Focus Features
Last Updated: July 23rd
Sad movies take a lot of forms, but this list of good Netflix films to watch hits the big buttons, including some of the best movies to watch about love, star-crossed love, concentration camps, death, and children/dinosaurs in peril.
Regardless of what gets your tear ducts primed and pumping, there is something in this list must-watch streaming sobfests that will get at your heart’s sorrow spot. “Enjoy” the 15 saddest movies on Netflix right now responsibly.
Related: The Best Movies On Netflix Right Now, Ranked
Universal Pictures
Schindler’s List (1993)
Run Time: 195 min | IMDb: 8.9/10
It took decades in the industry for Steven Spielberg to finally earn an Oscar for one of his movies, but his win for Schindler’s List is well deserved. The film focuses on wealthy businessman Oskar Schindler, who spends his fortune and risks his life to save the lives of 1,100 Jewish men and women after taking in the horrors of WWII and the concentration camps. Between the three hour running time, the cold, unrelenting cruelty of Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of Amon Goeth, and its realistic style, it’s a bleak film. But there’s hope to be found in the grim black and white images. It’s an important story told movingly by a filmmaker at the height of his powers.
Focus Features
Atonement (2007)
Run Time: 123 min | IMDb: 7.8/10
Is there anything sadder than young lovers torn apart before their feelings can truly blossom? Well, besides real issues plaguing the world like war and famine, but come on, star-crossed lovers are still pretty sad. Atonement paints a vivid tale of just that (along with some war as well). After a series of misunderstandings, youthful naiveté, and false accusations drive Robbie (James McAvoy) away from Cecillia (Keira Knightley), 13-year-old Briony spends the rest of her life struggling with her mistakes as the couple longs to be reunited. It’s a tragic story, but one that works beyond the tragedy and sorrow. It won an Oscar for its original score and was nominated for Best Picture, facing off against some tough competition in No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
Universal Pictures
The Land Before Time (1988)
Run Time: 69 min | IMDb: 7.4/10
Director Don Bluth helmed a few memorable animated kids’ films during the ’80s, including An American Tail and All Dogs Go To Heaven. But none have proven as enduring as The Land Before Time. Launching a baker’s dozen sequels (the last of which came out in 2016), this charming adventure focuses on a band of young dinosaurs as they try to reach the safe haven of The Great Valley. With its adorable characters and simplistic yet relatable coming-of-age message, it’s reminiscent of familiar tales like Bambi, but Bambi has got nothing on the tears that come from Land Before Time‘s protagonist Littlefoot. Imagine Bambi seeing his mother get killed, having a deathbed conversation with her, and then being haunted by her ghost through the rest of the film, and that’s what Littlefoot has to go through. As one of the best sad movies hiding in an animation, it’s a somber but not overwhelming for a young audience.
Robot Communications
The House Of Small Cubes (2008)
Run Time: 12 min | IMDb: N/A
This Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short is only 12 minutes long, but that’s all it takes to pull you into its heartbreaking story. An old man’s house gets continuously submerged in ever-rising waters, so instead of moving on, he moves up. As he keeps adding levels, a dropped pipe forces the man to relive his memories as he passes each floor through the depths of his home. The wordless short builds an interesting world very quickly with a unique style of animation. The House Of Small Cubes gives but a few glimpses of this man’s life, but it’s enough to care about him and his life as it unfolds in reverse.
Miramax
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Run Time: 155 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
This may be one of the best foreign language films ever made. In a war-torn Sicilian village, Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio) finds succor in the town’s local movie house. He is befriended by projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), who teaches him to truly love movies. When the movie house catches fire, Alfredo loses his sight but has his life saved by Salvatore, who becomes the projection operator in Alfredo’s place. The film is a testament to the love of movies, as much as it is to the balm they provide in difficult lives during difficult times.
Focus Features
Milk (2008)
Run Time: 128 min | IMDb: 7.6/10
Sean Penn won his second Oscar for his portrayal of the titular character in Milk, the biopic about San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official. From his early days of civil rights activism in the ’70s to his assassination only a few months after his election, Harvey Milk’s short story is one filled with endless struggle. But the message throughout the film is endlessly hopeful and triumphant. The saddest part, though, is that the fight for LGBTQ rights still wages every day in the U.S. That’s why it’s encouraging to keep the words of leaders like Milk alive today. He didn’t start getting involved in the movement until he was around 40, and he was able to create very real change. It’s never too late to start.
