The Sandlot

Being a male comes with the stigma that it's not cool/acceptable to cry. Its frowned upon by other men, and I'd assume woman, when knowledge of man tears is uncovered. It is commonly acknowledged that there are basically only 2 times when it is sort of acceptable/understandable for a man to shed at least a tear: 1. Being hit in the testicles. Only men know how much this truly stings and how it can be tear inducing. 2. Funerals, this being in the maybe category. If you're a young kid its ok, but the older you get the less acceptable it becomes.

Now that we've got those ground rules out of the way there are times when a man may get misty. The eyes well up a little and you almost start to cry but you hold it back. Outside of our two previous examples there is a handful of times when this phenomenon occurs. Some other bodily injury/maiming aside from a kick in the junk, one of those bullshit tears of joy moments, or during a movie that pulls at every heart string and emotions you possibly could have.

One of those movies is Rudy. Unless you've lived in a cave your whole life you've seen this movie. So its understandable why a man might get a little misty during certain scenes. And with quotes like the following who can blame a guy:

Steele: RUDY! Are you ready champ?
Rudy: I've been ready for this my whole life.
Steele: Then you take us out on the field.

Fortune: You're 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', and you have nearly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football team in the land for 2 years. And you're gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody but yourself.





Another such film is one that i just watched this afternoon. Friday Night Lights. Also based on a true story and also about football. Maybe I'm a little biased here cuz i played football in highschool and we never won the big game either. But dammit if this movie didn't move me. And the half time speeches were a lot better than the ones we used to get where the coach called us all pussies.

Coach Gary Gaines: Stop reading the news clippings. You're small and you're going to be smaller every week. There ain't going to be no growth spurt between now and the first game. You're going to use your minds! You're going to play with your heart! And that is what you're going to use to win the State Championship

Coach Gary Gaines: Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasnt one more thing you could've done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you're perfect!


Ok this one isn't a football movie, and I get shit about this one all the time. But the end of this movie when the mom comes home on Christmas morning and her and her son share that moment, well it got to me. Yea I'm talking about Home Alone, the first one. Sure this picture doesn't justify that as it was billed as a commedy but come on.

Kate McCallister: [to the Scranton Ticket Agent] This is *Christmas*. The season of perpetual hope. And I don't care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchhike. If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son.

And even though i can't find a quote or image from the end which is what got me all misty but think just a little bit and I'm sure you can remember.

Honorable mentions goes to the following films, not because I'm too lazy to detail them like i did the above three but more so because they didn't really make me all misty eyed but were still emotionally moving in that they provided that "Wow" moment at some point: Spiderman 2, Gladiator, Star Wars Episode 3, The Last Samurai, Braveheart, Troy and The Punisher.

Next time I'll hit on those movie moments that make you squirm in your seat and cause some people to look away or recoil in horror/disgust. Following that I'll do up the funniest, scariest and lamest moments ever on the silver screen. Its October movie month here at the blog.