The Champ (1979)
The Crying Scene: Boxing champ Billy Flynn (Jon Voight) lies battered and broken while his young son TJ (Ricky Schroder) cries over him, unable to understand why he won't move.
Why It's Unwatchable: There's not a shred of drama school acting going on here as Schroder tugs at the heart strings with an overwhelming naturalistic performance.
So massively upsetting that you'll want to reach into the screen and give TJ a hug yourself.
Voight Says: "He's a good actor."
Something's Gotta Give (2003)
The Crying Scene: Erica (Diane Keaton) is so upset that things didn't work out with Harry (Jack Nicholson) that she can't stop crying. Like, at all. She cries for days…
Why It's Unwatchable: It's so over-the-top. It's meant to be funny, but it just ends up being annoying.
Erica cries in bed. She cries while working. She shrieks and throws herself around. FOR TWO WHOLE MINUTES…
Keaton Says: "Nancy [ Meyer ] was a big taskmaster. She really wanted a lot from us. She demanded a lot emotionally from both of us. She was a very meticulous, detailed director in that Nancy was very precise about the words.
"I’m a big slob so I was constantly being reminded that that wasn’t the actual way it was written."
A Single Man (2009)
The Crying Scene: George (Colin Firth) has just discovered that his partner Jim (Matthew Goode) has died in a car accident.
Why It's Unwatchable: Firth's gradual transformation from shock to disbelief to sorrow is mesmerising, but cuts right to the bone.
Impossible to watch not because it's terrible, but because it's so good that our eyes are too full of tears to watch it.
Tom Ford Says: "I wanted this not to be a gay story or a straight story but to be a human story. I think the more we see that and realise that love between people is love between two people that the better off we’ll all be for that."
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
The Crying Scene: “And I’m going to be 40!” sobs Sally (Meg Ryan) “When?” asks Harry (Billy Crystal). “Someday!” erupts Sally, who's just discovered Joe's getting married and isn't taking it very well.
Why It's Unwatchable: This is why we love When Harry Met Sally - it plays the drama and comedy so beautifully. Ryan in particular is phenomenal here, finding real emotion in the comedy. It'll blind you.
Nora Ephron Says: "She has no vanity. The women that women love are women who don't walk around full of their own self-love. You absolutely know when you see Meg onscreen that if you found yourself next to her you might become friends."
The Impossible (2012)
The Crying Scene: Henry (Ewan McGregor) finally gets his hands on a phone and calls his father-in-law in the wake of the tsunami, but the familiar voice coming down the line only causes him to break down completely.
Why It's Unwatchable: McGregor is the best he's ever been here, completely surrendering to body-wracking sobs.
It doesn't feel maudlin or insidious - it feels utterly, shatteringly real. And yes, we've got something in our eye…
McGregor Says: "[ Director ] Jota has always said – and he's right – that crying was a real privilege in that situation, because nobody had time. And so when people did cry, they totally fell apart."
The Patriot (2000)
The Crying Scene: Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) discovers the dead body of his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger) at Tavington's camp.
Why It's Unwatchable: It's basically Mel Gibson crying over Heath Ledger's dead body which, considering the real-life events that would follow the release of the film, is just too much the bear.
Gibson Says: "Who hasn't had a dark night of the soul? You know the one where you want to go to sleep but you can't and it's not much of a big jump from there to pretend to be that way in front of a camera."
Anchorman (2004)
The Crying Scene: "I'm in a glass case of emotion!" Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) has a phone-chucking, window-thwacking meltdown in a phone box. It's like watching a monkey in a suit.
Why It's Unwatchable: Even if you try to watch this scene from start to finish, you're likely to get a hernia from laughing too much. Why would you put yourself through that?
Ferrell Says : "A fair amount of the character was on the page just because Adam and I had lived with it for so long, writing it. However, Adam's somewhat unconventional as a director. We kind of do the scene written one time and then we'd start improvising right away."
First Blood (1982)
The Crying Scene : John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has a total meltdown at the climax of his first big screen outing.
Why It's Unwatchable: It's Stallone ranting at nobody and waving his hands around dramatically while we try to figure out what the heck he's ACTUALLY SAYING.
There's also something really uncomfortable about watching a muscle guy in a tank-top and bandana having a mental breakdown.
Stallone Says: "The films are realistic fantasies. Bullets are easy. You can buy ’em. Emotions are not. They’re priceless."
Sophie's Choice (1982)
The Crying Scene: Sophie (Meryl Streep) is given a terrible choice: she must choose one of her children to stay with her in Auschwitz, while the other will be gassed…
Why It's Unwatchable: There's a reason Streep won an Academy Award for this - her noiseless crying is paired with a mask of pure horror as her daughter's screams fade into the distance.
Really, really upsetting.
Streep Says: "I read that scene once and I never read it again. In those days I used to remember my lines pretty well. I couldn't read that but it was engraved in my mind. I didn't have to study it.
"When it was over, it was over. I had to put it out of my mind until the day we had to shoot it."
The Mist (2007)
The Crying Scene: David (Thomas Jane) shoots his son and three other survivors in order to spare them the monsters in the mist - only there's not a fifth bullet for him.
Why It's Unwatchable: 'Traumatic' is the word best used to describe this impossibly unfair (and unremittingly grim) ending to Frank Darabont's twisted monster flick.
As David starts screaming, chances are you'll be screaming alongside him.
Frank Darabont Says: "[ Stephen King's ] response to me was that he loved the [ different ] ending and wished he'd thought of it, which felt like it put me on some pretty solid ground.
"Obviously when adapting somebody like King, somebody who's work you really admire, you don't want to do something that doesn't please the author. Just on a personal level, that meant a lot to me.”
