Why do people uncontrollably cry while watching a movie for the first time, third time or even tenth time, though they consciously know it's not real?

We all know that it’s a movie, but in watching a well-done film, we identify with the characters on screen. It’s the best way to watch. That’s why you feel scared when watching horror films. Because what’s happening to them feels like it’s happening to you. And hence, when they go through a heart-wrenching scene, our heartstrings get pulled at too.

I don’t know. I’ve seen Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias and City of Angels too many times to count. I bawl like a frickin’ baby every time. I mean, I gear up for it, anticipate it and almost enjoy the crying. I think it’s just some kind of emotional let go. I don’t know how to describe it. But you know, lots of women like to cry.

It is from imagining yourself in the same scenario… being able to relate to the character and empathize with the pain that their situation would cause, even if it is fictional.

@knitfroggy Steel Magnolias makes me bawl!! I’ve seen it so many times.

I agree with @hearkat. Putting yourself in the scenario makes it very real.

@casheroo I don’t know if you are too young to have seen Terms of Endearment, but if you like tear jerkers, it’s along the same lines as Steel Magnolias. It will make you sob

A good story can always suck you in. There are funny movies that make me laugh before the funny thing is said/occurs just because I anticipate the funny thing about to happen.

@knitfroggy to your list I could add: ET & My Dog Skip

@Garebo Because, even though I tell myself it’s just a movie & I won’t cry when I watch it this time I mean Gawd! I’ve seen Terms of Endearment about 25 times I still am moved by the incredible performances, or by the plot line or, as in the case of Marley & Me…my dog is getting nearer to his time

For me it’s not necessarily something sad, but something really sweet. I’ve seen things like that in TV shows (like the Simpsons episodes that end with some sweet Maggie-related scene) and it still makes me teary-eyed no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

@SpatzieLover I was surprised that I bawled, like literally, sobbed at Marley and Me. I’m not a dog lover by any means. I don’t hate them, but I am a cat person. Me and the kids watched Marley and Me together and I was just a mess. They were so busy watching me sob they didn’t watch the movie. I don’t think I could watch it again…but I’ll watch Julia Roberts die in Steel Magnolias or Deborah Winger in Terms of Endearment any time!

sure I have cried over many a movie, and I admit it. I just wonder why the human psyche gets so consumed over something that is not real. So is imagination just as powerful as reality.

Oh…just thought of another to add to my list: Beaches. I’ve probably watched that movie 100 times. I adore Bette Midler. Every time Barbara Hershey asks Bette to take care of her daughter, I just lose it!

@Garebo

Well, I think it’s the situation itself that has the power. Seeing it for real or seeing on the TV screen, it’s still the same situation. Besides, many of those fake situations could have been very real.

@knitfroggy Thank you for sharing…I was hoping I wasn’t the only one!!! My husband & son both had to ask me if I was going to be alright. I knew the plotline from the book but STILL I lost it and was stuffed up all night from the amount of tears I shed!

Add Beaches to my list, too. I’m having a brain drain, cuz I know there’s another that I just don’t hold up well to.

Some people are more sensitive than others. Or they simply relate to what’s going on in the film. You just never know what people have been through.

@Garebo So is imagination just as powerful as reality.

That’s a philosophical question. My son asked me a question like this last week:
“How do I know I’m not just dreaming all of this?”

@SpatzieLover Gosh kids are just so amazing… Am I a man who dreamt that I was butterfly? Or am I a butterfly dreaming that I’m a man?

I totally balled with Marley and me… mostly cause Marley reminded me of one of my dogs and I could imagine myself in that moment when its time to say goodbye.. not a good feeling :-(

Ultimately it’s because they want to.

@Saturated_Brain Just reading that sentence makes my head hurt. I do not have thoughts that deep.

Sometimes I cry because I’m hormonal, but usually I avoid these types of movies during that time and watch comedies so that like @tinyfaery, I can laugh hysterically prior to the punch lines in the plot.

@Saturated_Brain Our son is very verbally advanced for his age…but it shocked even me when he asked that one!

