{"id":6740,"date":"2008-05-31T18:30:30","date_gmt":"2008-05-31T22:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=6740"},"modified":"2008-05-31T18:30:30","modified_gmt":"2008-05-31T22:30:30","slug":"ms-45-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/31\/ms-45-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. 45 (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"45\"<\/a>If there\u2019s anything that gets my goat more than apocalypse films, and superhero films, it\u2019s revenge flicks. Revenge movies make up some of the best cinema I\u2019ve ever seen, from Samurai epics, to Western tales, and Abel Ferrera\u2019s \u201cMs. 45\u201d is that revenge movie in the vein of \u201cI Spite on your Grave\u201d where a woman who has suffered the crime of rape, now strikes out against all men, instead of the men who hurt her. Anna is a meek mute girl who designs clothes during the day time. On the way home, she\u2019s anally raped on the street, and then staggers home wounded to find that a man has broken into her home and, angered that she has no valuables, decides to rape her\u2026 again.<\/p>\n

Anna can\u2019t catch a break, as you can imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. 45\u201d may be a viciously anti-male thriller with a protagonist prone to the same cruelty the men who ravaged her are, but considering this was made in 1981, it\u2019s really more about context of the period. 1980\u2019s New York was a pretty destitute and crime ridden place, with threats looming at every end of the street. \u201cMs. 45\u201d is that film about young women being sexually destroyed at a time where rape was always a concern. The symbolism here though that helps this stand out, is that Anna is a young woman without a voice, who finds one with the 45 she takes from her attacker. This allows her courage and the will to attack those willing to attack her.<\/p>\n

But \u201cMs. 45\u201d isn\u2019t all a glorified take on revenge, as it paints Anna as a person unwilling to be pushed around by men and inevitably taking a psychopathic turn shooting any male she thinks poses a threat to her much like the 2007 \u201cThe Brave One.\u201dAnna isn\u2019t completely a black and white character who suddenly becomes a superhero with a gun. Aside from a .45 that inexplicably never runs out of bullets (Seriously, where does she get all the ammo?), actress Zo? Tamerlis gives a very good performance as the eponymous character who undergoes a very gradual and fascination transformation, from a gawking worker to a vicious killer with no sympathy for any man she comes across on the streets.<\/p>\n

The inevitable consequences of Anna\u2019s actions and declining sanity lead to a climactic blood bath reminiscent of DePalma\u2019s \u201cCarrie\u201d exemplifying a woman\u2019s rage in the face of an unforgiving society that more than makes up for the film\u2019s shortcomings, in the end. Not only does the irony of Anna pairing herself with a phallic weapon work to the film\u2019s advantage, but the bearing of her best friend with a phallic tool to bring her spree to an end works on many levels of poetic irony and dark wit that\u2019s capped off by a bittersweet closing scene. Sure, it\u2019s aged and in many ways it\u2019s cheesy and illogical, but \u201cMs.45\u201d is nonetheless a clever and very morbid take on sexual violence on the cusp of the eighties, and the effects it can have on the quiet individuals we often deem as harmless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s anything that gets my goat more than apocalypse films, and superhero films, it\u2019s revenge flicks. Revenge movies make up some of the best cinema I\u2019ve ever seen, from Samurai epics, to Western tales, and Abel Ferrera\u2019s \u201cMs. 45\u201d is that revenge movie in the vein of \u201cI Spite on your Grave\u201d where a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[58,240,302,337,617,703,820,840,1087],"class_list":["post-6740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grindhouse-review-fest","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-exploitation","tag-m","tag-mystery","tag-rape","tag-revenge","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}