{"id":50279,"date":"2025-10-22T22:48:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T02:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=50279"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:48:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T02:48:26","slug":"ms-45-1981-arrow-video-limited-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/22\/ms-45-1981-arrow-video-limited-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms\u00a0.45 (1981) [Arrow Video Limited Edition]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Available from Arrow Video 10\/28\/2025\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following two rapes in one day, a young woman decides to\u00a0take\u00a0matters into her own hands and kills men around New York City.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger warning: Rape-revenge\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by Nicholas St. John and directed by Abel Ferrara,\u00a0Ms\u00a0.45 is a classic of the rape-revenge genre as it\u00a0establishes\u00a0some of the genre\u2019s tropes and is a blueprint for many other films to come.\u00a0The story here is on the brutal\u00a0side,\u00a0but that is part of the point. The lead character is pushed to the edge of sanity by the assaults she suffers and then snaps, leading her to kill and kill some more.\u00a0The writing of the story is fairly\u00a0simple,\u00a0but it\u00a0works,\u00a0and the direction has a flare for the dramatic and stylistic.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lead Zo\u00eb Lund,\u00a0as\u00a0Thana,\u00a0is fantastic.\u00a0This is her\u00a0film;\u00a0she knows it, and she makes the most of it.\u00a0There are a few issues with how the character is written, but Lund makes her more than what is on\u00a0paper;\u00a0she makes her human and a badass.\u00a0Yes, some of this is in the writing and\u00a0direction, but the majority of it feels like it\u2019s coming from Lund\u2019s performance and her aura (almost).\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0the center of the film and she brings all the\u00a0viewers\u00a0along with her, keeping their attention and making the most of everything set in front of her.\u00a0She is\u00a0Ms\u00a0.45. The cast around her is mostly decent at their part, but they pale in comparison with her.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The film here looks fantastic, in\u00a0major\u00a0part due to the cinematography work of James Lemmo. The way he frames Lund and the city of New York works great for\u00a0the story and\u00a0emphasizes\u00a0the grimy,\u00a0icky\u00a0parts of the city back in the late 1970s-early 1980s.\u00a0The work here is calculated but not too much,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0pretty while being\u00a0just right\u00a0for the story,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0what cinematography should look like for a film like this.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms\u00a0.45 is one of those films that has survived the test of time in part due to the issues at hand still being incredibly relevant, the performances (the lead in particular) being on point, and that extra je-ne-quoi of films from the era that works great for this type of story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This new release of\u00a0Ms\u00a0.45\u00a0comes courtesy of\u00a0Arrow Video and is packed with extras as their releases tend to be. Here, these extras are\u00a0numerous,\u00a0so\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0talk about the best of the bunch. The new restoration done\u00a0by Arrow Video from the original\u00a035mm\u00a0camera negative looks fantastic on the Blu-ray version that was\u00a0reviewed,\u00a0and the sound was decent (different sound systems will vary of course). The extras themselves, the things you can watch on here are led by a\u00a0brand-new\u00a0audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Quickly following in preference by the two shorts Zoe XO and Zoe Rising\u00a0by filmmaker Paul Rachman. The\u00a0featurettes Where Dreams Go to Die by Kat Ellinger and The Voice of Violence by BJ Colangelo are fantastic. Finally, the two archival interviews, one with director Abel Ferrara and one with creative consultant Jack McIntyre\u00a0are must watch\u00a0items.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Available from Arrow Video 10\/28\/2025\u00a0 Following two rapes in one day, a young woman decides to\u00a0take\u00a0matters into her own hands and kills men around New York City.\u00a0\u00a0 Trigger warning: Rape-revenge\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[240,302,1087],"class_list":["post-50279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50283,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279\/revisions\/50283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}