Article: Brought To Tears ... by a book or movie?

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

You can view the page at https://www.tarvalon.net/content.php?1837-Do-movies-and-books-make-you-cry

 

[Cahalan Sothron]

I'm a super emotional person, so I cry at everything :P

There are a few things that are guaranteed to make me cry:

- animals, particularly dogs, getting hurt or killed
- people saying good-bye in a death scene, or someone dying doing something brave (there's a scene in Towers of Midnight, with the person talking to Egwene, that made me put down the book for 15 minutes because I couldn't stop sobbing)
- anything that makes me think of my grandma or my friend Tabatha
- the movie Up. Seriously, the first 5-10 minutes of that movie had me and Mr. Sothron inconsolable.
- the songs "American Pie" and "Little Drummer Boy"
- basically anything. I've been known to tear up watching commercials.

 

[Polegnyn Nemeara]

Reading a book doesn't do it for me. I'm usually vegged out and trying to relax instead of focusing on the exact moment.

Auditory and visual events get me most times, though. I always start tearing up at the end of Inside Out (the movie). I also teared up during my recent WoT audiobook relisten (not when I first read it) when one of the characters learns of his family's fate. I've also had to regain my composure at church during a few of those songs.

And to piggy back off Cahalan Sedai's response, the same scene from Up got me the first time my family watched it. I wasn't prepared for it at all. But now I am ready for it when the kids want to watch the movie so it doesn't affect me much. The soundtrack is another story...

 

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

I haven't watched UP ... I've avoided it because I know I'll be sobbing like a fool through the entire beginning.

 

[Cahalan Sothron]

The beginning of Up was seriously the most difficult thing I've ever watched. It was like a snapshot of my marriage then, now and not yet, and it broke my heart.

 

[Maibella ni Rhoiden t'al'Varrak]

Hmm, I wonder if my reaction to UP would be better or worse now that I'm newly divorced ...

 

[Alyssa Letherio]

Definitely that part of Up!
Also when Gandalf is left behind in the mines of Moria.

Also very difficult when the characters themselves cry in movies...

 

[Alyccea Nymaessene]

I cried like a baby the first time I went back and watched The Fellowship of the Ring after seeing The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. Seeing the Shire and Bag End and the Party Tree, and knowing that it was some 60-ish (ISH!) years later and knowing what fates had befallen those characters I'd finally gotten to know... it just brought up a lot of feels.

I do tear up in movies in the typical sad bits (including Up - I'd be interested to see if there is anybody who didn't get misty-eyed during that montage!), but I don't think I've ever cried over a book. I suspect that, just like Mai Sedai, it's probably got a lot to do with ruining the dramatic pacing of the moment by reading too quickly.

 

[Zelinea Aldevron]

This is a really interesting question. I don't really cry at much, but when I do, it tends to be on the waterworks side of things. It doesn't seem to have an effect whether it's movie or book for me. I think one of the only books that's led me to tears so far was Bridge to Terabithia, which I read when I was the same age as the characters, so that may have had something to do with it. Like Polegnyn, one of the movies that's left me in tears was Inside Out. Bing Bong's final line had me sobbing for pretty much the rest of the film. I watched Up when I was pretty young, so I didn't totally understand what was going on, but I wonder what would happen if I watched it again now...

 

[Analiese Sinclaer]

I cry during normal crying parts, but I also cry at really weird parts of certain movies as well. Like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; I do not cry at crying parts, but at really random parts. Its really weird and I cannot help it and I have no idea what is making me sob uncontrollably when nothing particularly emotional is happening.

 

[Alora Sionn]

Oh gosh, sometimes commercials make me cry, you don't even know also the movie Wolf Children really punched me in the feelings

 

[Marivea al'Corriyi]

Books or movies, I'll weep over either. It's still fairly rare, though, and has to hit me right. in. the. feels. First book I cried over was The Time Traveler's Wife. Most recent sobfest was the movie Marie's Story.

 

[Dnae Ila]

I cry more easily over books than movies, because it's easier for me to connect emotionally to the characters. Sad deaths don't usually do it; there needs to be an extra emotional punch to bring me to tears. Betrayal will often do it.
For instance, in Braveheart, one of my favorite movies, (spoilers just in case)

Spoiler

I didn't cry when William's wife was killed, but I cried when he discovered that Robert the Bruce sold him out. Also, I cried at the torture scene, not because he was being tortured, but because that nameless little boy was watching such horror.

One book that never fails to make me cry is Alan and Naomi. Doesn't matter how many times I've read it, it always has me sobbing at the end.

Oddly, I didn't cry at Up. It was sad, but the whole thing kinda washed over me blandly. I'm not sure why. Just didn't care for it.