank should make every man's list. Kinship, honor and trust
between two men has never been explored so fully and naturally, except
maybe The Blues Brothers. (That was a joke.)
Gotta say, I never warmed up to Dead Poets Society. It didn't move me at all. I thought it was sledge-hammer didactic and simplistic. There's always one movie that you just don't get that everyone else loves. Dead Poets Society is mine.
I'd like to see In America. I feel like I really missed the boat on that one.
ROB: I'll tear into some of Hoey's picks, particularly Seven and
The Full Monty. Seven was the most disturbing movie I had ever seen at
the time of its release in 1995, but it didn't make me cry. I'm not even
sure how it can make you cry. You may need help, Hoey. As for The Full
Monty, there are some poignant scenes in the film, and yes, it's a
classic with beloved, memorable characters, but you've got to be way
sensitive to actually shed tears during this motion picture. I say we
strike those two from the record and make Hoey name two replacements.
Jump to: Part I: Hoey's List | Part II: Fish's List | Part III: Rob's List
