Ten Saddest Movies of All Time

This List May Surprise You

When people think of the saddest films they've seen, movies like Steel Magnolias or Terms of Endearment are usually at the top of the list. But Hollywood is full of unexpected tearjerkers. These are the films that tug at your heart strings by surprise, the movies you become emotionally attached to because of their tragic events. I am not typically drawn to tearjerkers, and will usually avoid them at all costs. But in recalling some of my favorite films, I realized that filmmakers had sneaked in quite a few tissue-inducing flicks. Here are ten of them... (And yes, there will be SPOILERS.)

Dead Presidents (1995)

The Hughes Brothers broke onto the scene with 1992's Menace to Society. But by 1995, the brothers had arrived. Dead Presidents and its ensemble cast breathed renewed life into an era that represents pain for millions of families: the Vietnam War. Focusing on a group of high school seniors from the Bronx who are about to graduate. The film follows their experiences before, during, and after the war. Despite the multihued plot and rich acting, the film gets progressively heavier. Seeing Anthony's (played by Larenz Tate) life destroyed by broken dreams and poor decisions was almost too much to bear.

Bent (1997)

When I consider traditional tearjerker films, I don't necessarily think of star-crossed gay lovers in a World War II concentration camp. But upon executing a search for Clive Owen films, I ran across Bent and was shocked by how emotionally affected I was by the story. The film is multilayered, but in short, is centered on a man named Max (Owen), a gay man who has been sent to a concentration camp under the Nazi regime. The struggle between his sexuality and survival is immediately upstaged by the poignant relationship that emerges between his character and fellow inmate, Horst. By the film's end, I was so moved by the sensitivity with which their bond is illustrated, that I could literally feel the despair oozing off the screen. Bent isn't the film for everyone. But it represents an interesting slice of history, and provides another place for Rolling Stone Mick Jagger to showcase his surprising acting ability.