L'ange de la vengeance

Ms. 45 (1981) was an interesting view on the revenge flicks that were popular during the mid 70's to the early 80's. Abel Ferrara and his co-conspirator Nicholas St. John follow the life of a mute dress worker (Zoe Lund) who snaps one day after being raped twice. She kills her last attacker and keeps his gun. After seeing the grim world around her and the loss of her mental faculties, she decides to do a hunting.

A strange but highly enjoyable film that takes exploitation films to a whole new level. The gritty direction by Abel Ferrara and the smart writing from Nicholas St. John elevate this movie above most of the trash that was produced during this time period. The star, Zoe Lund posses some unearthly beauty and she has that certain stuff to make the material work. Not many other actresses could have pulled this off but she some how manages to.

If you can find an uncut version of this movie I advise you to go out and get it. This is one of the best vigilante movies you'll ever watch. I have to highly recommend this film. It's Abel Ferrara doing what he does best. Street level film making!

A rape revenge film that earns the "exploitation" tag that often accompanies the genre. While the theme was already pretty low hanging fruit at the time of it's release, this movie opts to set itself apart by focusing on the declining mental state post trauma. The resulting downward spiral is as captivating as it is gratuitous.

Thana (not Hannah as one might mistake to hear) hasn't had a good lot in life. She doesn't have really any family or friends, she works for pittance as a clothing workshop, and can't speak as a mute. She's also very attractive, and one day walking home she's pulled into an alley and raped by a man in a mask. She staggers home, bewildered by the whole thing, but before she can get her bearings she comes upon *another* man, in her apartment before she got home, who was in the midst of theft. He instead decides to go ahead for the rape. Twice in one day? Fat chance of that - she finally takes her moment, and Thana hits the guy to the ground and then with an iron kills him.

From then on the film takes its beat as something of a quandary, but a truly fascinating one: this isn't quite an exploitation flick, but it's not really a vigilante action-revenge picture like Death Wish, and yet it has hints of both. It's like Abel Ferrara and his writer St. John took the revenge element of Death Wish, of taking it to the street to rid the scum, but took it also to another level like in Polanski's Repulsion. Here Thana isn't some expert at self-defense, and shouldn't be as good as she is with the .45 she pulls off of the rapist #2. But she is good at getting her chance to kill people, and she does, even if they haven't really done anything to her (one of the more curiously ambiguous scenes is when Thana meets a guy at a bar, he keeps rambling outside about strangling his cat, she's about to shoot and it doesn't fire, he takes the gun and instead of shooting her shoots himself)

True, not all of the acting Ferrara is able to gather up totally works; some of them, like two actors playing a pimp and a prostitute (even for one scene) falls flat as believable streetwise (better is Thana's boss, a creep who wants to have his way with her but hides it under a thin veneer of professionalism and care). And it may also be true that Ferrara's film paints men- hell, just most people- as jerks or losers or total dogs, and really who will miss them when they're gone? It's that part of it that makes it an exploitation flick, especially in that one sequence at night when Thana goes out and kills the most amount of people (a whole group of gang-bangers in the park, an Arab and his chauffeur in a limo, the cat strangler). And as part of tugging at the weakest of heart strings, there's a neighbor who has a little dog and (gasp) will the dog make it through the end of the film?

A lot of this is pulp, but it's well directed and given a score that is fresh and cool in an early NY 80's sort of way. And when we do take it most seriously it's when looking right into Thana's face and her eyes, which start off terrified and dazed and a little in a surreal mindset (watch when she is surrounded by (over) concerned co-workers, or when she's in the bathroom and sees a hand near her breast that isn't there), and soon turns cold and bloodless. It's almost a symbolic kind of turn, hence even the name Thana which dates back to Greek mythology. This isn't someone to root for, which is what mucks up the traditional angle of a B-movie. Instead Ferrara is after something a lot deeper. Ms. 45 is action and a bit of horror (dismembered body anyone?) but it's also a sad tale of a girl without any hope, who is going crazier by the day and dresses out in black like a spider out on the prowl.

It's got some bad-ass dimensions of drama, and a rather wicked climax involving slow-motion and Ms. 45 herself going in her maniac mode in a nun costume, and is mostly marred by a few sub-par supporting performances (albeit a very low-budget indie from NYC) and a few little unsatisfying scenes.

The 1970s were THE decade for American exploitation movies with the likes of Roger Corman, Jack Hill, and Larry Cohen Jr creating some of the most entertaining trash ever made. For the most part the 1980s were a big let down in this department. Porkys-like sex comedies and awful buddy action movies and the like generally failed to reach the heights of the glory days of A.I.P. There were a few exceptions ('Chained Heat', 'Maniac' and 'The Exterminator' immediately spring to mind), and 'Ms.45 ' (a.k.a. 'Angel Of Vengeance') is in my mind THE single best exploitation movie of the decade. Abel Ferrara, who later made brilliant movies like 'Bad Lieutenant' and 'The Funeral', had previously made a porno movie and the infamous "video nasty" 'The Driller Killer' before this, which could well be the best rape revenge movie ever made. Ferrara's genius touch was the casting of the late Zoe Tamerlis. She is stunningly beautiful and her face is very expressive. Making her character mute makes the movie an unforgettable experience. It's really difficult trying to "sell" this stunning movie to someone. You'll either love it or you just won't "get it". I think it works very well as a post-'Death Wish' vigilante movie, but just as 'The Driller Killer' is more than "just" a slasher, this movie has a lot more to it, and that is almost completely down to Zoe Tamerlis. 'Ms. 45' might be b-grade trash to many, but it is uncompromised, something you very rarely see these days. I think it stands alongside 'Repo Man', 'Videodrome', 'Blue Velvet', 'The Evil Dead', 'The Ninth Configuration', 'Raising Arizona' and 'The King Of Comedy' as one of the most extraordinary movies released in a decade dominated by mediocre popcorn movies forced on viewers by Spielberg, Lucas, Hughes, Bruckheimer and Simpson.

Step 1: Watch Ms .45

Step2: Read the Wikipedia page for Zoe Lund

Step 3: Watch Ms .45 again, now that you know a little about her. Amazing.

RealReview Posting Scoring Criteria: Acting - 1/1 Casting - 1/1 Directing - 1/1 Story - 1/1 Writing/Screenplay - 1/1

Total Base Score = 5

Modifiers (+ or -) Originality: 1 Standout Performances: 1 ( Zoe Lund )

Total RealReview Rating: 7