DISCLAIMER: This is not a series dedicated to proving men shouldn’t cry, or to suggest ONLY women cry and are therefore inferior. The goal of this series is to dispel the pre-established (yet flawed) notion that being “manly” and being disconnected from your emotions go hand-in-hand. Even the most macho of men enjoy and even shed a tear at films, and the sooner we can admit that the sooner the concept that one sex is better than the other can go away. While the approach to these articles is one of light-hearted comedy, the emotional core is valid. While men might be more hesitant to admit it, movies often times have the potential to make us cry, for example:
“Nostalgia Movies”
One of the often repeated slogans that Oscar hosts use to describe movies is “They can transport you to a different time and place”, which is all good and fine if you’re glad you were there. Unfortunately many times these bygone eras make you glad you don’t’ live in them. Conflicts long since settled and resolved are brought back to life to give modern audiences context. Lack of modern conveniences and necessities are highlighted in stark contrast to the luxuries the movie goer has waiting for them at home. No one watches Schindler’s List and says “Boy, I was born too late cause that looked like a blast!”
Nostalgia is romanticizing a point in time, even one the viewer didn’t necessarily live through. The list compiled here is a collection of movies that make those time periods look good. After watching these films the viewer dreams what their lives would be like in these eras, and the dreams are positive. And as much as we want to travel through time and visit these romanticized ages, there are still some tears to be shed.
1. The Sandlot
Makes you want to play baseball with your friends, doesn’t it? Never played baseball? Never had a close-knit group of friends like in the movie? The film sure makes you wish you did. Between the old-timey look of everyone’s fashion and households, to the fast-paced ’60s slang in everyone’s dialogue, this movie strikes a chord that resonates in many more hearts than just those who lived through the time frame of this film.
After losing an autographed baseball in a neighbor’s yard, a group of friends work together to retrieve it. The simplicity of that goal is pure and perfect. None of the kids think about selling the ball for the cash, they just don’t want the protagonist to get in trouble. It’s a point in everyone’s childhood before self-interest can trump a baseball game, or saving a piece of baseball history. When the ball is eventually destroyed, we feel the sinking hearts of everyone as their mission failed…and it really isn’t anyone’s problem except Smalls. They just all love baseball so much and can’t stand it being sullied. But then Darth Vader makes everything better. (Sniff) I gotta go teach my boy to play ball now.
The older, prototype of Captain America: The First Avenger (and directed by the same guy). This is one of my favorite films of all time. I have never flown a plane, fought Nazis, or met Howard Hughes, nor any of the things of this film. The closest I’ve ever gotten to the art deco style is playing BioShock. But somehow when I hear the music and see the fashion and art styles, I just want to dive right in.
This film oozes style, and the music is rich and thick with wonder. The movie shows a time when you can “pop” a guy in the jaw, and the response is “Maybe you had it comin’, you mug.” Pretty sure modern day would involve lawsuits, so I’m putting my vote on the past being better. That being said, it can’t be on the list if it doesn’t make us tear up, and that always gets me when the Rocketeer is caught between the Mob, Nazis and the Feds (I know, right!?). When the Mob finds out they’ve been working with the Nazis, they turn against the bigger enemy, with the statement “I may not make an honest living, but I’m 100% American.” That’s the kind of schmaltz that could have been stupid, but they pull it off. Right in the feels.
Aside from the whole “sleeping with your mom” thing going on, 1955 is painted as pretty awesome. Cars are chrome and sturdy, everything is clean, workers are happy. All you have to do is blink and you’ve invented something awesome (See “inventing a skateboard” one random afternoon). The music was decidedly better and I’m pretty sure everyone ate steak and baked potatoes for every meal. Unfortunately this October is the “future” that Marty eventually goes to in the second film, so we have even more reason to look fondly at the past.
This is a comedy, so it’s difficult to get too emotional at it. That being said, the character Doc Brown is semi-super depressing if you pay attention. Doc ends up reading Marty’s emergency letter in 1955 and literally waits 30 years before getting to even admit it to him. He waits until they have met, confided in each other, become best friends, tested the time machine, gotten shot at…and then reveals that he has been waiting most of his life for them to be on the same page finally. This is the greatest plutonic love story of all time. It’s the Notebook of bro-mances.
4. Apollo 13
This is actually one of the very few films I could think of where the CGI still holds up. Sure it’s not perfect, but they did a super bang-up job on it. The nostalgia doesn’t necessarily come from the decade of the film, but of the space agency being the center of America’s focus. Even in the film, NASA was feeling the Apollo 11 buzz start to fade and only due to the sudden calamity did anyone pay attention to them. But the country was still close enough to being amazed by walking on the Moon to not have moved very far from the edge of their seats. Modern day gives us 3D-printed prosthetic arms, cell phones more powerful than the entire NASA mission of Apollo 13, and a new wonder every day. We’re a bit desensitized to it all, but this film shows a country where everyone’s mouths could still drop. A time where wonders were not as common and therefore more wonderful. And also a time when an entire country almost watched three men die alone in space. These days, no one can even remember an astronaut’s name beyond Neil and Buzz.
The tears of this film could come from anywhere. Tom Hanks’ wife listening to him struggle to live during a corrective engine burn. The pure awesomeness of NASA making their rushed junk heap work long enough to save everyone. The scathing fight the crew has out of sheer tension while slowly freezing to death. The fact that despite our technology making theirs look like a pile of rocks and a stick, we haven’t built a moon colony yet. Take your pick. It’s all devastating.
I’m Jewish, and I watch this every year. That’s how powerful the nostalgia is on this film. I’m not even old enough to remember a lot of the things this movie displays, but it sure looks nice. Kids walking to school without fear of being abducted and murdered. Everything being made of metal and if something breaks you just hammer it until it’s fixed. Radio serials with secret decoder rings!? It’s a nostalgia bomb and there’s a reason it plays on marathon every year on multiple networks.
It’s shiny, sparkly and tasting of pure sugar, back when food used real sugar instead of chemical whatevers. Quotable at any point of the film and more than the sum of its parts, this film makes us all feel like a child again. Magic.
Like what you see? Secure enough in your masculinity for more? Check out more Guy Cry Cinema or watch Dan on No Right Answer, the weekly debate show that knows what’s really important: Pointlessly arguing about geek culture.
