Almost any movie from any genre can be emotional for any number of reasons, but something needs to be extra hard-hitting and universally moving before it can be labeled a tearjerker. This term refers to movies that have highly emotional stories that, at their core, tend to be sad, with the movies themselves usually made with the expectation that viewers will be moved, quite possibly to tears.

As such, when focusing on movies that are the most potent tearjerkers, it’s not necessarily the case that these are also the saddest movies of all time. That’s remarkably subjective, in any event, and oftentimes, the most soul-crushing and depressing movies qualify as the saddest, with some leaving one feeling numb and shattered, rather than likely to cry. What follows are some of the best certainly intentional tearjerkers, with most (but not all) being bittersweet, balancing the sadness with some hope, and the resulting contrast proving the emotions all the more effective, in many cases.

25 'Steel Magnolias' (1989)

Director: Herbert Ross

Steel Magnolias is one of the quintessential 1980s tearjerkers, and is comparable to other films of that decade that seem designed to be as sad as possible, including Terms of Endearment and Beaches (consider those two runners-up, for current ranking purposes). Steel Magnolias is a dramedy that’s more and more of a drama the longer it goes on, leading up to an emotional conclusion that feels inevitable.

Nevertheless, any sort of predictability or formula at play in the film does little to blunt how sad many find the experience of watching it to be, though it’s thankfully not a complete downer. There are themes surrounding perseverance and finding strength through emotional bonds made with others, and those things plus some humor here and there make Steel Magnolias emotionally balanced, relatable, and cathartic.

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24 'Marley & Me' (2008)

Director: David Frankel

Dogs are like the ice cream of the animal world, because it’s hard to find too many people who dislike either. Because of how universally beloved “man’s best friend” is, there’s an argument to be made that making a tearjerker movie about a dog (tending to end where you’d expect) isn’t all that difficult to do, and indeed, there have been plenty of notably sad ones made throughout cinema history.

Yet of them all, it might well be Marley & Me that’s the most famous for making people cry, even if they know what’s coming. It follows a young couple starting a family alongside their mischievous puppy, Marley, who grows older as his owners do as well, with the entire life of said dog depicted, both the happy and sad moments. Even if it could be accused of feeling cheesy or saccharine, it’s not hard to see why Marley & Me is so potent a tearjerker.

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23 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)

Director: Peter Jackson

Admittedly, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King isn’t a tearjerker in the sense that every single minute of it seems to be in service of eventually making the viewer cry. As an epic film and conclusion to a beloved fantasy trilogy, it’s packed with tons of exciting and action-packed moments, featuring huge battle sequences and elaborate special effects that still look dazzling 20+ years later.

However, also owing to its status as a trilogy capper, it understands that saying farewell to characters and a world one’s been in for 9-ish hours (more like 12 with the extended editions) is sad, and the various endings are often moving. The trilogy does end with good triumphing over evil, but the sacrifices made along the way, and the fact that some characters end up parting on their own terms, once the adventure’s over, make things surprisingly bittersweet.

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22 'Little Miss Sunshine' (2006)

Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

A dramedy about family that also happens to be one of the best movies released during 2006, Little Miss Sunshine follows various dysfunctional family members who take a road trip together, and learn to bond along the way. Most don’t fit in with “normal” people, in one way or another, but it’s all about how it’s okay to do your own thing, especially if you can find like-minded people to share your life with.

It's the sort of thing that could meander into schmaltzy territory if not done right, but Little Miss Sunshine hits all the notes it needs to, earns its most emotional moments, and overall feels incredibly well-balanced tonally. It’s a great road trip movie that’s simultaneously funny, sad, and heartwarming, making it an easy film to recommend for viewers wanting to feel something.

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21 'Coco' (2017)

Director: Lee Unkrich

Coco isn’t just one of the best-looking movies released by Pixar, but it’s also one of the most touching. The animation studio’s become well-known for putting out various movies that are enjoyed by all ages, and likely to make people of all ages cry at times, too, and no listing of iconic movie tearjerkers can be complete without some acknowledgment of Pixar.

In the case of Coco, it revolves around a young boy who learns about the history of his family after accidentally getting stuck in the Land of the Dead, teaming with ancestors who have passed on in the real world to get back to said real world, before he runs out of time. Its saddest moments come near the end, and truly prove capable of sneaking up on you, considering that the first two acts of the film, despite being about mortality, are generally comedic in tone.

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20 'Good Will Hunting' (1997)

Director: Gus Van Sant

Few films from the 1990s are as iconic as Good Will Hunting, which is notable for helping to launch the careers of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (the pair starring in and writing this film) as well as for featuring perhaps Robin Williams’s most acclaimed dramatic performance. It’s about a troubled young man named Will Hunting, and the life-changing bond he makes with a professor who recognizes Hunting’s potential for greatness.

As far as tearjerkers go, Good Will Hunting goes big and sets its sights directly on your tear ducts, keen to milk them for all they’re worth. But when the acting is as good as it is here, and the screenplay is this honest (albeit a tiny bit clichéd), the approach generally works, making this one drama film that’s now more than a quarter-of-a-century old, yet still holds up remarkably well.

