Abel Ferrara's Ms. .45, 14 June 2002 Author: Charles Tatum from North Dakota Ferrara's huge breakout film has been the subject of everythingfrom cult status to film thesis papers.Zoe Tamerlis is Thana, a mute and mousy woman who works inNew York's garment district. On her way home one afternoon, sheis grabbed off the street and raped by a masked man, played byFerrara himself. She stumbles home, shell shocked, and finds aburglar in her apartment. He also begins raping her, holding a .45on her. He drops the gun and she kills him, putting his body in thebathtub. She confiscates the gun as her own, and normallyreliable Thana begins to change.Thana's nosy landlady, a candidate for a .45 slug if there ever wasone, and the landlady's dog, Phil, notice Thana leaving theapartment glammed to the nines and carrying plastic garbagebags full of the burglar's body parts. Thana kills one man whochases her with the burglar's body parts (he thinks she droppedthe bag), and soon Thana is dispatching everyone from pimps togangs to Arab sheiks with her trusty gun. In the meantime, sheoffers to take Phil for a walk, tying him to a stake so she can shoothim without him running off. Thana is finally invited to a Halloweenparty by her lecherous boss. This provides the film's final horrifyingsetpiece. Thana is dressed like a nun, with her trusty gun tuckedinto her garter belt. She opens fire on the men at the party, all shotin slow motion by Ferrara. This scene is terrifying on a horror filmscale, as people run for their lives as very effective special effectsillustrate the carnage. The final shot involving the Phil the dog isclassic.It is dismissive to say Thana decides to kill every man she sees.You can see a pattern in her killing, as she graduates from basicstreet scum, to an almost killing of an Oriental man who is doingnothing but kissing his girlfriend. The divorced man's suicidestretches credibility a bit, as Thana's gun jams when she pulls thetrigger, but he puts it to his head and it goes off. Thana is also apretty good shot, yet we are never given any evidence why.Zoe Tamerlis died almost two years ago of heart failure. She wasonly 35. She did other films, but this was probably her best knownwork. Because she is plays a mute, she must express all of heremotions with her face, which she does very well. She looks a lotlike Jeanne Tripplehorn, and does a great job here.The New York City setting is perfect and unfiltered. This is the NYCwe heard of back in the 1970's, complete with muggings andgraffiti. There is wonderful background noise, not affected by someHollywood sound engineer's filter. Dialog is kept to a minimumbecause of Thana's condition, but Ferrara keeps the violence andblood flowing freely. Surprisingly, despite the presence of two rapesequences, there is no nudity, as if Ferrara wanted to show thesecrimes as crimes of violence, and not arousing rough sex."Ms. .45" is not perfect, but it is infinitely fascinating. It is alsoincredibly brutal, and not for the squeamish. I highly recommend it.This is unrated, and contains physical violence, strong gunviolence, strong sexual violence, gore, strong profanity, sexualcontent, sexual references, some drug references, and adultsituations.