Researchers Determine the Most Melancholic Movie Ever - Familiarize Yourself with the Chosen Title - Researchers are crafting the most melancholic film imaginable.
According to a study conducted by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, the saddest film of all time is "The Champ" (1979), directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The study, led by James J. Gross and Robert W. Levenson, aimed to quantify film-induced sadness objectively by measuring physiological and emotional responses.
In this research, more than 400 volunteers were shown 250 films and asked to rate the emotions each film evoked. Among the contenders, "The Champ" stood out due to its poignant portrayal of a struggling former boxer, Billy, played by Jon Voight, who fights to provide for his young son T.J. The final scene of the film was particularly moving for the volunteers in the study.
"The Champ" is a sports drama, unlike the horror films "The Shining" and "The Silence of the Lambs", which were rated as particularly frightening by other participants in the study but were not part of the top contenders for the title of the saddest film. It's worth noting that the absence of the animated film "Watership Down" from the study might have influenced the participants' ratings of frightening films.
Despite the absence of specific details about the demographics of the volunteers, the study focused on the emotions evoked by the films, specifically in the category of sadness. The intense portrayal of a father's struggle to provide for his son, and the bittersweet ending, consistently evoked strong sadness in audiences, making "The Champ" the saddest film of all time according to this study.
If you are interested in learning more about the methodology and other films studied, further details can be provided. Please note that other films are also frequently cited as very sad, but the Berkeley study's findings specifically highlight "The Champ" as the saddest film.
I'm not gonna be able to watch "The Champ" again, knowing it's considered the saddest film of all time. Even though I enjoy movies-and-tv as entertainment, I find it hard to re-watch a movie that evokes such intense sadness.
