La Weasel says:
With all this sunny weather, I have been doing the sensible thing and mostly staying inside for a siesta which has allowed me to re-watch a number of classic films.
Whilst happily lounging on the sofa yesterday with cool beers and an assortment of snacks within reach, I inevitably welled up and shed tears over the tear jerker that is Star Wars Episode 5. The specific bit that gets me every time is the Han Solo carbonite scene where Leah says she loves him and he says "I know". No matter how many times I see this, the manly response by Han is just so aww. If he’d said he loved her back, it wouldn’t have worked. My darling husband (DH) rolls his eyes at such moments and quite often attributes this sentimentality to “your hormones love”.
This lead me to think about other guaranteed weepy moments in our household (not just my tears) Take your pick on which ones DH reaches for the Kleenex with (other tissue brands are available).
1. Harry Potter. Snape’s declaration of love for Lily, even when she’d shunned him and married James Potter. Whether this love extended to Harry as her son, I can’t say, but his love for her undimmed over the years. Must have arm ache from holding that torch.
2. First of two from His Dark Materials. The part where Will and Lyra realise that to save the multitude of worlds, they must close all of the windows and be forever in their own worlds or die. Only one window can remain and that has to be the one allowing the dead freedom. To go to the same place at the same time each year, in separate worlds, knowing their love is sharing that space in an alternative world is such an adult display of love and sacrifice from them. I’m blinking back tears right now!
3. Big screen, big budget movie – Armageddon. A big dose of American wholesomeness usually makes me slightly nauseous, but this is the exception. There are a few moments in the film that make the lip wobble, but the guaranteed blub moment has to be when Gracie’s father and AJ have drawn straws to save the world. They've gone down on to the asteroid together but only AJ is remaining to trigger the nuke while the others escape back to Earth. When they get to the surface Harry disconnects AJ’s air supply and says he’s doing it, and that AJ has to take up where he leaves off loving and looking after Gracie. The final stab to the tear duct is when he says AJ is like the son he never had. Honestly, I don’t know why I’m wearing mascara today. Whilst writing this I’ve gone from a slight dab of a tissue to re-running the movie scene in my head and ending up blowing my nose like a hooter!
4. The second showing for His Dark Materials is the end of Lee Scorsby and his daemon Hester. Whilst holding off enemies at the pass (a heroic dead), Lee gets mortally wounded and dies which means that his daemon Hester (an arctic hare) also has to die. I cannot put into words how this made me feel when I read it. Philip Pullman himself said that writing that part of the story was emotional for him, and that when reading it for the audiobook, he choked.
5. To end my top 5 is the unbelievably moving moment at the end of…. Cool Runnings! The team are down and out but have won the respect of their fellow competitors and complete the run carrying their bobsled over the finish line.
Well, now I’m truly emotionally drained for the day. I’ll probably think of a few more that should be on the list (Sparkhouse, the BBC feature from several years ago springs to mind) but I don’t have it in me to go further.
Chris: Yeah, I took it! I mean, you knew I took it. Teddy knew I took it. Everyone knew I took it. Even Vern knew it, I think. But maybe I was sorry and I tried to give it back.
Gordie: You tried to give it back?
Chris: Maybe. Just maybe. And maybe I took it to Old Lady Simmons and told her, and the money was all there. But I still got a three day vacation because it never showed up. And maybe the next week, Old Lady Simmons had this new suit on when she came to school.
Gordie: Yeah, yeah! It was brown and it had dots on it.
Chris: Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money, but Old Lady Simmons stole it back from me. Just say that I told this story. Me, Chris Chambers. Kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. Do you think that anyone would've believed it?
Gordie: No.
Chris: And do you think that that bitch would have dared try something like that if it had been one of those douchebags from up on the view, if they had taken the money?
Gordie: No way!
Chris: Hell no! But with me?... I'm sure she had her eye on that skirt for a long time. Anyway, she saw her chance, and she took it. I was the stupid one for even trying to give it back.
[begins to cry]
Chris: I just never thought a teacher... Oh, who gives a fuck anyway? I just wish... that I could go some place... where nobody knows me. I guess I'm just a pussy, huh?
