The single saddest movie of all time, according to science
To laugh, cry, wince or cringe, and complete them all within the same sitting is the true brilliance of cinema. Films can produce all kinds of emotions in their audience and leave us a puddle of bubbling feelings as we exit the theatre. In fact, one of the most beautiful things about the cinematic medium is that movies can provide a sense of catharsis.
Unlike some other artistic methods, movies can be primed to elicit all kinds of emotions. A sad song rarely becomes a happy one, and when have you ever seen a painting make you laugh that scared you in the next moment? Nothing hits quite like a movie. Movies can help us confront our deepest emotions, particularly sadness, which human beings often want to avoid.
There have been countless disastrously sad moments through film history, from the heart-wrenching end of The Green Mile, the entirety of The Pianist and, of course, the earth-shattering event of Bambi’s mother’s death in the classic Disney moment, all of which get the tears endlessly streaming. In fact, it has become somewhat of a genre all on its own, with pictures attempting to keep their audiences weeping.
But when it comes to the saddest movie of all time, the good old-fashioned discipline of science can be consulted to give us a definitive answer. The psychology researchers James Gross and Robert Levinson conducted a study at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988 that focused on the relationship between emotion and movie scenes.
The study consisted of finding a solitary emotion within given films, and when it came to the feeling of sadness, Gross and Levinson found that of 78 carefully selected movie scenes shown to around 500 student volunteers, the final scene in the 1979 sports drama The Champ was the saddest. It might not be a movie you are particularly aware of, and if you want to avoid feeling pretty awful, then we suggest you don’t go and try to find it.
The Champ is Franco Zeffirelli’s sports film with a neo-noir twist, a remake of the 1931 King Vidor film that won an Academy Award. Jon Voight plays Billy Flynn, a former boxing champion who turns his attention to the damaged relationship with his son and ex-wife whilst trying to return to the ring.
The three members of the family go through the emotional wringer throughout the film, but the final scene (spoiler ahead) tugs at the heartstrings, unlike any of its other moments. It sees Billy die following the conclusion of his comeback fight, all in the view of his son, TJ, who slowly comes to realise that he indeed no longer has anyone to call “dad”.
TJ spends nearly the entirety of the three-minute scene in uncontrollable tears, looking down at his father’s lifeless body. “I still feel sad when I see that boy crying his heart out,” Gross had said of the scene, while Levinson noted, “The theme of irrevocable loss, it’s all compressed into that two or three minutes.” It’s a powerful scene that will leave anybody in view of the screen reaching for the tissues and in floods of uncontrollable tears.
So, according to the pair’s scientific study, The Champ by Franco Zeffirelli is the saddest movie of all time, somehow even more painful than Bambi! So grab the box of tissues and check out the final scene below. But be warned, there’s some severe sadness incoming.
