Heard a song today that probably saved my life so many times it made me want to kill myself kinda. I scrapped that idea, but it got me thinking, what's the books, flicks, whatever, that wrenches the piss out of your heart and leaves you a crumpled mess on the ground and your like, "argh, you're so beautiful I want to punch your face in,"?
The last book I read that really did that for me was Samuel R. Delany's DARK REFLECTIONS.
Too, that Paul Auster penned movie SMOKE makes my eyes hurt from all the good ass story in there. And MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, though the Criterion stuff, the ones that aren't boring, are probably a given, I guess.
What about you guys? Doesn't have to be from your favorites list, just ones that are unbearably moving.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - which surprised me.
Films
Hachi - A Dog's Tale
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Words
Anything Cheryl Strayed wrote as Dear Sugar, so the whole of Tiny Beautiful Things.
@Renfield, I need the name of this song you speak of. Please.
Good question, for a book I'd have to go with Patrick deWitt's The Sister Brothers. The ending just was a kick in the balls. Not in terms of the actual ending more becuase I knew it was the end of my time with two geat chatacters and their world. The narrator Sister Brother #2 Eli is no hard and gritty cowboy rather he is the pudgy sidekick with a conscience who lends his melancholy voice to the tale. It's a cracker.
Boy on the triped Pajamas broke my heart. it's been a while since I read it, so you brought it back to me Photon.
I need to read the book. Haven't been able sleep, anyway, so now that you mentioned it was a book (yes, I'm an uncultured boob for not knowing it was a book) I think I'll walk down to the bookstore (who would've thought the Harvard Bookstore would be open till 11) and see if they have it.
Independent People by Halldor Laxness, parts of The Golden Age by Kenneth Grahame, [I don't want to punch either book in the face, though,] and, as I said somewhere else, W.B. Yeats's The Twisting of the Rope, among many by the same.
The last film I got all woozy over was The White Ribbon, which has some nasty stuff in it.
books
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut
Swollen by Melissa Lion
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (and anything else by Dave Eggers)
music
the entirety of Transatlantacism by Death Cab for Cutie
everything ever by Damien Rice, but especially The Professor and La Fille Danse
movies/TV
Cropsy
My Brother's Keeper (goddamnit I tear up just thinking about it)
Rescue Me (because Denis Leary reminds me too much of my goddamn dad)
I find this song hauntingly (and painfully) beautiful - maybe because I don't understand it.
And a movie: Gabbeh.
As a book: The Sound and the Fury.
Would deefo have to second Courtney's choice, Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlantacism.
Movie ~ 50/50
Short stories ~ In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is Buried by Amy Hempel and some of the non-fiction stuff that Chuck has written, there is a secret chapter in Invisible Monsters Remixed about when his mum was dieing that breaks my heart.
Music ~ Elliott Smith ~ Going Nowhere, and Half Right.
Also, the piano on Adele's Hometown Glory is beautiful. It takes me to my sad place, make me think about death. (I'm pretty sure the lyrics aren't actually sad, but damn, that melody sure is)
Anything by Joe Haldeman.
Books:
- The end of Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing killed me. Essentially anything by him does, but that ending specifically left me teary-eyed and shell-shocked (in a good way) for a while.
- The Grapes of Wrath still does its thing to me.
- The Call of the Wild.
Movies:
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The inexorability of that movie never fails to cut me down. The most bittersweet tears at the end.
- The Lives of Others. The most perfect ending I've ever seen in a movie is pure joy--the most honest tears I've ever shed. My vote for the best movie of this century thus far.
Music:
Too many to list, but the last thing that got to me a few weeks ago--as it has every time I've heard it--was Johnny Cash's version of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails.
Oh. Music.
Try not to kill yourselves: http://youtu.be/6H7f06LK2oo
@drea: I fucking love that song! That and his cover of A Change is Gonna Come always kills me.
