Friday Five: Tear-jerking Moments

If a film makes us cry, we shouldn’t be ashamed about. It just lets us know we’re emotive human beings capable of empathy and sympathy towards relatable characters, fictional or not. However, that’s not to say that we can’t be a little disgruntled when a flick unexpectedly decides to sprays us in the eyes with a hypothetical can of dramatic pepper spray.

Depending on the overall quality of the film, this type of spontaneous tear-jerking can provoke one of two reactions:

1)      an assuming of the foetal position while saying to yourself “I’m not gonna cry, I’m not gonna cry, I’m… *sniff* not… *sniff* gonna… *sniff*”

2)      a composed frown, a shaking of the head, a vacant glare at the screen and single tear running down your cheek as you casually utter “I hate this film.”

This Fri-Five is dedicated to five prominent tear-jerking techniques that, for better or worse, seem to get us every time.

[Spoilers ahead]

1. The Painful Goodbye

The jerker: Toy Story 3

http://youtu.be/Z2vr0M7jhRk

Whether it’s two lovers’ final embrace before departing the train station, the concluding words of a dying grandmother to her family or a dude in his late teens playing with a box of inanimate toys, the painful goodbye works, but only if we do indeed feel the pain. You’re even more susceptible to its tear-drawing talons if you’ve experienced a similarly hurtful loss.

On the flipside, you may be watching a film stuffed with so much cheese that no amount of wine could possibly compliment it. Amazingly, you sat through two hours of uninteresting draggy melodrama. And yet, when little Timmy has to say goodbye to his mum before they flip off her life support, you’ll be flipping your head upwards in an attempt to force the tears back into your eyeballs.

2. The Pet Dying

The jerker: I Am Legend

Here’s a strange fact: we feel sorrier for the death of an animal than the death of a person.

Even in a ho-hum movie, a scene involving the death of a pet can be surprisingly effective if done correctly. Hell, the pet doesn’t even have to die to turn us into a snotty eye-reddened mess; the possibility of its death is enough. But it never tops the heart-wrenching scenes where the owner is forced to but their beloved put down with their own hands. There’s a reason no one owns Old Yeller on DVD.

3. The Cancer/AIDS Speech

The jerker: Not Team America: World Police

Telling someone that a disease is slowly killing you: that sucks. It’s even harder to judge who will be more affected: you or the person you’re telling.

The key to making your audience breakdown during the dreaded “I have cancer/AIDS/both” speech is to have them feel like their friend is telling them this. In order to achieve this, protagonist (or whoever is dying) has to be likeable and relatable. That’s how the viewer falls into their plight. It’s basic stuff, but rarely is it mastered.

That’s why it’s maddening/hilarious when a filmmaker sees an association between the “I have cancer/AIDS/both” speech and an emotional audience reaction and thinks “Well, if I chuck this in my movie, people will LOVE it!” Here’s the thing: if we don’t give a crap about your characters, we won’t give a crap if and how they die. We may even welcome it.

4. The reference to a real tragedy

The jerker: Remember Me

Some films reside around a historical tragedy, organically weaving the horrific events with the story it decides to tell. Some films even make the true-story disaster the focal point, exploring themes like grief and bravery whilst tastefully paying their respects (United 93). In these cases, it’s nearly mandatory to shed a tear when paying witness to such films.

But then you’ve got movies that do it inorganically and obnoxiously. It starts telling some mediocre story one minit, then it throws in a tragic historical event the nekk, prying into the sorrow you felt during the real incident in a way that’s totally disconnected to the film. It’s a cheap shot, and it’s the ultimate form of a lazy tear-jerking attempt.

5. The “I don’t want to miss a thing”

The jerker: Armageddon

http://youtu.be/SWd73bK9-zc

In what can be unanimously decided as Michael Bay’s most heartfelt movie in his entire filmography, all the credit to Armageddon’s tear-jerking success can go to Aerosmith and their dedication to this one song. It’s a romantic poem, fused together with a power ballad then stirred into the frosty confines of your soul.

Sure, the song has pretty much nothing to do with an asteroid colliding into earth and destroying all life on the planet, but gosh darn it, Steve Tyler made us believe in love again.