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19 'Brian’s Song' (1971)

Director: Buzz Kulik

Sports movies, by their very nature, are usually capable of getting emotions stirred, given sports are generally exciting/absorbing to watch and get invested in, arguably just as much as they are to physically take part in. Various sports movies also prove moving because they tell underdog stories, but Brian’s Song proves to be a tearjerker because of the real-life story it tells, and the tragic yet powerful friendship it depicts.

Brian’s Song is very simple, showing the bond between two football players, Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), and what happens when the former learns he has a terminal illness. Brian’s Song proves far more emotionally affecting than most TV movies of its time, with the quality of the acting from its two leads undeniably helping, and the story being undeniably moving, owing to just how direct it is.

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18 'Dancer in the Dark' (2000)

Director: Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier doesn’t pull punches when he makes films, and as such, Dancer in the Dark takes an undoubtedly sad story and pushes the miserable stuff contained within to 11. There is the faintest sense of it being bittersweet by the end, owing to the film being about the sacrifices a single mother makes for her only son, but the execution means it’s stronger on the bitter side of things than it is on the sweet.

Dancer in the Dark is also stunning and stirring, though, meaning it’s far from just being non-stop misery, even if those darkest moments are the ones that prove most memorable when reflecting back on the film. As far as musicals go, it’s one of the more oppressively sad and confronting, but those okay with tearjerkers that also happen to be uncompromising ought to check it out.

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17 'A Star Is Born' (2018)

Director: Bradley Cooper

Speaking of sad movies with a focus on music, 2018’s A Star Is Born is the most recent A Star Is Born film; the fourth overall, with other takes on the story being released in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s. The 2010s A Star Is Born might well be the strongest when it comes to the tear-jerking elements, because the emotions presented throughout the story are intense, and come with a certain level of grit and authenticity.

The well-worn story is about a young woman whose career in the music industry is taking off, and the tumultuous relationship she has with a man whose music career is heading in the other direction. It’s thankfully bittersweet, rather than entirely sad, because the story is all about charting one character’s triumphant rise alongside another’s tragic fall, with all the conflicting emotions circling around in between ensuring the film packs an emotional wallop.

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16 'Casablanca' (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz

When it comes to bittersweet romance movies, few are quite as effective and emotionally impactful as Casablanca. Large parts of the movie prove exciting and sometimes even funny, though the central aspect of the film – two lovers reuniting in unexpected circumstances, and one having to give up the other for the greater good – proves to be its most memorable.

Casablanca is great as it builds up to the final five to ten minutes, sure, but then that whole ending sequence at the airport is something else, and a big reason why Casablanca is held up as one of the very best movies not just of the 1940s, but of all time. There’s a relatability to the story of love and loss being told here, and it’s presented in such a way that still resonates all these decades later.

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15 'Bambi' (1942)

Director: David Hand

Pixar certainly didn’t invent the idea of animated family movies being tearjerkers, by any means, as Disney had conquered that market decades before Pixar – as the new kid on the block, so to speak – entered the picture. Of all those old Disney movies, it might be 1942’s Bambi that stands out as the most notoriously sad, and perhaps the most likely, therefore, to upset or even traumatize very young children.

Bambi doesn’t shy away from death, having the titular character’s mother get killed by a hunter, with the plot then revolving around Bambi trying to make it in the world on his own. But for that being a central part of the overall narrative at hand, Bambi is an early Disney movie with a reputation for having some heartbreaking stuff to offer, and paving the way for future (otherwise) kid-friendly movies to get pretty sad at times.

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14 'Life Is Beautiful' (1997)

Director: Roberto Benigni

War movies are often heavy and sad enough when they focus on adult characters, but Life Is Beautiful goes a step further by telling a story about a particularly horrible event with a family at its center. The first half is mostly a romantic comedy set just before World War II, but things take a sharp turn in the second half, when it becomes more of a war drama, following a couple and their young son and what happens when all three get placed in a concentration camp.

The father does his best to hide the horrors from his son in any way he can, making great sacrifices for both him and the woman he loves, who’s in another area of the camp altogether. Life Is Beautiful is a film that combines comedy with tear-jerking drama a little haphazardly, but the sad moments are undeniably affecting, making for a film that, while imperfect, is ultimately moving.

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13 'Call Me by Your Name' (2017)

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Call Me by Your Name is a romance and coming-of-age film, and one that tells a story that’s unafraid to take its time. The term “slow-burn” often gets used to describe thrillers, but Call Me by Your Name feels like a slow-burn romance, taking place over one summer in the 1980s and showing two young men who gradually seem to start developing romantic feelings for one another.

It’s a movie about living in the moment, and trying to make the connections you can while appreciating them, even if they don’t last. The sense of moving on from a relationship that was just short-term, yet meant something significant, is captured heartbreakingly well in Call Me by Your Name, with it being another example of a romance film that has a final act seemingly designed to get the tears flowing.

