Whore (1991) - Film Review

Sometimes you see a picture and immediately a memory is sparked. This happen this morning while looking for film posters for my Pinterest, blog/site whatever. I remember seeing the film Whore 1991 on VHS video many years ago starring Theresa Russell another crush alert and felt the need to watch it again. Ken Russell directed the film.

I set about looking for a free copy to watch on the internet but the only place was on a porn site but I wanted the film not the site. Why it was on a porn site I have no idea there is no way is film is porn.

Russell plays Liz, a Los Angeles lower class street prostitute who hustles a busy downtown street near a tunnel and the film is one of those were she addresses the film audience directly. We hear about her life about her problems throughout the film and in flashbacks in some cases.

She tells us about her violent husband and how she escaped with her son and ended up working nights in a diner when a customer offers her money to have sex with him, she agrees the money was better than she was earning working in the diner. She works independently for a while until she runs into Blake (Benjamin Mouton) a well-dressed pimp and extremely controlling and violent. She soon regrets it but there is no way out.

We see her successfully and unsuccessfully pick up punters and when a van pulls up she gives the driver the brush off recalling to the audience the last time she serviced a man in a van: it turned out there were several other men in the van, who gang-raped her and left her for dead. However not all human kind is so cruel has a passer-by offers to take her to the hospital but she declines and asks for money which she later returns with a thank you note.

She befriends a local homeless person/street performer named Rasta who decides to treat Liz to a movie. After the movie, Liz picks up a customer and services him. He has a heart attack, and Liz panics, trying to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, without success. Blake happens along then. He takes Liz's money and tries to rob the dead customer. When Liz tries to stop him, Blake tries to strangle Liz and threatens to put her son into gay prostitution, with Liz retorting "I'll kill you first!". Rasta comes to the rescue, killing Blake. A grateful Liz gives her thanks and walks away.