@SpatzieLover I was watching some tap dancers on TV one morning, like on the Today show or something and I just started bawling my eyes out because I thought “Their mother’s are so proud of them!” then I thought to myself…this is totally irrational. A couple days later, I decided to take a pregnancy test and realized why I was bawling at adult tap dancers and their parents. I could see bawling at little kids and proud parents, but adults? It had to be hormones!

@knitfroggy THAT is hilarious!

And @Garebo… @The_Compassionate_Heretic is on to something here. It’s why in a horror film you can have some people who laugh when the guy’s head gets chopped off and others who just gasp in horror and squeal. It’s whether you want to identify with it. Of course, if you’re the sensitive type.. You might not have much control over it (I’m guilty of having a lack of control over my emotional side).

@SpatzieLover You have a very smart kid on your hands. Feed him his intellectual food, sounds like he’s going to become very bright when he grows up.

@knitfroggy Just go to sleep and wake up with some coffee.. Maybe you can understand it better then. =P Or maybe you can just answer in this way I saw that statement being treated after being recounted by one person to another
A: Well, did the man spend his time flapping his wings and drinking nectar our of flowers?
B: Erm… Noo…
A: Then he was a man.
And that’s how that conversation ended.

Like @Saturated_Brain, I wear my heart on my sleeve.

Horror movies?! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I’m already talking to the characters “Run Faster!” “Don’t look in there!”

1. Relation.
2. Compassion.
3. Human morals.
4. Digital editing.
Movies don’t make me cry so much but what a beautiful world by Louis Armstrong brings me to tears everytime as does War by Lucero and a few other songs.

Louis Armstrong can bring me to tears too, along with many other great musicians.
It sounds like everybody is just a bunch of cry babies.

@Garebo Yes it does look like that. Sigh… What to do about the human race? We’d probably cry ourselves out of existence if possible.

Hey, crying can be good. :)

Yeah, you are right, I haven’t cried enough. Gestalt Therapy please, whip me, beat me, make feel….

@Garebo “So is imagination just as powerful as reality.”

There is no difference between imagination and reality for some parts of your mind.

thank you alex2, please explain more.

@Garebo This is as far as it will go. There is really nothing more to it. Begin imagining what you want to achieve.

OK

It has to do with peoples ability to experience other’s feelings. They did studies on that and measured the brain. And watching a play or movie gave equal or sometimes more activity for experience vs real life.

Weither artificial or real, I suppose our bodies don’t care and just feel, our brain makes the chemicals after receiving the perception and off we go.

(good) movie directors know just how this works and play your mind.
Why else do you think movies have this ongoing cuve of high peaks of joy and deep valleys of despair. We let ourselves go for the ride.

@Inofaith: you hit it out of the park!

thnx

A good story hooks into an emotion that resonates inside one in some way.

While I agree that empathy is a reason we tend to get emotional during movies, I’d have to say that sympathy works in the same way. I don’t have to feel like I know what they’re feeling, or that I’ve been there before, as long as I can grasp what it is they MUST be feeling. When I was younger it was a lot easier for me to cry during movies… The one that stands out, strangely, is Braveheart. I cried like a baby when he started screaming Freedom as he gets ripped apart by that torture machine. Looking back on it now with all of Mel Gibson’s recent history it’s a lot hard to cry, just cause I know that dude is NUTS haha… I still get choked up at a really good movie though, I think the most recent one was Lost In Translation at the very end… I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but I love that movie!

@Saturated_Brain I love your icon dude… that picture makes me smile every time I see it

People don’t just do it at movies. Books, tv shows, you name it. It’s called Delayed Reality (or something similar) it’s similar to the fight or flight reflex and can actually be very helpful!

note on my above statement:
I was referring to sympathy as well. Thank you @SmellyBoy for pointing the terms out.

But empathy is what makes me love (good) animation films (the form). They are a very universal medium; can be without the restrictions of language and convey a story that not only everybody understands… but also kids middle aged and elders can feel with.
While it’s of no significance if someone experienced something similar before. We all just know how it would feel and dive into the character.

I think certain films simply hook into an emotion inside us and awaken it. It has been my own experience that emotions are very shallowly buried and it does not take much to dig up the ghosts. They are easily stirred. It can feel very good to have tears streaming down my face that is unless they have been turned on by something very much B-Grade, in that case I feel angry with myself for being conned