The Top 3 *PROPER*

Well, the Top 3 won't be a surprise to most of you anymore as it was already revealed a few days ago. But such excellent movies (in which I cry a lot) deserve a lot more than a quick mention, so here we are again for The Top 3: Tearjerker Moments, take 2! I should stress that this list was not a countdown of my favourite movies, but the following 3 are definitely on my top favourite movies of all time.

Number 3: The Colour Purple

The Colour Purple is one of those movies that I had decided it was boring without having even watched it. But one day unintentionally I caught it on TV and just couldn't stop watching it. It's about a black woman called Celie, striving to escape a destiny of abuse, oppression and poverty. There is abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, pain that no one should have to go through but she manages to survive.
Celie was separated early on from loved ones (her sister and her children) and thrown into a loveless, unfaithful and abusive marriage. It is a painful story but at the same time a very hopeful one too.

All the performances on this movie are just wonderful. There's Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role (and quite different from the comedy roles she would become famous for) and also a little someone called Oprah Winfrey (with a few extras pounds).

And what moments make The Colour Purple worthy of being at number 3? There are several in fact. One is when Celie helps Sophia (Oprah) at the grocery store, without even saying a word and you can just feel how Sophia is grateful, with such kind help, something she was no longer used to. Then there's that scene at the church where Shug Avery reunites with her father. The "winner" is definitely the ending scene: after many, many years Celie is (finally) reunited with her sister and her children. She sees them from afar, coming to her house, their colorful vests flailing in the wind. It's such a good feeling to witness how this woman finally gets what she always hoped for, never losing hope, always ready to help others and with courage to fight against her own fears and shortcomings. Inspirational to say the least.


Number 2: Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream was a movie I stumbled upon almost by accident. When this trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers was released, I fell in love with the soundtrack they used. It was so powerful and moving that I decided to do some googling on it. I eventually discovered it was a rearranged version of a composition by Clint Mansell, originally made for a movie called Requiem for a Dream. I downloaded the movie, knowing nothing about it (somehow I imagined it to be a modern version of A Midsummer Night's Dream) and decided to watch it. And WOW!! I was not ready for what that, such a powerful, shocking, moving and tragic movie (or more than a movie, an experience).

But I digress (I have to do an Top 11 Movies...). It cried in way on this movie that to this day as never happened again. I started towards the end with when Sara's friends (Sara is the old lady) visit her at the hospital, and then there's this (beautiful) shot of them sitting on a bench outside crying, so disturbed by what their friend had become. I usually can tell when I'm going to start crying in a movie. I mean, maybe someone dies, and the soundtrack gets really sad, and you just know that tears will start rolling down your face soon. But on this one nothing like that happened. I started crying without even realizing it, only noticed it a few moments later. It's really difficult to explain. And from that moment on, it's just like a rollercoaster ride of tragic and shocking events that happen to all the characters. I cried until well after the credits rolled...

Note to all of you: you MUST watch this movie. It's painful to experience it, but you have to do it. And how Ellen Burstyn (she played Sarah) lost the Oscar that year for Julia Roberts I'll never understand...

Number 1: Gorillas in the Mist

It was a real strugle for me to choose between this and Requiem for a Dream, but I've watched this so many times now and always cry a lot, that this had to be my number 1.

For those of you who don't know this movie, it tells the true story of anthropologist Dian Fossey (who is played by Signourey Weaver) as she cares for gorillas in the misty mountains of Kenya.

She manages to get really close to the gorillas, especially their leader, which she names Digit. Eventually (and that's one of the saddest moments in the movie) Digit is brutally murdered by hunters, who cut off his head and hands to make ashtrays. At some point Dian also has to take care of Digit's little baby gorilla, before evil people send him out to a zoo. The scene where she is saying goodbye to this baby gorilla it's also one of those moments where I can't help but cry... Dian was misteriously murdered (it remains unsolved to this day) while protecting "her mountain" and "her gorillas" as she would to call it. She was buried next to Digit, on her mountain, and her faithful friend unites their souls forever joining the circle of pebbles on their grave into one...

This one has it all I suppose: animals, strong female character with an emotional breakdown, goodbyes, death, sacrifice. It pushes all the right buttons for me, in making me cry! Again, how Sigourney Weaver didn't won the Oscar she was nominated for her performance still baffles me... And I just realized that she was on both my Top 3 now (as Ripley in the Kick-ass Girls). Even Sydney didn't manage that :)