Thursday, April 30, 2009

Cry, baby

I was talking to a friend who loves to watch movies and the conversation turned to how certain movies affected us. He said he can't recall a movie that ever made him cry.

I'm cut from a different cloth, because I can't even remember all the movies that have made me cry. Not just drama movies, mind you. Home Alone made me teary-eyed, so did Monsters, Inc. (That one was particularly sweet.)

Movies aren't the only ones that can activate my tear ducts. Books can do this. So can some TV shows. (I remember how almost every episode of ER and more recently, Brothers & Sisters made my eyes fill up.) Certain songs bring a lump to my throat. Hell, even TV commercials, like this very touching local McDonald's ad, can set my mouth a-tremblin' and start the tears a-rollin'.

The ad is in Tagalog, but you don't have to know the language to get the message. I also love this commercial because they used one of my favorite songs by the best Filipino band ever! (according to moi)


Media aside, it's easy to make me cry. I cry when someone I love is hurting, or when I receive a touching letter or spontaneous hug from my children, or when I'm at a funeral, or when heartache rears its despicable head. One thing I've never experienced though, and which I hope I never will, is something that's so bad that it's beyond crying about. Something like what Wordsworth referred to in his Intimations of Immortality: thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

However, it's also easy to make me laugh. Yeah, I know, I'm an easy girl. :-D I've laughed so hard so many times that my eyes became red from crying. Thinking about all the wrinkles I'll be getting from it is almost enough to make me cry now.

But back to movies. The last movie I can remember that really, really made me cry was I Am Sam. I was alternating between hyperventilating and hiccupping from sobbing so hard. What about you? Was there ever a movie (or TV show or book or whatever) that made you bawl like an abandoned baby?

9 comments:

Mimi Lenox said...

"thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
That's a beautiful phrase.

Hmmmmm....I prefer the laughing til I cry kind of tears, but, I do cry easily over things that hurt and resurface at times. Good for the soul and bad for my mascara. You knew I'd say that, didn't ya...

Music, more than anything, brings my emotions to the forefront.

Daddy Papersurfer said...

Obviously I'm a manly man and take everything in my stride ....... just don't mention Bambi ..... or Old Yeller ....... or An Officer and a Gentleman ...... oh, shut up! and leave me alone .... *blows nose and looks at the horizon*

Photo Cache said...

The question is which movie did not make me cry. I remember one time we were in the cinema and was watching a movie whose name I cant remember, but it was action/adventure and I was sniffing inside the cinema, prelim to a good sob. My husband was trying to calm me down, kakahiya daw eh.

Heck, even Sex and the City got me crying too.

Terra Shield said...

Tell me about it. I am Sam made me cry, and so did The Kid, and a couple of movies about kids and their pets....

Mike said...

Off the top of my head here...

...belive it or not, parts of Natural Born Killers made me cry (the 'laugh-track-sitcom-abuse' parts), Apocolypse Now made me cry, and I get really choked up when I read T.S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock...

...don't judge me for being human, either!!!!

Lizza said...

Mims: Laughing-til-you-cry is one of the best crying-related things...until gas sets in. I'd have raccoon eyes if I wore mascara every time I visit your blog. You make me cry, Mims, either from laughter or from a sense of poignancy.

DaddyP: Bambi!!! And Old Yeller!!! Oh wow, those made me cry when I was a little girl. Did you cry with Penfold and Tiggz watching them? (BTW, my eyes get all dewy -- not teary -- at the sight of Mr. Gere.)

Photo: Sweet naman to think of your husband comforting you para tumigil kang umiyak. Ohhh, some episodes of SATC on TV made me cry too, though they made me laugh more. The movie? It did make me teary-eyed in some parts, but the way my eyes widened to saucer-like proportions at the masculine butt shots and the penis-peek-a-boo scene dried the tears real quick.

Terra: I don't think I've seen The Kid. Something new (old?) to look up!

Mike: All I remember from Natural Born Killers is that it gave me a massive migraine. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read Prufrock. Not even the Cliff Notes!

Daddy Papersurfer said...

Still waiting for the Post Office to open - dreading what the postage will be to Poland - tee hee

Lizza said...

Take comfort in the fact that the shirt will soon experience better living! tee hee hee

Unknown said...

Everyone has certain films and TV episodes that get the better of them. It happens. I will not reveal mine here but I know what they are. :-)

Sounds like the gentleman in question is just trying to preserve his masculinity. It happens.