{"id":67367,"date":"2014-02-28T15:25:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T20:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=67367"},"modified":"2019-01-29T18:00:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T23:00:54","slug":"tearjerkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tearjerkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall Street. <\/em>Fellow movie criers will understand. Especially for those of us who might hesitate to cry in the light of day, there is a singular pleasure to letting tears flow, even\u2014or maybe especially\u2014when what\u2019s happening on screen is really stupid. I come by this honestly. My father refuses to see any movie in which a child dies.<\/p>\n

This outpouring of emotion is not limited to the cinema; after watching Audra McDonald and Norm Douglas perform \u201cBess You Is My Woman Now<\/a>\u201d in the recent revival of Porgy and Bess<\/em>, my mom and I were so overcome that we had to skip the second act and go get a drink across the street. And the list of songs I can\u2019t listen to dry-eyed is so long that I\u2019ve had to quarantine them in their own Spotify playlist. But movies are the biggest culprit.<\/p>\n

The first movie that made me inconsolable was Dumbo\u2014<\/em>\u201cBaby Mine<\/a>,\u201d of course, after he\u2019s been taken from his mother\u2014and the second, I believe, was Chipmunk Adventure<\/em>, after the baby penguin is taken from his mother<\/a>. My brother and I both sobbed so loudly in Land Before Time<\/em> (after the baby dinosaur is taken from his mother) that we had to leave the theatre. Thank God we were never exposed to Bambi<\/em>. (My mother, traumatized to realize that she was \u201cMan,\u201d resolved at age five to spare her own kids the same shock.) <\/p>\n

\n

As an adult, I find I can\u2019t watch any of the following without dissolving into tears: The Best Years of Our Lives<\/em>, The Browning Version<\/em>, The Remains of the Day<\/em>, ET<\/em>, Old Yeller<\/em>, The Pride of the Yankees<\/em>, Fear Strikes Out<\/em>, Bang the Drum Slowly<\/em> (I like baseball movies), Rudy<\/em>, and New York Mets 1986: A Year to Remem<\/em>ber,\u00a0<\/em>specifically the \u201cYou Belong to the City<\/a>\u201d montage.<\/p>\n

Psychology Today<\/em> informs us that<\/p>\n

we cry at movies because the oxytocin in the human brain is imperfectly tuned. It does not differentiate between actual human beings and flickering images of human beings. Either one is enough to kick oxytocin into high gear and impel our empathy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

No doubt, and no doubt for many of us, we\u2019re using the story and the darkness as a vent for other, pent-up emotions. But I would argue that sometimes storytelling is just so good, the human condition so universally tragic and uplifting, that it\u2019s earned our tears.<\/p>\n

And some championship seasons are so exciting, and so far from a current team\u2019s prospects, that a viewer can\u2019t watch Dwight Gooden\u2019s windup and stay dry-eyed. This one can\u2019t, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall Street. Fellow movie criers will understand. Especially for those of us who might hesitate to cry in the light of day, there is a singular pleasure to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1186,13115],"tags":[81,13028,6319],"class_list":["post-67367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-film","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-movies","tag-new-york-mets","tag-oscars"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTearjerkers by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tearjerkers by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Tearjerkers\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"movies\",\"New York Mets\",\"Oscars\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Film\",\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\",\"name\":\"Tearjerkers by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tearjerkers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tearjerkers by Sadie Stein","description":"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tearjerkers by Sadie Stein","og_description":"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Tearjerkers","datePublished":"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/"},"wordCount":470,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["movies","New York Mets","Oscars"],"articleSection":["On Film","Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/","name":"Tearjerkers by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-28T20:25:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-29T23:00:54+00:00","description":"February 28, 2014 \u2013 Looking at this year\u2019s Best Picture nominees, I realized that while I had liked three, nine out of nine had made me tear up\u2014including The Wolf of Wall","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/28\/tearjerkers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tearjerkers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67367"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133164,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67367\/revisions\/133164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}