A slightly easier division than previous ones for me to vote in, but a tougher one to predict, Waterston could just as easily have been called the Man’s Inhumanity to Man Flight — but because Schindler’s List is about one man’s courageous humanity in the face of unimaginable evil, I can’t vote for it here.

The Accused is also out, thanks to my inability to suspend my Jodie Foster disbelief; American History X I don’t think I remember well enough, and what I do remember explains why it’s here, but I don’t recall being sapped of all hope afterwards, so I won’t punch that one’s ticket either.

Killing Fields and Sweet Hereafter both make worthwhile choices, but lean in my opinion more to the sad/bittersweet than to the truly bleak. Precious is juuuust a bit hokey, and Leaving relies in the end on just a couple of scenes…we’re hair-splitting here, I guess, but in the end, none of these can touch Grave of the Fireflies‘s nightmarish feel and creeping dread. And United 93 reunites us with our 9/11 dead for just a little while…and then they’re gone again. And it’s a plane crash. I was physically exhausted at the end.

Grave may get through; 93 won’t, Accused and Precious probably won’t, and other than that I have absolutely no clue. I’ll call it for Schindler’s and Hereafter.

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(Confused? Aren’t we all. Heh. But the Cinemarch Madness FAQ is here, and you can find the complete semifinal-polls list over here.)

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