Ms .45
directed by Abel Ferrara
starring Zoe Lund, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto
Arrow Video
In what could have easily been just a quickly forgotten gender-swapped rehash of Death Wish, director Abel Ferrara and his 17-year-old actress and muse, Zoe Lund, elevate Ms .45 above mediocrity, making it one of the true classics of grindhouse cinema. To be clear, the film is unflinchingly grimy grindhouse fare, but it also offers a range of interpretations.
The story is brutally simple. Thana, a young mute seamstress, is raped twice in one late afternoon while on her way home from work. She fights off and kills the second attacker in her apartment. This leaves her with two problems: how to dispose of the body and what to do with her assailant’s .45 caliber pistol. She solves the first by dismembering the corpse and dropping newspaper-wrapped body parts into trashcans and alleys around Manhattan. As for the gun, Thana chooses to keep it for protection. When a man later chases her into a blind alley to return the shopping bag she “dropped,” she uses the gun with terrifying efficiency. After the shock wears off, Thana goes beyond merely defending herself and begins hunting at night for creeps to kill. She leaves a trail of dead pimps, muggers, and sleazy photographers across the city. Eventually, she is stabbed in the back at her workplace Halloween party after opening fire on her boss.
The film’s simplicity, whether intentional or due to budget constraints, removes everything that does not directly relate to Thana and her transformation from timid woman into ruthless angel of death. The movie does not include secondary plots such as the police searching for the killer, nor does it attempt to direct the audience’s opinion regarding Thana and her gun. After the initial excitement, viewers are left with lingering questions. At what point does Thana cross the line from sympathetic victim seeking revenge to cold blooded serial killer? Did she cross that line, or did her victims deserve their fate? Is Ferrara and Lund’s vision exploitation trash, or is it a feminist manifesto? These questions, alongside Zoe Lund’s remarkable performance, have kept the film relevant for over forty years.
Even after watching it countless times, there are new elements to explore and consider. This time, the focus is on how much Thana is motivated by the desire to reclaim her personal space. The violation of her body seems less important than the violation of her space. This includes not only her physical space but also her apartment, which is invaded by both her rapist and her well-intentioned but overbearing landlady. Her coworkers smother her with concern, while her sleazy boss’s sexual harassment is more uncomfortable than the film’s graphic violence. Thana’s note to a coworker, “I just wish they would leave me alone,” is a relatable motivation, even when it is taken to deadly extremes.
Ms .45 has remained in constant release on home video since the Beta/VHS era of the 1980s and now receives a stunning 4K UHD makeover from Arrow Video. Grindhouse movies are always a challenge in high definition formats, because it can be hard to find the right visual balance that restores and cleans the film without making it look overly perfect. Much of the atmosphere in these low budget productions comes from the grainy film stock, which often loses its character when too pristine. This edition of Ms .45, preserved from the original camera negative, maintains the director’s aesthetic sensibility while delivering a beautiful image that never feels overly processed. The extras for this release are outstanding, with contributions from B.J. Colangelo, Kat Ellinger, and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.
