Bleed With Me

Quote of the moment:
"Freedom!" - You know exactly where it comes from.

I have just finished watching all four hours of The 100 Greatest Tearjerkers. Phew! [Wipes brow]

Of my favourites, Gladiator snuck in at 98, which I have let a tear out for every time I see it. Sad, but true. Not at the end since viewing one, but at the bit when he arrives at his burnt-out farm to find the charred corpses of his family... Fair enough, no?

Next was Shane at 87, an all time classic where the lone gunslinger saves the day and rides away at the end, leaving the little boy whose family he saved behind. Perhaps it was just that I was the same age as the little boy when I saw it, but it's cool.

Spartacus managed 81 for the classic "I'm Spartacus!" bit, Inspector Morse's death made 75 (but I couldn't help remembering the awesome cast-only ending that we got shown in a scholar's meeting by the composer, Barrington Phelong, where Kevin Whateley (Sergeant Lewis) comes out of the morgue and leaps in the air yelling "YES!") and Rocky was at 70.

Jerry Maguire had me at hello (56), Steve Redgrave's 5th gold floated in at 55, the original Railway Children steamed in at 53, and Gallipoli doesn't get any daft puns at 45.

The Snowman at 28 and Four Weddings and a Funeral at 26 are solid contenders. Inside the top twenty: Dead Poets Society (20), Stand By Me (17), Watership Down (15), Blackadder's final WWI episode (13) and Forrest Gump (11).

In the top ten, the ones to my liking were The Champ, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. E.T. won. Meh.

My main objection to the programme was that in Braveheart, at 21, Wallace's death was assumed to be the tearjerker. The first time around, sure, but the best bit for me is always at the very end, (after the annoyingly bad "You're about to have your arse kissed by a king" line) when Robert the Bruce finally steps up to his legacy. When he takes out the embroidered (by Wallace's wife) handkerchief that Wallace drops when he's decapitated. When he says to the Scottish army the killer line:

"You have bled with Wallace. Now bleed with me!"

If I was Podgy, I would eloquently explain how the way they charged against heavy odds, ready to die for that highly prized freedom rather than submit, to swear their fealty in blood, was poetically magnificent. As I lack that capability, I'll just say that it's brilliant. As am I for taking nearly 3 hours to write that and you if you read all of it. Thanks :D