Ms .45

Spoilers!

1981's MS .45 is an independent, NYC shot cheapie by director Abel Ferrara some years before he unleashed higher profile sleaze epics like BAD LIEUTENANT and THE KING OF NEW YORK on the world.  It is still his best work, in my humble opinion.  A simple narrative loaded with enough nicely developed themes of gender roles, sexuality, sexual politics, self defense, psychosis, vengeance, and Catholicism to keep coffeehouses buzzing with armchair critics and fans of underground cinema for years to come.

There is a decent sized cult for this movie.  Some of whom undoubtedly love to watch someone wronged get revenge.  I'd like to believe that most fans consider that MS .45's heroine is not merely a victim.  One who points her weapon only at those who deserve it;  some perhaps do not.  Those on the wrong side of the .45 all do have one thing in common - a Y chromosome.  Several such individuals who fall into her sight line.

Thana (Zoe Tamerlis) is frail, mute woman who works as a seamstress in Manhattan's garment district.  She is well liked by her co-workers and boss, who perhaps has a thing for her.  One very unfortunate day after work, Thana is raped in an alley by a creep wearing a Halloween mask.  When she gets home, she is greeted by a burglar who also rapes her.  This time she manages to land a glass paperweight on her attacker's skull.  She then faces a dilemma we've seen in several other movies - what to do with the corpse.  Unfortunately, the answer involves dismemberment and storage in her refrigerator and various waste cans in the city, leading to at least two "horror movie" type moments of repugnant discovery.

MS .45 is indeed a horror movie (even featured in the anthology TERROR IN THE AISLES), with all the expected tropes of the genre.  Ferrara uses point of view to stalk potential and actual victims - many of the men Thana both meets and views from a distance.  The movie depicts men as pigs who whistle and offer cheesy lines to just about any woman who passes by.  Others are perhaps more well- to-do and successful, but no less perverted.   After her second rape, Thana irrevocably transforms into even more of a sociopath than she might've been previously.  She picks up the automatic her intruder had wielded and wastes the male gender with a mindset that seeks to right all the wrongs foisted upon the women of NYC.  Real and imagined.

The film is obviously very feminist.  Even an innocent Asian kid who was merely flirting with and kissing his girlfriend is a target.  Nicholas St. John's script does include a curious scene with a talkative guy at a bar who falls to Thana's gun, but not in the way you would expect.  Consider also that Thana dons a nun costume for the climactic Halloween party, a small masterpiece of editing with swell use of slow motion.

MS .45 is essentially a grimy payback thriller, but also an effective sociology play.  It is safe for animal lovers to enjoy as well.