Dimension
The Road (2009)
Run Time: 111 min | IMDb: 7.8/10
Certainly not the first title that comes to mind when looking for “sad movies,” but just try and watch The Road without feeling emotionally fatigued. The Cormac McCarthy adaptation takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but that’s only the backdrop for a gripping relationship between a man and his son. Once the world sorta ends — as not much time is spent on the “why” — the man struggles to keep his son alive amidst murderers, cannibals, and despair. It’s rough. It’s bleak. It’s a terrifying, dying world that sucks you in as you can almost feel the cold and taste the hunger. But it’s the little moments of hope and love in the pair’s lives that makes it all worthwhile. (You can also pretty much disregard the tone, colors, and thrilling nature of the trailer above, as this is a somber, slow tale the pretty much cuts your heart out.)
Focus Features
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Run Time: 117 min | IMDb: 8/10
Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas Buyer Club is a searing look at how the world failed the LGBTQ community during the devastating AIDS crisis. McConaughey stars as Ron Woodruff, a man diagnosed with the disease in the ’80s during a time when the illness was still misunderstood and highly stigmatized. Woodruff went against the FDA and the law to smuggle in drugs to help those suffering from the disease, establishing a “Dallas Buyers Club” and fighting in court to the right to aid those in need. The story is all the more powerful because it’s true and McConaughey delivers one of the best performances of his career as Woodruff, a man who changes his entire outlook on life after being dealt a tragic blow.
The Weinstein Company
Carol (2015)
Run Time: 118 min | IMDb: 7.2/10
Patricia Highsmith made her name with dark, misanthropic thrillers like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train. But her early work also included The Price of Salt, a novel about the relationship between a shopgirl and an older married woman. Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett bring this doomed romance to life, playing a pair of lovers kept apart by societal conventions. Their heartbreaking romance ends as well as can be expected, but the journey definitely involves some tears.
Getty Image
Coco (2017)
Run Time: 105 min | IMDb: 8.5/10
Disney continued its trend of spotlighting underserved communities and lesser-known cultures with Coco, a Pixar project that follows a young boy learning the importance of family during a traditional Mexican celebration, “Dia de Los Muertos.” The Day of the Dead is probably a holiday you’ve heard of before, but the film adds a rich history and vibrancy to a time held sacred by so many. Coco has dreams of becoming a singer but when he finds himself amongst the dead, he must rely on his courage and his ancestors to help him return to the living. Bring your tissues for this one.
Getty Image
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Run Time: 128 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
Peter Weir’s beloved story of repression and rebellion at an elite prep school at the end of the 1950s features one of Robin Williams’ best dramatic performances and features a cast of ascending stars that includes Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Josh Charles. Though Weir occasionally lets Williams indulge a little too much, it’s a moving film that’s justifiably endured over the years.
The Weinstein Company
Lion (2016)
Run Time: 118 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
Dev Patel stars in this true story of a young man searching for clues to his past as he tries to reconnect with the family he left behind. Nicole Kidman also stars, playing a woman who adopts a young Indian boy accidentally separated from his family and sent to an orphanage, but the real star/the actor that will make you reach for the tissues is Sunny Pawar, a little boy who bring emotion to every scene in which he appears.
Netflix
Okja (2017)
Run Time: 120 min | IMDb: 7.4/10
Bong Joon-Ho’s send-up of corporate farming and environmental abuses isn’t subtle. Tilda Swinton goes all-out as the CEO of an evil corporation, only to be outdone by Jake Gyllenhaal’s broad turn as an unstable TV host. But its tale of an endearing, genetically modified “super pig” and the girl who loves him is effective and contains both some terrific action set pieces and the most affecting child/strange beast relationship this side of E.T.
Netflix
Extremis (2016)
Run Time: 24 min | IMDb: N/A
Clocking in at 24 minutes, the Oscar-nominated Extremis really would only work as a short, as its subject matter is almost unbearably heavy. Following terminal patients, their families, and their doctors, the tearjerker zeros in on the decision that many people are forced to make: whether to end a life or keep struggling to hold on. Netflix’s first foray into short documentary, it’s raw insight that can be rough for anyone who has been in similar shoes or spent any time facing dire choices in a hospital.
Miramax
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Run Time: 116 min | IMDb: 8.6/10
Roberto Benigni starred in, directed, and co-wrote this story about a goofy waiter that’s part charming romantic comedy, part depressing WWII tale. The first half of the movie revolves around Guido (Benigni) meeting and winning over the love of his life, while the second half sees him and his new family sent to a concentration camp during WWII. In an attempt to shield his son from the horror of their lives, Guido uses jokes and hijinx to mask the atrocities around them. Unsurprisingly, it’s quite a sad tale, but one that lives up to its title, as the love Guido has for his wife and son is pushed to increasingly dire levels. The film earned a total of three Oscar wins out of seven nominations, although it also garnered heavy criticism from Mel Brooks for joking about concentration camps.
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