Five Corners

In 1964, the Bronx is shaken by a brutal incident: a high school teacher is fatally shot in the back with an arrow. Heinz [John Turturro] Sabatino, freshly released from prison after serving time for attempted rape, returns to his old neighborhood to reunite with his ailing mother and to reignite his twisted relationship with Linda [Jodie Foster] Komkowski, his former near-rape victim. Earlier, two intoxicated young women are briefly placed with two teenage boys, with cash promised to take them away, and those women awaken later in an unfamiliar apartment, nude beneath the sheets. The following day, the boys inform the girls about their teacher’s murder, explaining why they were available to ride with them.

Harry [Tim Robbins] Fitzgerald, who had previously protected Linda during the near-attack, has since embraced Buddhism and pacifism and, influenced by the murder of his policeman father and by Dr. Martin Luther King’s nonviolent protests, seeks to join his movement. This shift makes his job of shielding Linda more complicated as danger reappears and old tensions flare.

Heinz arranges a midnight park meeting with Linda, and though she arrives with caution, she keeps a defensive board close at hand. He presents a bizarre gift—the two penguins stolen from the Bronx Zoo—and Linda explains that penguins require special care and cannot be kept. Enraged by what he perceives as rejection, Heinz murders one of the birds. In the ensuing struggle, Linda escapes with the remaining penguin.

Afterward, Heinz drags the unconscious Linda to a rooftop as police close in. A sharpshooter has a clear shot, but he hesitates to fire, choosing to protect Linda rather than end Heinz’s threat in that moment. In the end, Heinz dies from a mysterious arrow lodged in his back.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:26