• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Good movies with sad endings

Status
Not open for further replies.
SantaC

SantaC

Member
I read through the war of worlds thread and it seems that some of you don't always prefer your standard happy ending.

Here are some good movies that I can remember to have "sad" endings in different ways:

12 Monkeys (1995)
End of days (1999)
Planet of the apes remake (2001)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)


Now what's yours?
 
E

Error Macro

Member
Not that the rest of the movie was particularly good, but I just watched The Last American Virgin the other day, and what a freaking downer of an ending.
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
Probably every Kitano Takeshi film besides Kikujiro, the boxing movie, and I'd guess Scene at the Sea (haven't seen it yet).
 
K

Kon Tiki

Banned
El_Victor said:
Grave of the Fireflies.
Click to expand...
I can not find cartoons to entrance sadness. In turn, I find the idea of somone crying to a cartoon to be sad.

Kids
American History X
Cool Hand Luke
Dog Day Afternoon
Life as a House
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
Society said:
I can not find cartoons to entrance sadness. In turn, I find the idea of somone crying to a cartoon to be sad.
Click to expand...

If you're not in tears at the end of that film you have no soul.
 
M

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
Off the top of my head...

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl - By far, the saddest movie I've ever seen.
Dancer in the Dark - Another really sad one...a bit melodramatic in places but overall great.

There's something I saw recently that actually had me sitting and staring at the screen for a few minutes after it had ended but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. I'm going to have to look at my DVDs when I get home. My memory sucks.
 
T

thomaser

Member
- Life Is Beautiful (La Vita Bella). Both heartwrenchingly sad and very happy at the same time.

- Cinema Paradiso. Not sad as in something bad happening, but it feels very sad or melancholic. Much because of the mixture between nostalgia and music... when this film ends, I feel like an old person whose early hopes and dreams have turned out unfulfilled, and I'm only 25.

- The Deer Hunter.

- Grave Of The Fireflies. Cartoon or not, the characters in this film show more emotion than most real actors, and the story is undeniably tragic.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Society said:
I can not find cartoons to entrance sadness. In turn, I find the idea of somone crying to a cartoon to be sad.

Kids
American History X
Cool Hand Luke
Dog Day Afternoon
Life as a House
Click to expand...

Yet the films you listed are sad? You do realize these are simply people portraying a story, right?

Grave of the Fireflies is the saddest movie I have ever seen, far and away. I don't see how the fact that it is animated makes a damned difference. There are sad movies with actors, sad books that are simply printed word, and there are sad cartoons as well.
 
S

StrikerObi

Member
Truelize said:
The Virgin Suicides had a pretty sad ending. Awesome movie.
Click to expand...

Ok, this movie sucked... a lot. Go read the book, it's good.

Quick summary: The book is funny, in the fact that the happenings are so absurd. The movie doesn't get this in the slightest (except for Trip Fontaine) and tries to be a drama.

Million Dollar Baby is my pick for this thread.
 
S

siege

Banned
Saving Private Ryan
Braveheart
Schindler's List
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Glory
Forrest Gump
Finding Neverland
 
Tritroid

Tritroid

Member
siege said:
Saving Private Ryan
Braveheart
Schindler's List
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Glory
Forrest Gump
Finding Neverland
Click to expand...
Oh god I forgot Schindler's List. I don't think I've bawled so much at the end of a movie ever.

And Finding Neverland? meh. It's a good movie for what it's worth, but the ending dialogue seemed so overly cliched it couldn't wrench much emotion from me. "Why'd she have to die?" "If you believe she will always be with you!" blah. lame.
 
R

Raguel

Member
Another good, sad movie I recomend is this Korean flick Fei Long (I think that's how it's spelled). Its sad through out and I think it stars the main actor of Old Boy. The ending is a downer.
 
R

ronito

Member
Old Yeller.


Also about Adaptation:
I actually found the ending to be more ironic than funny. I mean the whole movie is symbolic about how this guy is torn between two movies the artsy fartsy one and the action movie one. Hence the nerdy Nicholas Cage and the jock Nicholas Cage. The first half is the artsy-fartsy stuff while the second half is the cheesy action movie that the jock Nicholas Cage wanted to make, even with the ending he prescribe (which is cliche). So I considered the ending to be more of a statement than sad. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I took from it.
 
B

Baconäger

Member
ronito said:
Old Yeller.


Also about Adaptation:
I actually found the ending to be more ironic than funny. I mean the whole movie is symbolic about how this guy is torn between two movies the artsy fartsy one and the action movie one. Hence the nerdy Nicholas Cage and the jock Nicholas Cage. The first half is the artsy-fartsy stuff while the second half is the cheesy action movie that the jock Nicholas Cage wanted to make, even with the ending he prescribe (which is cliche). So I considered the ending to be more of a statement than sad. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I took from it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the movie is really funny overall but I still think it's sad the way Donald goes out, and the part where he has to call their mom and tell her what happend. The stories they told in the swamp the night before kind of make their relationship more serious giving the death some impact too.
 
R

ronito

Member
Bacon said:
Yeah, I think the movie is really funny overall but I still think it's sad the way Donald goes out, and the part where he has to call their mom and tell her what happend. The stories they told in the swamp the night before kind of make their relationship more serious giving the death some impact too.
Click to expand...

Point taken.
 
J

Jill Sandwich

the turds of Optimus Prime
The Pledge with Jack Nicholson is a bit of a downer. Also, Bambi, because all his friends fuck him over because of chicks.
 
M

Memles

Member
Ponn01 said:
In Good Company
Click to expand...

See, films like this don't have sad endings. They just don't have happy ones. There is nothing sad about the ending to this film...yeah, it doesn't turn out perfectly, but it's not sad.

If it wasn't for the final scene, I'm going to go with Monsters Inc. Just the initial finality of the separation is just absolutely tragic.
 
J

jetpacks was yes

Member
Grave of the Fireflies is a very sad movie. Like Roger Ebert said, what makes is sad is the idea of these terrible things happening to children, because you know that things like that actually did happen (and still happen). Being a cartoon actually makes it even more depressing since you're more focused on the idea than you would be if you were watching some kid actors in those situations. Very good, very sad movie.

Some other choices:

Old Boy
Sympathy for My Vengeance
Last Life in the Universe
Kairo
Ikiru
Seven Samurai
Twilight Samurai
A Scene at the Sea
Christmas in August
Save the Green Planet
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | Rotten Watch
News 2
52
5K
cormack12 replied
Fury (2014) - Brad Pitt kills Nazis in a Tank with Shia Labeouf
31
1K
Men_in_Boxes replied
Ridley Scott interview - sharks in the colosseum, Maximus returning from the afterlife to kill Jesus Christ, asleep at the wheel for Prometheus
45
3K
dem replied
Nicolas Winding Refn returning to filmmaking with Tokyo-set movie
29
2K
Giallo Corsa replied
4chan Intergalactic full plot leak, "open world Uncharted"
Rumor Clickbait 3 4 5 6 7
326
27K
ergem replied
Top Bottom