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Favorite Poignant Scenes in Movies

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Swammerdami

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Let's compile a list of the most poignant scenes in movies. I'm starting with one that isn't particularly poignant -- that's to encourage others to participate! ("I can think of scenes much more poignant than that one.")

What does "poignant" even mean anyway? One dictionary suggests that a poignancy simultaneously elicits both positive and negative emotions.

Here's the final scene in Tian Mi Mi -- Comrades: Almost a Love Story. It lasts only 1½ minutes. (After that the movie's very first scene is repeated, he just arriving in Hongkong from rural China.) The title of the movie -- "Almost a Love Story" -- hints at the relationship that develops between the two. They lose track of each other, but at the end each is single and living and working in New York City, she as tour guide, he as bicycle courier. He doesn't even know she's in New York; she knows because she had glimpsed him on his bicycle.

The film was inspired by the (poignant?) death at a very early age of the Taiwanese superstar Teresa Teng. (She died mysteriously while on holiday in Chiang Mai.) The only part she plays in the movie is that the two almost-lovers are both admirers of Teresa Teng's singing. And the news of her death plays on a TV through a display window; two Teng admirers stop to watch.

No words are spoken in the final scene -- though you can hear Teresa Teng sing one of her hits, "Tian Mi Mi" (also part of movie title) -- it's just the expressions on the actors that seem poignant.

Obviously there are movie scenes with much more poignancy than this one. Please participate!
 
The final scene of Lost in Translation, one of the most beautiful movies I've seen. But you'd have to see the movie to understand it.

If you haven't seen this film you absolutely need to.
 
City Lights (1931) Charlie reunites with the formerly blind girl -- and she discovers who he is.
David Copperfield (1935) Having endured an arduous trek on the road, young David finally reaches safe haven with his Aunt Betsey, then bursts into tears as he tries to explain to her what he has suffered.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) The drunk pharmacist boxes young George on the ears -- then George tearfully tells him what was actually in the package.
The Miracle Worker (1962) Helen recalls the word water from her early childhood.
Tootsie (1982) Michael, at last without a disguise, tells Julie the whole truth about his love for her.
The Impossible (2012) Henry, attempting to tell a sympathetic listener how he has been separated from his family during the tsunami, suddenly bursts into helpless tears.
 
rousseau said:
The final scene of Lost in Translation, one of the most beautiful movies I've seen. But you'd have to see the movie to understand it.

If you haven't seen this film you absolutely need to.
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I'll try to detail this one out.

Bill Murray, a famous actor, arrives in Tokyo to shoot a commercial. Scarlet Johansson is at the same hotel travelling with her husband. They're both feeling estranged from their partners.

They meet and become friends over three or four days and reach that kind of familial, respectful love with each other. Then Bill's character has to go home and he realizes he's never going to see her again.





The film is about all the people we meet like this in our lives. Who we fall in love with but circumstances force us apart.
 
rousseau said:
The film is about all the people we meet like this in our lives. Who we fall in love with but circumstances force us apart.
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That theme is vaguely reminiscent of the poignant final scene of The Interpreter, though the movies are quite different. (And sex is impossible because the Penn character was widowered VERY recently.) This is a "political thriller" compared with your "romantic comedy-drama." I was perhaps reminded of the film because of its title's semantic connection to the title Lost in Translation !

The Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman characters have found affection, but must say goodbye, probably forever. (She is being deported!) The film gets an IMDB rating of only 6.4 (and 58 Tomatoes), compared with Lost in Translation's 7.7 (and 95 Tomatoes) but I liked it a lot. (Political thrillers are "my genre.")

 
Captain Phillips - The physical exam of CP after being rescued from the kidnappers. Trying to maintain his composure and relief after the horrors he just experienced.
 
Swammerdami said:
rousseau said:
The film is about all the people we meet like this in our lives. Who we fall in love with but circumstances force us apart.
Click to expand...

That theme is vaguely reminiscent of the poignant final scene of The Interpreter, though the movies are quite different. (And sex is impossible because the Penn character was widowered VERY recently.) This is a "political thriller" compared with your "romantic comedy-drama." I was perhaps reminded of the film because of its title's semantic connection to the title Lost in Translation !

The Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman characters have found affection, but must say goodbye, probably forever. (She is being deported!) The film gets an IMDB rating of only 6.4 (and 58 Tomatoes), compared with Lost in Translation's 7.7 (and 95 Tomatoes) but I liked it a lot. (Political thrillers are "my genre.")

Click to expand...


One of the nice touches with Lost in Translation is that the two characters don't actually have sex. Murray's character does cheat on his wife, but doing so with Scarlet's character would spoil the friendship. The kiss in the final scene is the only one. It's a pretty much perfect love story.
 
