The 40 Saddest Movies of All Time
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There is a lot more to be gained from a tragic movie than a cathartic “good cry.” (Although, of course, a good cry never hurts.) Oftentimes, it’s the movies that make us most emotionally uncomfortable that achieve what is arguably the peak of cinema: forging human empathy. Those are stories that move us so deeply that we remember them for years to come—even if we can hardly watch them more than once.
Whether you’re a ballad-loving, water-work-chasing sap, or a happy-go-lucky guy that rarely strays any sadder than a dog dying, it’s always good to work a tear-jerker into your watch list. After all, name a better risk-free controlled environment to practice your vulnerability than on your couch.
These movies will do more than just get those tear ducts leaking. These deeply moving narratives will connect you to characters and stories beyond your own culture, time, and nationality. That’s the power of cinema. It's a lens that transports you beyond the world you comfortably inhabit. Here are some of the saddest movies of all time.
Schindler's List
Based on a true story, Schindler’s List follows the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman and member of the Nazi party, who utilized his factory in Poland as a means of rescuing over one thousand Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. Directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring performances from Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, and Ben Kingsley, the film is a remarkable testament to how humans to commit both utter atrocities and remarkable sacrifices.
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Requiem for a Dream
Often ranked as one of the most disturbing movies of all time, Darren Antonofsky’s portrait of four people struggling with drug addiction in Coney Island is certainly not for everyone. However, the film’s cinematic and narrative merit in illustrating the distorted borders of one’s addiction and reality becomes increasingly poignant as their struggles advance.
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Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee's gorgeous romantic western about two cowboys in love on Brokeback Mountain was a prime candidate for Best Picture in 2006 (it lost to Crash, which we won't talk about). The poignant story stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as closeted men in a decades-long relationship. Their passion for each another grates against the unforgiving era in which their love was founded, and ultimately, it's that passion that tears the two apart, resulting in a tragic end for nearly all involved.
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My Girl
A childhood classic for many, My Girl features Anna Chlumsky as Vada, a young tomboy with a deceased mother, as she navigates her life as an 11-year-old alongside her best friend, played by Macaulay Culkin. The film is both heartwarming and morbid, displaying Vada’s innocently obsessive relationship with death through her father’s home practice as a mortician.
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Sophie's Choice
Featuring one of Meryl Streep’s most iconic performances, Sophie’s Choice follows the cohabitation of Sophie, a Polish immigrant, Nathan, her lover, and Stingo, a young writer, in Brooklyn. As their living situation brings them closer, Sophie’s deeply tragic backstory as a Holocaust survivor is revealed.
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Precious
Based on the novel Push by Sapphire and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, Precious is the story of Clareece “Precious” Jones, a teenager living in poverty in Harlem. Coming from an abusive home and limited by her inability to read or write, Precious is faced with a simultaneous challenge and opportunity when she is offered to transfer schools. With its intense journey of suffering and triumph, lead actress Gabourey Sidibe’s performance is an unforgettable one. (The film also landed her an Oscar nomination and a win for her co-star, Monique.)
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The Green Mile
Set in a correctional facility’s death row, coined “The Green Mile” for its floor tiling, this Stephen King adaptation begins with the arrival of a new inmate John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan. As head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) grows curious of how such a peaceful man could be guilty of such a crime, Edgecomb identifies a link between Coffey’s arrival and a series of supernatural events in the facility.
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Life is Beautiful
From the acclaimed Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful follows a Jewish-Italian father’s quest to protect his son from the cold truths of their cruel world when they become imprisoned in a concentration camp. Despite its tragic setting, the narrative is filled with sentiments of imagination, sacrifice, and beauty.
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Roma
From award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma tells the story of Cleo, an indigenous woman and domestic worker who lives with an affluent family in Mexico City. Cleo’s relationship with the family becomes more complicated when the father leaves the family for an affair, and Cleo discovers she is pregnant.
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Fruitvale Station
Based on a true story, Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old man living in the Bay Area of California, on the last day of his life on December 31, 2008. Despite Grant’s earnest desire to approach the coming new year as a fresh start on his young life, his dreams are recklessly cut short when BART officers apprehend and murder Grant in cold-blood at Fruitvale Station.
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Loving Vincent
The tortured artist, the misunderstood genius--Vincent Van Gogh’s descent into madness is portrayed beautifully in Loving Vincent, an animated biographical drama that emulates the style of his most famous works of art in every frame. Many have retroactively diagnosed the legendary painter with bipolar disorder, depression, and epilepsy, but Loving Vincent seeks to discover the truth about Van Gogh’s untimely suicide at the age of 37. According to his younger brother Theo, his last words were “The sadness will last forever."
