starred John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn. I had yet to develop my admiration for John Wayne as an actor - that would come years later during my high school and college years. In 1969 at the drive-in, I only had eyes for Glen Campbell, who had a small but important role in the movie. And no, True Grit is not one of the movies that makes me cry.
Not every great movie on my greatest movies list has made me cry. And I'm sure that not-so-great movies had moments that have made me cry. I can't think of one right now, but the not-so-great movies rarely stick in my mind for very long. I absolutely love "Citizen Kane", but it isn't a movie that made my cry. It has other qualities to admire, not the least of which is a pretty amazing performance from the genius that was Orson Welles.
Yesterday I caught the last hour of "The Miracle Worker" on television. WARNING: There be spoilers ahead! I think it was on TCM, Turner Classic Movies. What a great channel! I have seen "The Miracle Worker" many, many, many times. You wouldn't think it could move me to tears still, but it does.
For those of you too young to know, for there is no good reason not to know this story unless you are too young, "The Miracle Worker" is a movie which was adapted from the original stage play by the playwright William Gibson, based on the early life of Helen Keller. Who, you ask, is Helen Keller? She was an American author, activist and lecturer who lost her hearing and her sight at the age of nineteen months. "The Miracle Worker" tells the story of how her family sought help for young Helen to give her a chance in life, to teach her a way to communicate and take her beyond the near total isolation that her blind/deaf situation left her.
Is "The Miracle Worker" a great movie? I believe that it is. Is it manipulative of its audience? Absolutely. But it's a manipulation that we as an audience welcome because the writer is so earnest and passionate in the telling of the story, and the performers are so perfect in bringing two extraordinary women to life. Anne Bancroft recreated her stage role as Annie Sullivan, the teacher whose own troubled eyesight and early life informed her hard line with Helen, an approach that nearly caused her to be fired before she'd even got started working with a then seven-year-old Helen.
Patty Duke recreated the role she played on the stage of Helen Keller. Patty Duke was amazing in this role. She was 16 years old, but there was no need to suspend disbelief in watching her performance; she was perfect, and held her own with the far more accomplished and experinced Bancroft.
The end of the movie is so moving, though it does hold its own share of controversy. You can check out the Wikipedia posting to see what I mean, but suffice it to say that the moment where Helen finally makes that connection between all those symbols that Annie has been repeating in the palm of her hand and the item that those letters from American Sign Language mean, the thrill of that moment of discovery, and joy and overwhelming understanding of what that moment would mean to young Helen...it is so emotional. I was nearly bawling yesterday as I watched, for the umpteenth time, this scene playing out. It is beautiful. I think it is made more amazing by the scene preceding it, to see Annie's frustrations at the Keller family and the possibility that all that she'd worked so hard for might be broken by a family that has too often fallen back on indulging the wild child that Helen had become, before Annie Sullivan came into her life.
So, what other movies, or scenes from movies, make me cry? There are certainly a number of movies that do, but these come immediately to mind. I think they are all worth your time to seek them out if you have not already seen them:
Out of Africa (the musical score is unbearably perfect and certainly contributes to my inability to watch this movie without crying)
The Natural(ditto the music, and should you read into anything that Robert Redford is in two of these movies? Maybe.)
To Kill a Mockingbird (true perfection in movie story-telling)
Brian's Song (yes, a TV movie, beautiful performances from James Caan and Billy Dee Williams)Titanic (no, not one of my favorite movies, but seriously, who doesn't cry when Leonardo DiCaprio slips into the water...Gah!)
So, are there movies that have made you cry?
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