Top 100 Tearjerker Movies

Men and Women Cry at Movies! Did I Miss One of Your Favorite Tearjerker Movies?

Aly Adair
What life event in a movie will move a person to tears? Filmmakers count on the event being something you have personally experienced or can't imagine having to experience it. It is somewhat amusing to see the difference between what moves a man to tears versus what moves a woman to tears. There are a few themes in life that will move both sexes to tears in the movie theatre. For example:

Tearjerker war movies: almost every war movie will make me cry, but will also make men cry. Some notable tearjerker war movies like Schindler's List, Reds, Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Sophie's Choice, Life is Beautiful and Glory will have anyone who breathes grabbing for the Kleenex box. But, the one tearjerker war movie that makes me cry rivers of tears every time I see it is The Deer Hunter. Why, when you are faced with the fear of death in a combat situation, would you choose to tempt fate even more by playing Russian roulette in your spare time?

Tearjerker health movies: anybody that is human will cry for Brian's Song, Steel Magnolias, Philadelphia, Awakenings, Mask, Beaches, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, and Moulin Rouge. Then there is the number one quintessential tearjerker movie of all time, Love Story.

Tearjerker love movies: men will cry at these tearjerker movies because it is losing some love in your life, whether it is a parent, child, sibling, pet or lover. Tearjerker movies that will get men and women crying every time are Old Yeller, Ghost, Eight Below, Edward Scissorhands, The Joy Luck Club, Always, P.S. I Love You, and What Dreams May Come. For women, there is nothing more powerful to cry over than forbidden love like the tearjerker movies Romeo and Juliet, The King and I, West Side Story, Doctor Zhivago, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or King Kong.

Tearjerker movies about unexpected death or tragedy: how can you not ball rivers of tears for movies like The Other Side of the Mountain about 1956 Olympic hopeful Jill Kenmont's downhill skiing accident during the 1955 Alta, Utah tryouts, or Sweet Dreams about Patsy Cline's life and tragic plane crash in 1963 at age 30? La Bamba is a tearjerker movie about the tragic 1959 plane crash that claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. You might need an entire tissue box for We Are Marshall, the story of the tragic 1970 plane crash in Ceredo, West Virginia that claimed the lives of all 75 aboard including six coaches and 37 players of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team.

Why is Robert Redford always doing tearjerker movies? Notable Redford tearjerker movies like The Way We Were, Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It, The Great Gatsby, Out of Africa, Up Close and Personal, The Horse Whisperer, Jeremiah Johnson, and Redford's Ike the Horse voice in Charlotte's Web make chicks come back for more tears. Redford figured out early in his career that sappy chick flicks are big box office draws.

Here is my list of the Top 100 Tearjerker Movies of all time:

Love Story

Brian's Song

Steel Magnolias

Ghost

Old Yeller

Doctor Zhivago

The Notebook

Schindler's List

Romeo and Juliet

We Are Marshall

King Kong

Moulin Rouge

A Walk to Remember

Lonesome Dove

Bonnie and Clyde

We Are Marshall

When A Man Loves A Woman

On Golden Pond

Sweet Dreams

The Great Gatsby

Terms of Endearment

Sophie's Choice

Untamed Heart

Legends of the Fall

Lorenzo's Oil

City of Angels

The Last of the Mohicans

The Joy Luck Club

Funny Girl

Wuthering Heights

Message in a Bottle

Eight Below

The Deer HunterForever Young

AwakeningsMichael

Pearl Harbor

Milk

In America

P.S. I Love You

Philadelphia

The Green Mile

The English Patient

Ordinary People

Les Miserables

West Side Story

Out of Africa

Glory

A Star is Born

Shawshank Redemption

Up Close and Personal

Titanic

Saving Private Ryan

Evita

Beaches

Dead Man Walking

Ghost

The Way We Were

Platoon

Cocoon

The Piano

Braveheart

I Am Sam

Longtime Companion

Castaway

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Moulin Rouge

E.T.

Farewell, My Concubine

West Side Story

The Miracle Worker

Forrest Gump

Bambi

The Dirty Dozen

Autumn in New York

The Color Purple

Always

Remember The Titans

In Love and War

Marvin's Room

Splendor in the Grass

Life is Beautiful

Harold and Maude

Charlotte's Web

Bugsy

Meet Joe Black

Big Fish

A Streetcar Named Desire

Brokeback Mountain

Mystic River

What Dreams May Come

Reds

Edward Scissorhands

The King and I

The Other Side of the Mountain

Tristan & Isolde

A River Runs Through It

Mask

Hope Floats

My Girl

La Bamba

My Life

Pay It Forward

Where The Red Fern Grows

Published by Aly Adair

Aly Adair is an Air Force Veteran with a career in teaching and educational publishing. Aly has an MBA and is a former small business owner.  View profile

  • Tearjerker movies with animals will make your heart bleed and your eyes puff. Check out Eight Below.
  • Tearjerker movies about tragedy like We Are Marshall may take the whole box of Kleenex.
  • Tearjerker movies sure to get men and women crying are Brian's Song and Edward Scissorhands.
The Other Side of the Mountain, is a tearjerker movie about Olympic hopeful Jill Kenmont's downhill skiing accident at the 1955 Alta Utah tryouts. It paralyzed Kenmont and if that were not enough, her husband was later killed in an accident.

14 Comments

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  • Yada Yada Yada8/10/2011

    Good list, but Pay it Forward is way too low on the list.

  • SCHOENE1/21/2011

    How can you all leave IMITATION OF LIFE off of this list. WTH...that's the biggest tear jerker of all tie. Go to YouTube and check out the ending, that alone will make you cry and the entire movie is that way. Awesome tearjerker.

  • Jen8/25/2010

    The Imitation of Life 1934 (the best) & 1959 (color version! How could either version be off of any list? Boohoo:(

  • Jessica8/7/2010

    "Moulin Rouge!" is on the list twice. I hate that movie though. You don't have my favorite tear-jerjerker here, the story that inspired "Moulin Rouge!": "Camille". It's a lot like "Love Story", so I'm pretty sure you're familiar with it. No one can make me cry like Garbo can! :'(

  • ariimermaid11/26/2009

    add marley and me to that list... and my sisters keeper

  • Sheri Fresonke Harper9/29/2009

    Paris, Texas; Tristan and Isolde is there, many other great choices :)

  • Sheryl Young9/28/2009

    Hah! I was gonna write a similar article recently, but with other topics in priority, didn't have time. You've covered many!

  • Dina Quirion9/22/2009

    Yup, excellent choices.... :o)

  • RM Gal9/21/2009

    Excellent compilation!

  • Jane Winstead9/20/2009

    Good List.

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