The binary sunset scene in Star Wars. The cinematography and music are astounding. This scene stood out to me as an older teen in 1977 when I first saw the movie on the big screen. I was going through similar thoughts as Luke regarding leaving my life in my small agricultural town for something bigger. I didn't exactly blow up a Death Star, but I did get out and make myself a pretty good life for myself, IMHO.

 
Nearly every occasion in Bel Canto where a human connection grows or some kindness between characters is scripted, because you know that the events at the end of the film are pretty much inevitable.
 
I've not seen some of the movies mentioned; I'll need to watch them. Mystic River is a great movie, filled with much poignancy. Several movies, including Mystic River have very poignant final scenes. I think -- dictionaries seem to differ on what "poignant" even means. Is Google's definition best? -- "evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret."

Other great movies with very poignant final scenes include La Strada, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Chinatown and Godfather -- the final scene where Michael's wife looks on in horror as capos kiss her husband's hand is unforgettable.

NIH.gov connects poignancy to a person's age!
Updike eloquently captured the phenomenon of poignancy: Watching his baseball hero's final swing simultaneously evoked positive and negative emotions. Recent research has shown that in everyday life, older people experience mixed emotions, such as happiness and sadness, more so than their younger counterparts and that this co-occurrence of positive and negative emotion becomes more frequent with age. In socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), Carstensen and colleagues (2000) argued that this occurs because older adults are more aware of limited time than younger adults and that the experience of “last times” increases with age. Consequently, even relatively positive everyday events become tinged with mixed emotions.
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Whatever definition is used the greatest film ever contains much poignancy. The famous singing of "La Marseillaise" is extremely poignant, especially when you note that many of the actors were themselves recent refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe. The expressions on the face of Victor's wife certainly reveal both positive and negative feelings: great pride and admiration, but also great fear for his safety.

 
A couple stand out for me:

Master and Commander. When Captain Aubrey has to cut away rigging that was acting like an anchor that was dragging down his warship. He orders a seaman to help him, but the seaman's best friend had fallen off the ship and was clinging to the rigging. He could have been saved, but the entire ship would have been lost. They have to stand and watch the poor seaman be left behind. Meanwhile the rest of the crew, belowdecks and unaware of the situation, are cheering because the ship has been righted. The music at the end of the scene chokes me up every time.




Toy Story 3: College-bound Andy is giving away some of his toys to a young girl who will properly play with them--thus giving the toys the life and vitality that they crave. But his favorite toy, Woody--that he can't bear to give up. Until he spots him, mistakenly included in the bottom of the give-away box. The look on his face as he wonders what to do.... The girl wants the toy, he wants to be kind, but Woody is his cherished friend. What's the right thing to do?

 
James Brown said:
A couple stand out for me:

Master and Commander. When Captain Aubrey has to cut away rigging that was acting like an anchor that was dragging down his warship. He orders a seaman to help him, but the seaman's best friend had fallen off the ship and was clinging to the rigging. He could have been saved, but the entire ship would have been lost. They have to stand and watch the poor seaman be left behind. Meanwhile the rest of the crew, belowdecks and unaware of the situation, are cheering because the ship has been righted. The music at the end of the scene chokes me up every time.

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I haven't seen this movie yet, but its on my bucket list. That scene has a "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one" feel to it. Which leads me to the poignant death scene of Spock in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, which I will skip out on posting here because it turns me into a blubbering fool every time. And I've seen that scene about 20 times or more.
 
Yes, it definitely is the same aspect, except the one who died didn't do so willingly. But yes, Spock's death is a gut-punch for me.

"I have been...and always shall be...your friend."
 
Missing, when the Government official tells Lemmon and Spacek's characters that if their family member wasn't down there and missing, they wouldn't even care about the American meddling in the government coup. That their concern for the coup was only self serving. This is poignant because it isn't aimed at the characters but directly at the viewers.

The Petrified Forest, the moment when Howard's character comes back to a heavily weighing reality after shortly getting lost in a short lived fantasy about going abroad with Davis's character.
ZiprHead said:
Captain Phillips - The physical exam of CP after being rescued from the kidnappers. Trying to maintain his composure and relief after the horrors he just experienced.
Click to expand...
Literally the first time I thought Hanks was acting well.
 
James Brown said:
Yes, it definitely is the same aspect, except the one who died didn't do so willingly. But yes, Spock's death is a gut-punch for me.

"I have been...and always shall be...your friend."
Click to expand...
Right, it isn't a one for one comparison, which is why I mentioned that it had that "feel" to it.

I wish you hadn't posted that last sentence. Now I'm all... :cry: and I got a lot of shit got to do this morning!
 
The final scene of The Mist has got to rate right up there.
 
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