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Algerian War tears apart a young couple in this 60’s French musical by Jacques Demy that is even more gut-wrenching because every single word of the film is sung. Beautifully written and orchestrated by composer Michel Legrand, if the grand finale “I Will Wait for You” reprise doesn’t illicit tears, I don’t know what will.
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Her
Do you feel lost without your iPhone? Can you go a day without the soothing voice of Siri? These are hard questions for Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a lonely greeting card writer who falls in love with his phone’s A.I. voice assistant (Scarlett Johansson). Apparently, he’s not the only one, and he learns that other isolated friends and family have explored the unnatural, digital relationship.
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Lenny Cooke
In the 2002 NBA Draft, one of the top undrafted prospects was high schooler Lenny Cooke. At a basketball scouting camp, a then “unheard of” LeBron James remarked that Cooke was one of the best players in the country. ESPN even ranked him as the No. 2 prospect. After shockingly going un-drafted, however, he had officially turned “pro” and was unable to receive a college education playing basketball. Moved by Cooke’s tragic story, the NBA added a new rule in 2005 that prevented players from being drafted until they had at least completed their first year of college.
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Umberto D.
Umberto is an elderly pensioner living in 1950’s Italy who can no longer afford rent. When the landlady threatens to evict him and his dog, he contemplates faking illness just to spend the night in a hospital bed. As everyone he meets is mean to him and equally downtrodden, he even thinks about giving up his dog--his only friend in the world.
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The Farewell
A Chinese American family decides not to tell their elderly grandmother that she only has a little while left to live, and instead plans a trip to have everyone secretly say their goodbyes. Billi (Awkwafina) is taken aback by the family’s decision but plays along to spend her grandmother’s final days in bliss. As the Lulu Wang-directed film went on, it felt as if I had even more trouble saying goodbye to Grandma Nai Nai than the movie’s family.
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Grave of the Fireflies
After a mother dies during the World War II-era firebombing of Japan, her two young children struggle to survive on their own in an abandoned bomb shelter. An achievement of animation in 1980’s Japan, Grave of the Fireflies was one of the first films produced by the legendary Studio Ghibli, who would go on to create more upbeat and kid-friendly films such as Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service.
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Call Me By Your Name
If a Sufjan Stevens album alone can make you cry, wait until he writes two original songs for Call Me By Your Name, a 2017 film starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer as lovers changed by an experience that cannot last. They also spend time in a gorgeous Italian villa discussing classical music, literature, and archaeology.
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Twenty Four Eyes
Hisako Oishi, the new first-grade teacher on the island of Shodoshima grows to care for all her students before World War II grips Japan. Oishi tries to preach pacifism to save the students and even pushes her female students to pursue careers outside of the home. Hardships, poverty, and illness also affect the lives of her twelve young pupils as they age into young adults yearning for simpler times.
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Titanic
Over 1,500 people perishing after the largest ship to date collided with an iceberg in 1912 wasn’t sad enough for director James Cameron. He just had to add class struggle, a string octet that plays as the ship sinks, and a tragic romance that any modern critic will tell you could have been saved if Rose didn’t hog that wooden plank for herself.
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Up
Disney has been tinkering with ways to make us weep as soon as the movie begins, and they succeeded in 2009 with just the first ten minutes of Pixar’s Up. There’s an entire Wikipedia page solely dedicated to how much we were all deeply affected by the film’s opening montage, featuring two aspiring explorers who grow up together, fall in love, get married, and never get to accomplish their childhood dream.
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Marley & Me
Marley & Me is almost impossible to get through without at least choking up one little tear—especially if you’re clutching your own little furry guy close—but if you wanted something happier from this list, you’re better off with Air Bud or Beethoven. Like any classic doggie flick, however, Marley & Me still has its fair share of rambunctious antics, but the story is faithful in sharing the full life of a dog.
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P.S. I Love You
When Gerry (Gerard Butler) dies of a brain tumor, his widow Holly (Hilary Swank) starts receiving letters he arranged before his death that send her messages of love and encouragement to find the strength to move on with her life. Signing off “P.S. I Love You,” each new letter aids her on her emotional journey, wherever (or with whoever) that may lead.
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The Pianist
The Pianist, a three-hour tour de force of emotions about a Jewish piano player (Adrien Brody) who struggles during the Nazi's invasion of Poland in 1939, does not let up throughout its entire runtime. Based of a memoir written by an actual Holocaust survivor, The Pianist may even be the saddest movie of all time.
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After Yang
In the future, an A.I. robot purchased to help an adopted child learn more about her Chinese heritage suddenly shuts off for good after a malfunction to his operating system becomes unrepairable. As the family of three grieves and processes his absence through technology that allows them to view his memories, they each grow to appreciate the robot as an older brother and son.
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