I have seen this movie a few times over the years. And I cry HARD, and I mean HARD when this movie gets to the funeral scene. I mean crying like it was your own mama laying there. The kind of crying where you gotta go blow your nose and wipe your face kind of crying. Between Mahalia singing, Lora gripping the pew, and Sara Jane acting a fool, it's like your emotions just let it all out. This movie will have you torn UP!!!!! Anybody know what I'm talking about?
shareThe scene in the motel room at the end is the one that gets me every time. Man, have I cried in that scene. Amazing.
http://cliffcarson.com/HOME.html
As melodramatic as the film is, I think you must have a heart made of stone to not shed a single tear. Completely devastating watch that beautifully captures the intricacies of the mother/daughter relationship. There are a number of moments that set me off in a tidal wave of tears, most of all the scene where Annie and Sarah Jane are in the motel room. Annie instigates a hug, to which Sara Jane agrees and the eventual eruption of emotion when in her mother's arms as well as her mouthing of 'mama' as they say their goodbyes makes for the film's most heartbreaking moment in my opinion. Of course, there is also the soaring rendition of 'Trouble Of The World' by Mahalia Jackson which never fails to move.
This must be where pies go when they die.
I just watched this again for the umpteenth time, and for the umpteenth time I cried like a baby, almost sobbing in places. The motel room scene was heart rending, Annies deathbed scene with Lora just pulled the tears out of me, and the funeral itself topped off by Sarah Jane running screaming to her mother's casket -- the tears just wouldn't stop.
Few movies have ever had that power, and this one does it every single time, without fail.
I bet your mouth tastes like bad choices.
Grease 2 has that effect on me...
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
There are three movies that I CANNOT watch without crying... Imitation of Life, The Color Purple and Beaches.. I know them inside and out.. but I cry like I've just watched them for the first time... By the time Sarah Jane is running after the funeral procession I am nearly red (and if you knew how dark hued I was, you'd get it!) in the face from the amount of tears I've shed... It is still one of my favorite movies in the entire world!
share[deleted]
I think the reason why so many people cry when this scene is shown is because of this: This could actually be our mothers. Despite what color we are, we all have issues with our parents and we all fear that when our parents die we will not be able to say sorry for all the s*it I put you through.
I don't care what anyone says-Woody Allen is an idiot.
I just re-watched this recently and the funeral scene tore me to pieces. Talk about being an emotional mess, what you described applied to me as well.
I sure do know what you mean. This movie always makes me tear up, and by the end, I am heaving wracking, choking sobs, my face red as a beet and stained with tears.
The moment that gets me? The funeral scene, of course, but it's when the camera focuses in on Robert Alda... and we see on his face some real shame for the letch and the a****le that he's been... something about that moment signals the viewer that EVERY member of the cast is going to have a monstrous reckoning. The dam is sundered for me at that moment. Was it Socrates who said that weeping is when you cleanse yourself of pride? My New Age teachers used to say that weeping was when your Heart Chakra bloomed open after having been imploded for a time... with love neither flowing in or out.
That vision of Susan Kohner making a huge scene of herself, pursuing the hearse in the street... that is pure melodrama, yet, as theater teacher Michael Shurtleff asked, "Whoever gave melodrama a bad name?"
I think melodrama is an example of Art being defined as "the lie that tells the truth" These heart-rending events might never occur in reality, but they illustrate a kind of inner reality.... how we feel about some very basic things in life.
I think melodrama is an example of Art being defined as "the lie that tells the truth". These heart-rending events might never occur in reality, but they illustrate a kind of inner reality.... how we feel about some very basic things in life.
Could not have said it better myself excellent post. As far as the movie goes the end always gets me even though I know it is coming the old lump in the throat appears no matter how many times I see it.
I think it's a great movie that is vastly underrated purely based on the fact that it ia a big glossy melodrama and to that I say who cares when it is done as well as this. Douglas Sirk was a great diirector the master of melodrama and broken relationships. Written on the wind , all that heaven allows , there's always tomorrow , the tarnished angels and Time to love and a time to die all melodramas and all great films IMO masterfully executed by Sirk a director who's greatness I feel was sadly undermined I feel simply because of the films he made regardless of their qualities.
He reminds me of Nicholas Ray another director whom I think was great Rebel. Without a cause , in a lonely place , bigger than life the lusty men johnny guitar but a director whom was mainly known for his association with James dean and rebel without a cause , but he has a wonderful catalog of films that are rarely seen or heard of and he was wonderful with actors most of his leading performers made carrer best performances IMO under Rays direction something else I didn't think he got enough credit for.