Gordie: [comforting] No way. No way.
Watch out for spoilers!
3. Big screen, big budget movie – Armageddon. A big dose of American wholesomeness usually makes me slightly nauseous, but this is the exception. There are a few moments in the film that make the lip wobble, but the guaranteed blub moment has to be when Gracie’s father and AJ have drawn straws to save the world. They've gone down on to the asteroid together but only AJ is remaining to trigger the nuke while the others escape back to Earth. When they get to the surface Harry disconnects AJ’s air supply and says he’s doing it, and that AJ has to take up where he leaves off loving and looking after Gracie. The final stab to the tear duct is when he says AJ is like the son he never had. Honestly, I don’t know why I’m wearing mascara today. Whilst writing this I’ve gone from a slight dab of a tissue to re-running the movie scene in my head and ending up blowing my nose like a hooter!
4. The second showing for His Dark Materials is the end of Lee Scorsby and his daemon Hester. Whilst holding off enemies at the pass (a heroic dead), Lee gets mortally wounded and dies which means that his daemon Hester (an arctic hare) also has to die. I cannot put into words how this made me feel when I read it. Philip Pullman himself said that writing that part of the story was emotional for him, and that when reading it for the audiobook, he choked.
5. To end my top 5 is the unbelievably moving moment at the end of…. Cool Runnings! The team are down and out but have won the respect of their fellow competitors and complete the run carrying their bobsled over the finish line.
Well, now I’m truly emotionally drained for the day. I’ll probably think of a few more that should be on the list (Sparkhouse, the BBC feature from several years ago springs to mind) but I don’t have it in me to go further.
TheShitWizard says:
NikNak says I cry at anything (and once caught me crying at the last episode of SM:TV Live, so has a point) and I heartily concur with La Weasel on 2, 3 and 4, having got teary just thinking about them. There's a few more that always get me...
1. Wallace's fate in series 1 of The Wire gets me every.damn.time. Still young enough to be playing with his Transformers, Wallace is not only a slinger for the Barksdales but surrogate dad to many of the younger kids in the projects - packing their lunches, getting them ready for school, helping with their homework. When he's scared enough to want out of the life he's living, he gets out. Just not in the way that he expected, and at the hands of his friends. Somebody hold me...
2. Up. Mr Fredrickson looks back over the scrapbook he and his dearly departed wife made together, full of their hopes and dreams. One line is all it takes to have me wailing: "What do I do now, Ellie?"
Dear Jeebus, I'm even getting weepy just typing this!
3. Prince Hector dies in The Iliad. Having faced down the armies of Greece, Hector cannot stand up to the fury of Achilles and the treachery of the gods, and carks it outside the gates of Troy. I start to cry, and don't let up until after Priam begs for his son's body to be returned.
4. Stand By Me. Specifically, Chris's speech to Gordy about the milk money:
Chris: Yeah, I took it! I mean, you knew I took it. Teddy knew I took it. Everyone knew I took it. Even Vern knew it, I think. But maybe I was sorry and I tried to give it back.
Gordie: You tried to give it back?
Chris: Maybe. Just maybe. And maybe I took it to Old Lady Simmons and told her, and the money was all there. But I still got a three day vacation because it never showed up. And maybe the next week, Old Lady Simmons had this new suit on when she came to school.
Gordie: Yeah, yeah! It was brown and it had dots on it.
Chris: Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money, but Old Lady Simmons stole it back from me. Just say that I told this story. Me, Chris Chambers. Kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. Do you think that anyone would've believed it?
Gordie: No.
Chris: And do you think that that bitch would have dared try something like that if it had been one of those douchebags from up on the view, if they had taken the money?
Gordie: No way!
Chris: Hell no! But with me?... I'm sure she had her eye on that skirt for a long time. Anyway, she saw her chance, and she took it. I was the stupid one for even trying to give it back.
[begins to cry]
Chris: I just never thought a teacher... Oh, who gives a fuck anyway? I just wish... that I could go some place... where nobody knows me. I guess I'm just a pussy, huh?
Gordie: [comforting] No way. No way.
5. Wash. Serenity. "I'm a leaf on the wind..." Eep!
Why did I bother wearing make-up today?
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