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11 Movies That Will Make a Grown Man Cry
There is a formula. Sports + David & Goliath = our version of a tear jerker. And sports can, of course, be replaced with any form of conflict.
Women will cry at just about any old lame movie. Proven fact. If I had a buck for every time my wife has teared up at some ridiculous formulated chick flick, I could retire now. But every once in a while, there comes along a movie that will get us men. Sometimes it gets men and women, but the movies that get men are of a different breed and operate on a different level.
Take, for example, the first movie on this list; Rudy. My wife was and to this day remains singularly unimpressed with this movie. I, on the other hand, have seen it, in her estimation, just short of 3 million times. (She’s exaggerating a bit, but probably not by much.) And I will undoubtedly watch it a few million more. It’s down to basics; no unnecessary romance or complicated plot twists. It is the perfect man’s movie.
There is a formula. Sports + David & Goliath = our version of a tear jerker. And sports can, of course, be replaced with any form of conflict. The most manly movie of all time, The 300, is a perfect example. Throw in those attributes, and we’ll watch anything short of gay cowboy movies.
So here they are… weather we admit it or not… 10 movies that’ll make a grown, man cry.
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Rudy
Any sense of manhood I have intact for doing this list would be gone if I didn’t include Rudy. This is the one movie where men are not only allowed to drop a tear, but expected to.
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Dead Poet’s Society
Robin Williams… the man who made it Ok to be a bit of a softy.
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The Champ
Ok, if this one didn’t get you you’re a cruel, heartless jerk. Even if you couldn’t understand little Ricky Schroeder, this one had to get you.
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The Last Castle
Redford was a man’s man in this movie… If you gotta go out, this is the way to do it.
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Red Dawn
As cheesy and outdated as it may be, this is still a great movie, and I will go Roadhouse on anyone who disagrees. Watching Patrick Swayze carry Charlie Sheen… Like it didn’t get you, too.
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Armageddon
Bruce Willis is full of crap. The macho action hero thing stopped working after the second die hard…. with this one exception. He sucked, Liv Tyler sucked, and it still got us.
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Good Will Hunting
This one only worked because the movie as a whole was absolutely brilliant.
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Brian’s Song
Dammit, Billy Dee, we love him! Quit it!
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Big Fish
A very odd, but very good movie. This was an ending you could pretty much see coming a mile away, but it still did the trick.
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Hoosiers
See, guys are suckers for David vs. Goliath. Gets us any day of the week.
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Rocky Balboa
And we end as we had to… with Rocky, the greatest sports movie of them all. No way in the world to finish something like this than with…. Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!….
9 Comments
dead poet’s society – my teacher said it was very good.
O you big softy! I only cry at films with animals in them. 8 below zero, homeward bound, black beauty and the horse whisperer!
real men don’t cry over movies. I am surprised you didnt put father of the bride and Free willy in here you pansie!
The previous comment came as no surprise, but I do agree with most of your selections. I’d include “Field of Dreams”, where Ray has the catch with his Dad. I saw that flick with about 12 people, half of them men, and each guy was in tears during that scene. And yeah, we’re still ‘real’ men, despite our horrible crime of FEELING something, Brad.
I don’t believe Sports quaily as a movie unless you are refering to acutal movies like “We Are Marshall”, “Mighty Ducks” not sure if the boxing one is called “Cinderella Man” or not. The first two I”ve seen the third one only heard about.
can’t spell this morning, was want the word ” qualify “
“We are Marshall” made me cry when they were chanting… but when I just saw the title I thought “this list better have Rudy” and it was the first one. Nice choices
Armageddon…are you serious!!!
Okay, I’ll agree with you on some points, but, don’t you think you’re generalizing? Not every woman has a heart of gold, and not every man is into sports movies.
But, you left out Ghost, Lord of the Rings 1 & 3, King Kong 2005, Titanic, etc… all movies that I’ve seen men get teary-eyed at.
At Brad — a real man shows no embarrassment for his feelings and accepts his nature entirely. It is the phoney man who pretends he doesn’t have feelings or that he isn’t affected by moving circumstances. It takes much more courage to admit how you feel than to cover it up.