This one fucks me up everytime, my grandparents called it their song and we played it at their funerals. http://youtu.be/UCmUhYSr-e4
LitReactor: The Other Other Otis Redding Fan Club.
I'm such a sap these days that I cry at someone opening a jar of peanut butter. Those poor peanuts!
Dallas Green gets to me sometimes. He's my go-to for solace when I'm down or sick. This song in particular.
Oh, yay! An American who knows Dallas Green! Isn't he amazing?
This movie (Turtles Can Fly) really breaks my heart every time I see it, and the song in it too.
Not a religious person, but this song is fucking amazing
First movies that come to mind are Big Fish and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? The only book that's ever had me bawling is Joe Hill's Horns, which is easily my favorite novel of all time. So frigging beautiful.
As for music? "King of Pain" by The Police always hits me where it counts. Hey, don't laugh.
I'm gonna do a rewatch BIG FISH soon I think, in a Billy Crudup-athon, which will of course include scorchers like JESUS' SON and ALMOST FAMOUS. (I've been on a kick of doing monthly mini-thons. Recently did David Fincher movies and Rob Reiner's 80's movies. He had like a perfect decade ther). Oh, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY is one I just can't watch with other people, I'll sob throughout the entire thing for reasons unclear. Same with JACOB'S LATTER.
Both the book and film of THE LONG GOODBYE could rank. I got a serious bro-ner for that there Sterling Hayden.
I'm kind of just too into Sade (because, of course, Sade is the greatest -de I've ever known) so that song THE SWEETEST TABOO just makes me sick with love. I can't help but wonder if the "storm" mentioned in that song is the same spoken of here, which then obviously infers that the Taboo narrator is the subject of the latter, and then it all becomes too tragic. Conspiracies abound.
Song: Jessie's Song from Toy Story 2. I love it with all my being, yet I break down into a puddle of saline goo every time I hear it.
Sade is pretty slick.
Here's just a few:
- The last episode of Lost.
- Four out of the six Rocky films.
- Dan Chaon's short story "Burn With Me."
- The end of the video game The Walking Dead, when the song "Take Us Back" plays.
- Dean Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye.
There are hundreds of others, too, because I'm a big goddamn softie.
Music: The Chalet Lines and We Rule the School, by Belle & Sebastian. Those songs had me running home in tears.
Completely agree with Slaughterhouse 5 (which I havent finished reading yet, but it's already beautiful) and the film, The Lives of Others.
Life is Beautiful has to be THE most painfully beautiful film I've ever seen. I was sobbing by the end. Please, please watch it if you haven't already. It makes me want to cry just remembering it.
Also, for books, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Oh, and if you want a song that'll rip your heart out with it's beautiful sadness, try Gotye 'Bronte', which he wrote about being with his family dog when it got put to sleep. If you don't cry at that, you're made of stone. Fact.
I like trailers. No one wants to post trailers to recommend a movie?
Well this one is a beautiful movie.
Oh, the episode of Rescue Me where he pours the vodka on himself while watching home movies and then goes to a meeting made me sob like a baby.
Agree with who said Grapes of Wrath. Another classic , The Jungle, got to me. For more recent, if you haven't read Let The Great World Spin by Colllum McCann. ,you should. heartbreaking and amazing.
Indie video game. It's not done yet, so I can't say for sure, but this might fit the bill. I actually got goosebumps from a scene in the first act. (I've played some good games, but that's never happened before.) I liked it so much I thought about asking them for a job. I really hope they don't blow it.
http://kentuckyroutezero.com/limits-and-demonstrations/
This is a free demo/add-on, if anybody wants to get a feel.
Loved kentucky route zero, that part were the blue grass band kicked when I left the house was somthing else. Just hope Episode 2 comes out soon.
Been listing to a lot of public service boardcasting as thier album is out soon, I dont why but the ending of this just does me every time.
Why should a man climb everest? Beacuse it is there!
