Every part of this movie.
Except for where they thought they were such a hot **** music act.
That part was funny!
"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall

All the 80s scenes seemed pretty depressing to me.

WHEN THEY RAN OUT OF COKE!!! THATS ALWAYS A MOOD KILLER

I think Little Bill's death is the saddest part and the part where the painting of him is shown with that sad music playing. Too bad he couldn't just divorce his wife and move on with his life.
DISPLAY thy breasts, my Julia!

I guess the beat up by a few guys scene should have bothered me but to me he did not seem that bad after.
The brain matter on the face thing was disgusting though. Yuck. Sucks 2 innocent guys had to die there, but maybe the one guy should not have pulled the gun.

With the song, "Oh what a lonely boy" playing in the background
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules. "
-Walter Sobchak

Agreed, the '70's to '80's shift was sad. The only people who did better were Buck and Jessie. Hope Buck's store worked out.

Agreed. The depressing montages of the characters in the 80s, does signify the end of the free wheeling party that was the 70s. AIDS was a huge wake-up call as well as the just say no to drugs movement, which essentially made doing drugs, pretty unglamorous and people were getting sick from all of the unhealthy lifestyle choices of the previous decade

you mean 80's,,

never thought of that. soon as they move into the 90s things go downhill. true.

child please

The saddest part was the whole shift from the '70's to the '80's: one minute they're at the the disco dancing and partying, having a great time, then as soon as the '80's start it's nothing but murders and bad things happening. It was such a deliberately drastic change, like signifying the end of the fun-loving '70's.

Well, that's how they legitimize what they're doing. If they were to get paid for screwing it would amount to prostitution. So, instead they get paid for 'acting' in porn - to side-step the law. In short, it's time to legalize prostitution in the U.S.!

Yes, stepfather.

I don't knowI never had a reason to think it was a stepfather, but I guess it could have been.

When Dirk/Eddie's Mom is yelling at him and berating him while his Dad listens from the kitchen, seemingly helpless to step in and defend his son.
father or stepfather?

Yes and then then the robbery scene at the restaurant is right after these merged scenes. Yuck.

The sequence where it edits together Dirk's beating to Roller girl attacking her former class mate. Both scenes merged together convey the horrific downside of how the characters' lifestyles, how desperate and depressing it can be.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

When Buck got turned down for the loan because "This financial institution can not endorse pornography," and he keeps saying, "Stop saying 'Pornography'! I'm an actorI'm an actor!"
When Dirk/Eddie's Mom is yelling at him and berating him while his Dad listens from the kitchen, seemingly helpless to step in and defend his son.

think about it. the whole movie is sad.

he left u NAKED in a DITCH!

Difficult to say. There are so many heart wrenching scenes in this movie that it's hard to choose just one
Well, the part where Dirk gets jumped and brutally attacked by that thug and his buddies because they thought he was gay is really upsetting.
The deaths of Little Bill and his wife and her lover by murder-suicide always gets to me and the scene is so long and drawn out
Just about every one of Rollergirl's scenes also touched me especially the classroom testing scene where she gives up on herself and walks out.
I don't want to be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me.

Yeah when Rollergirl stomps him and screams something like "you CANNOT touch me (or get to me)"
She really felt so emotionally raped.
Also when Dirk is kicked out by his mom. There is a whole lot of sad moving moments in this movie, and it really works every time.

Amber's breakdown in court gets me where it hurts. Julianne Moore makes you love the character and then you feel like crap when she's that hurt.
Also, Rollergirl's freakout when she stomps that guy from the limo she knew from before, you get the idea that her childhood was very, very painful, and he was a representation of it.
I only work in black and sometimes very, very dark grey!

The saddest part for me was Amber and Rollergirl getting high on coke in Amber's bedroom and Rollergirl asking Amber to be her mother. This scene showed the lack of parental care these people had in their lives.

To me, the saddest, or at least the most disturbing part, was when Dirk had to resort to exposing himself to a "gay" guy, for pay, and then found himself getting the crap beaten out of him. That was the nadir of his life, for sure. It may allude to John Holmes doing 'gay' porn towards the end of his career.