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12 'Bicycle Thieves' (1948)

Director: Vittorio De Sica

The plot of Bicycle Thieves almost couldn’t be simpler, and it doesn’t sound, on paper, like the kind of thing that would be all that emotionally devastating. It follows a man who’s trying to provide for his family in post-WWII Italy, where money is tight and jobs are scarce. He finally gets employment that requires him to have a bicycle, so when that bicycle is stolen, the future of his family gets threatened.

Much of Bicycle Thieves revolves around this father and his son going on an increasingly desperate quest to find the stolen bicycle, with each scene feeling gradually sadder and more hopeless than the last. It’s a shining example of Italian Neorealism, and though it’s a film that’s likely to leave one feeling despondent, it is admirable just how moving it can be while also remaining honest and feeling incredibly authentic throughout.

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11 'La La Land' (2016)

Director: Damien Chazelle

Many of the greatest musicals of all time came out in decades past, though La La Land stands as one of the most recent releases within the genre that can be considered up there with the best. Like a surprisingly high number of emotionally resonant movies, the story is simple and therefore easy to get swept up in, with two artistically-minded people living in Los Angeles shown gradually falling in love.

The highs that come with the early stages of a relationship are shown, but La La Land gets a little more real as it goes along, and with it comes questions surrounding whether one should pursue their own passions or make compromises for their partner. The film navigates this potentially relatable story well, leading to a fantastically moving finale that would have to rank up there as one of the greatest in recent memory.

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10 'Marriage Story' (2019)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Don’t let the title fool you: Marriage Story isn’t so much a typical romance story about two people who are married, and instead plays out far more like a drama revolving around the lengthy process of getting a divorce. Certain feelings linger, and some love is shown to never fully go away, which makes the more heated and drama-heavy moments of Marriage Story feel particularly striking.

It’s also an emotional story that’s made far more emotional by the strength of the acting on offer, with leads Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson bringing so much to their characters, and helping them feel like believably flawed yet understandable people. For the story at its center, Marriage Story can be harrowing at times, but there is also an amount of catharsis by the time it’s over; it’s not so much that it’s depressing, it’s more that it’s just intense and, in its best moments, brutally authentic.

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9 'Up' (2009)

Director: Pete Docter

Some tearjerkers are consistently sad throughout, and some function most effectively by saving their most moving moments for the climax/final act. Up stands out then, because its most notoriously sad sequence comes right at the start of the film; essentially, an extended prologue.

Viewers see the life of a married couple play out through an iconic montage that spans decades before ending tragically, setting up where the main character is by the time the main story begins and proving tremendously sad and brutally real at the same time. Up is another animated family film that confronts death and the difficulties of the grieving process, though thankfully, for younger viewers, it does get a good deal more light-hearted once the tear-jerking opening is over, and things do inevitably end on an upbeat and heartwarming note, making it something of a modern classic.

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8 'Love Story' (1970)

Director: Arthur Hiller

Not tied to Marriage Story, though it is similarly sad, Love Story ranks among the most iconic romance films of all time (which might not be too surprising, considering the title). It’s honestly a little like the aforementioned Brian’s Song, except it focuses on two people in love, rather than two people who are friends.

In both cases, one main character is diagnosed with a fatal illness, and the other character is forced to come to terms with that, while both attempt to spend the little time they have left together as meaningfully as possible. There’s a chance Love Story might not work as well as it used to, given it’s all very bombastic in its approach to jerking tears. However, it’s worked as a moving tearjerker for many, and few films are as well-known for being sad, making it worth highlighting as a seminal moving movie.

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7 'West Side Story' (1961)

Directors: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins

It’s not too dramatic or bold a claim to say that 1961’s West Side Story is one of the all-time great movie musicals, as it was highly acclaimed in its day and won Best Picture, among other Oscars. There is an argument to be made that the 2021 remake is a stronger (or at least less flawed) movie in many regards, but the 1961 version feels more heightened and theatrical, and therefore, the emotions can’t help but feel bigger.

It's this explosive feeling that makes the earlier film version of West Side Story emerge as more of a traditional tearjerker, what with the passionate songs, big performances, and tragic story that somehow makes the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet hit even harder than normal. Like other older tearjerkers, maybe it wouldn’t have the same effect on people today, but much of it still feels effectively downbeat and sad, as well as unapologetic about it.

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6 'Titanic' (1997)

Director: James Cameron

A Best Picture-winning epic that feels both grand and grandly moving, Titanic is a film that needs little by way of introduction at this point. As the title suggests, it’s all about the titular ship and the deadly disaster that unfolded when it hit an iceberg during its maiden voyage. That sounds emotionally heavy enough, but Titanic has an ace up its sleeve to make everything even more tear-jerking.

The first half or so of Titanic is a sometimes sappy but still potent romance film, with the two leads and various other side characters becoming endearing throughout, ensuring the tension-filled second half becomes more harrowing in every way. This leads to plenty of famously sad moments, both for the main characters and for various less prominent characters, with very few making it out of the disaster alive (and those that do carry emotional scars for the rest of their lives).

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