Why I Love Sad Movies

Ernest Hemmingway's birthday seemed like the perfect time to discuss something very important: Sadness.

My favorite movies tend to be very sad movies. My favorite movie is Moulin Rouge. I love everything about it: The songs, the actors, the costumes, and the SONGS! (I assume you've seen it).

But aside from that, I love Titanic.

I love Romeo and Juliet.

I loved Armageddon.

"But why must everything be so sad? WHY must one enjoy the drama and sadness of movies? ISN'T THAT DEPRESSING?!" - People ask.


No. It isn't. I love the dramas. I love unrequited love and tragic endings, because sometimes, I really want to cry. I have feelings in my life that I have zero desire to indulge in. These feelings in the form of a movie, give me a free release from my crushing emotions. Why not indulge them through the most beautiful love stories ever written? Rather than mope through my own pathetic 1st world problems, why not set myself in a world I could never imagine? Where a ship is breaking apart and I have only a few hours? Or just a few moments, before I succumb to a sickness that I've had the luxury to never experience in our day in age? Cry, when there are just a few more hours before the asteroid hits?


A part of me thinks that our part of the future is so screwed up because we never truly have to experience anything. Our anxiety builds and builds, until we flip out and fill ourselves with prescription drugs to correct what was never wrong ( I was reminded by the Irishman that this is very, very in-line with Americans, but rarely anywhere else. I told him to shut up. I'm the writer and I have a point):
We need to have sadness, joy, anger, fear and LOVE in order have a true understanding of happiness. Every emotion, blended in the perfect combination creates happiness:




Then, just when it seems awful that we have to deal with our pain and tears, something beautiful happens: A group returns to each other after years of being apart. A couple that has been in love for years and never had the right timing, finally come together. A child and a parent are reunited. That's a different cry.

Sad movies are beautiful, because they allow you to let go of the unnecessary emotion you carry throughout the day. They give you a free release. They actually MAKE you happy, because they release the heavy feeling you've carried.

Happy tears, on the other hand, should never be underestimated. They, are relieving, beautiful tears that restore your faith in the world.

Tears of sadness, free you of your emotions.

Tears of joy, cleanse your soul.

All my love,
L.B.

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