8 Deep, Sad Films that Will Move You
People say that it’s much easier to make someone laugh from a movie than to make them cry. Connecting with viewers isn’t easy, but it can be wonderful when it does happen. Sad films in particular have a special power to touch you and get you to empathize with the characters.
For a couple of hours your eyes will take you into their lives. You’ll feel what they feel, you’ll yell when they yell, and you’ll feel moved when they feel moved. The magic of films is that they’re like an activator for your own impulses, played out by people on a screen.
Sad films put you into the shoes of people who suffer and face hardship. There isn’t always a happy ending. But they teach us why it’s so important to never give up when things get hard.
8 sad films that will move you
Amour
This French film tells the story of an older married couple confronting the wife’s illness. Misunderstanding, loneliness, and compassion are the major themes in this one. Georges, the husband, has to deal with his wife’s issues, and it’s so hard for him that he gets to a point where he doesn’t want to go on living.
The frustration and pain make both he and his daughter fight not to lose her. Director Michael Haneke won an Oscar in 2012 for this masterpiece that we consider a must-see.
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
Parker Wilson is a music teacher who finds an Akita puppy one day. Even though his wife says no, he decides to keep the dog, and they end up forming a special bond. The story, based on true events, focuses on how loyal dogs are to their owners. In this film, the dog even goes so far as to wait for Parker every day at the train station.
Hotel Rwanda
The genocide that took place in Rwanda when the Hutu people murdered the Tutsi’s is portrayed coldly and objectively in this film, but also courageously. The main character is Paul, a Hutu man who manages a hotel and who decides to help hide hundreds of families from persecution.
Paul’s wife is Tutsi, and both she and their daughters receive death threats. While he waits for international help, he has to bribe Hutu leaders, deal with a devastating lack of resources, and always maintain his composure to save his family.
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life.”
-Jean-Luc Godard-
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of a love between two American cowboys. At the beginning both of them deny their feelings because of social conventions, but later they begin a beautiful, albeit rocky, relationship. The way the film shows us how they fall in love is simple and natural, but it’s also very complicated because of their towering fear of rejection.
The Pianist
This absolute treasure of a film by Roman Polanski centers around the life of Wladyslaw, a Polish pianist of Jewish background. They force him to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he has lives an extremely stark life and is confronted with the horrible atrocities committed by the Nazis. His love for piano is what keeps him alive, gaining him the favor of a Nazi officer who discovers his talent.
Stepmom
Isabel is a fashion photographer who thinks about nothing but work. She’s in a relationship with a divorced man, Luke, who’s constantly arguing with his ex-wife and the mother of his children, Jackie. Their lives completely turn around when they find out his ex-wife has terminal cancer, which means Isabel has to spend more time with the kids.
My Girl
Little Vada lives a life where she’s constantly around death. Her father owns a funeral home that he runs out of their basement, her mother died when she gave birth to her, and her grandmother has Alzheimer’s. She spends peaceful days with her best friend, Thomas, but everything changes when Shelly, the new mortician, shows up.
Dead Poets Society
John Keating is an English teacher at a private all-boys school. His arrival brings some excitement and mystery with it because his teaching methods aren’t exactly normal. A group of four friends find out that when he was younger he belonged to the so-called “Dead Poets Society.”
Keating shows them where they used to meet: an old tree where they would talk about poetry and express their deepest thoughts.
To conclude, these profound, sad films will make you think about the meaning of life. The characters in them aren’t always strong or brave, but that’s what makes them so human and meaningful. Because change, whether good or bad, is one thing you can never avoid in life.