Saddest Movie Ever Is 1979 Boxing Flick, According To Scientists

**GrantZilla** Fri Jul 29, 2011 4:40 am

Have scientists found the world's saddest movie? Hollywood's churned out plenty of tearjerkers over the years, but according to new research, one 1979 weepie tops them all.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a scene in "The Champ," Franco Zeffirelli's remake of a story of an aging boxer trying to resurrect his career, has been used more often than any other film scene to evoke sadness in test subjects.

“I found it very sad. I find most people do,” said Jared Minkel of Duke University, a scientist who has used the scene in his research. “'The Champ' seems to be very effective in eliciting fairly pure feeling states of sadness and associated cognitive and behavioral changes.”

Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found in 1988, after testing the reactions of 500 undergraduate students, that the scene evoked pure sadness more effectively than any other. Since then scientists have used it to study such subjects as whether sad, depressed people smoke more.

The scene in question comes near the end of the film, when 9-year-old actor Ricky Shroder cries over the death of his father. According to Smithsonian, the scene has been cited in over 300 scientific articles. The closest runner-up for the "saddest movie" title? "Bambi."
http://www.thirdage.com/news/saddest-movie-ever-is-1979-boxing-flick-according-to-scientists_07-28-2011

Guest Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:35 pm

Heard about that movie but I've never watched it, Jon Voight isn't an actor I am keen about.

**gomez1012** Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:09 pm

Ali wrote:Heard about that movie but I've never watched it, Jon Voight isn't an actor I am keen about.

You should go watch Anaconda Laughing

**gomez1012** Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:14 pm

Interesting stuff

The Champ has been used in experiments to see if depressed people are more likely to cry than non-depressed people (they aren’t). It has helped determine whether people are more likely to spend money when they are sad (they are) and whether older people are more sensitive to grief than younger people (older people did report more sadness when they watched the scene). Dutch scientists used the scene when they studied the effect of sadness on people with binge eating disorders (sadness didn’t increase eating).

The scene for you Ali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rgySx1MhzAo

Guest Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:16 pm

gomez1012 wrote:
Ali wrote:Heard about that movie but I've never watched it, Jon Voight isn't an actor I am keen about.

You should go watch Anaconda

Ice Cube and J-Lo kicking ass Laughing

**gomez1012** Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:19 pm

And Jon Voight's great accent

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Saddest Movie Ever Is 1979 Boxing Flick, According To Scientists

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