Talk:Five Corners (film)

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Some clarifications, and I'm not going to go into all the allusions here because I don't have time. Maybe someone else can pick up the threads (e.g., the penguins; the Saint Bernard, ...). Outside-frame the following fairy tale within another fairy tale. The outside frame is a familiar one of cupid's bow, but with reverse effect. Instead of cupid's arrow instilling love, the arrow kills anger and hatred. Early in the film, cupid's arrow offs an agent of anger and hatred, who happens to be a punitive algebra instructor. At this point, the cupid-identity is hidden.

Once framed in that fashion, in the second frame, imagine Snow White, with a past history of having been nearly raped by a troll-baby (but not quite), having been saved by Prince Charming (who sends troll-baby into spell-bondage). Prince Charming then then heads off to Fordham University, leaving Snow White to tend a pet shop in the Bronx, and to be adored by the Prince Charming-wannabe who seems to have become modestly disabled in the original saving process. All's well until troll-baby is released from spell-bondage. [SW = Jodie F; PC = Tim R; PC-wannabe = Todd G.; troll-baby = John T.]. After some years, Prince Charming has returned from Fordham and is a pacifist, headed for Mississippi to be a Ghandi/MLK-inspired freedom fighter against racism, and uninterested in any more fights with troll-babies or trolls. The dramatic action is set up because the troll-baby, upon release from the spell-bondage (read: prison), decides to return and to court Snow White yet again. Snow White visits Prince Charming, who tells her that he is going to make love, not war, and Snow White decides to confront troll-baby on her own. This proves to be somewhat of a disaster, involving penguins stolen from the Bronx Zoo, some bashing around by troll-baby and then by Snow White, and an ultimate reconciliation of Snow White with the PC-wannabe, who promptly lead SW into the underworld (NYC subway; echo Orfeu Negro), where troll-baby is powerful, over-powers PC-wannabe, and happens to knock SW unconscious in the process. As one might imagine, the ending involves a reconfrontation of Prince Charming with the troll-baby, no longer in the subway, but now in the heavens (Bronx rooftops), and here again the cupids enter the picture and we engage the outside frame.

I'm not going to spoil the story entirely, but one might imagine what happens when cupid's arrow again is directed toward an agent of anger and hatred, and the ultimate closing.

It is somewhat misleading to say that the story is about "a man who appears to have tired of two women he knows, gives them to two teenage boys, ... ETC." This is a sub-plot, and to describe the main plot in this way is a bit like saying that that Midsummer Night's Dream is about Peasebottom or that the Henry plays are about Falstaff, or that Black Orpheus is about the little boys who play the guitar to make the sun rise. (The elevator scenes involving the cupid-boys and the sleeping girls have some more resonance with both Midsummer Night's Dream and Black Orpheus as well.)

One might as easily have said that the film is a cop-show, in that Prince Charming's father was a cop killed in the line of duty, and that some of the cops are introduced for mainly comedic relief (others are maimed or killed in some generally unnecessary and gratuitous violence).

I should add that I'm not a 'Five Corners' aficionado, and I've seen it just one time. There is some material here for an essay by a budding rosy-cheeked English literature undergraduate, but alas, I'm not one of those. Enjoy (and post a Wikipedia edit, if you figure out the bit about the penguins and the Saint Bernard). Enjoy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Edwinch (talk • contribs) 05:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)