Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: An Analysis
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is directed by Martin McDonagh, the man behind Seven Psychopaths and In Bruges; two excellent films. This one starts with Mildred (Frances McDormand) putting up billboards simply asking the chief of police (Woody Harrelson) why there have been no arrests in her daughter’s murder case. In this very small rural town, everyone knows about it by the following day, and Mildred becomes an emotional target for this entire town. They feel the billboards are inappropriate, even though this is a town that has no problem saying quite a bit of inappropriate things. But the outrage starts showing only when the spotlight is on them for being as complacent in the solving of a substantial crime, while also not being complacent when it comes to other crimes that are as bad, such as police brutality.
So, the film explores a lot of deep dark territory and it does so with a surprising amount of dark humor. This is one of the year’s best. It is also one of the best acted films in many years. McDormand is already a legend but this might be her best performance. Her character is very driven, strong-minded, and will not let anything stand in her path. Sam Rockwell, on the other hand, delivers a pitch perfect performance playing officer Dixon. He deserves all the awards he is getting, including his upcoming Oscar.
The score provided by Carter Burwell (who also did Martin McDonagh’s other films In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths) is very beautiful and captures the tone of the Midwest. The soundtrack is also on point. The song choices are relevant to the events. The film starts and ends with Buckskin Stallion Blues by Townes Van Sandt, and ends with a cover of it by Amy Annelle. The cinematography by Ben Davis is gripping, too. For example, the presence of the billboards is always felt in the scenes in Mildred’s yard. Also, the unbroken shot of Dixon beating up Red (Caleb Landry Jones) is very effective in its brutality and rawness and respect of the victim. It is an important moment that translates a new shift in the tone of the movie. The director mentioned “the dread of knowing something very, very bad is going to happen and then watching it occur in real time. And it keeps going, which makes it even worse. But it’s there for a reason, and that reason is not to do some sort of blood-spurting thing. That’s when Dixon starts to go through something similar to Mildred.”
Overall, Three Billboards has really clever and bold ways of making jokes out of things that a lot of people are afraid to talk about today. There moments where you would cringe at some of the humor, but hopefully credit the smart intentions behind it in retrospect. This is a smart and heartfelt story that is moving and powerful because it speaks volumes about the way people react to tragedies when they are trying to hide from them. But, when that tragedy is once again forcibly put into the public’s mind, suddenly everyone has a really hard time dealing with it. It highlights the fact that we all like to forget about things when they do not affectus. But, when we are constantly forced to remember that someone else is dealing with something, then it becomes a personal problem. As Martin McDonagh said: “Life does go on, unless you’re at the center of that pain and that tragedy.”
This movie is about forgiveness more than anything else, especially about Mildred forgiving herself for her last conversation with her daughter. Reconciliation always takes pain away as opposed to anger, which leads to hate — a self-reinforcing cycle of pain. That is why the only times she breaks into tears is when she thinks of that moment, and not just of her loss. In fact, she is only satisfied and finds solace when she pushes people away by insulting them, even though she always immediately regrets it. And that is how her flaws manifest themselves.
The movie also makes sure to let you know the racist and other lead character, Dixon, is also dumb and a “mama’s boy.” His privilege is too big for him to have to even think of bias critically. He is basically racist because his mother and most of his surrounding are. The film makes sure to also let you know the “good” ones are bad too sometimes, like Willoughby casually dropping “fag” and enabling his officers’ bigotry. Also, Mildred’s husband (John Hawkes) immediately gets his comeuppance whenever he is being violent.
The characters have to either choose hypocrisy and powerlessness or keep fighting in the face of insurmountable odds. Even when the billboards were on fire, Mildred kept trying to salvage them. Same thing with the chief against his cancer: he beat it by killing himself and cutting the pain short (especially that of his family.) He also payed to keep the billboards up, and thus forgave Mildred and succeeded in making her willfully forgive him return. The character arc of her son (Lucas Hedges) also revolves around that last point. He’s devastated at first, but ends up choosing solidarity and fighting for and with his family.
There is no antagonist in this movie, just lost good people who are their own worst enemy, because of hate and anger. And as Penelope (Samara Weaving) related in this quote from a book about “water polo or polo shirts” that she read: “anger begets greater anger.” These people are lost until they stop rejecting their fellow human. The only true enemy that started all this mess is the rapist, whom we never get to see face justice and who probably won’t. They do not know his identity, and we probably won’t either. Although he is not the antagonist because he is not technically the cause of the pain — apart from the grief. He merely uncovered the rage that was bubbling up under it. The director stated that: “There is rage at ineptitude… In some ways, it’s about two good people going to war with each other… The idea is that there are no full-on heroes and no full-on villains in this.” Although Willoughby declared war is coming more than once, he was the first to join “the other side” in his own redemption.
Even hope is bad news in Three Billboards because, until their internal resolutions, the characters were hoping for the wrong things, such as revenge instead of reconciliation. It was false hope that kept them going. And when each gets their priorities straight, everything falls into place. Even Rockwell finds his badge, which makes his arc all the more compelling — as of his racism, that is another story.
This is dark dramedy (drama with dark comedic elements that make the tone even darker.) Or at least, how one should be. As it delves more into societal issues and morals more than McDonagh’s other work. Some might think his films have been blazing the trail set by the early successes of the dark crime comedies of Guy Ritchie, such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. But McDonagh’s style is very unique. Three Billboards blends McDonagh’s signature dark humor and sudden swerves into laughs then gasps, yet also taps into an emotional depth that we learned to love from In Bruges. His dry wit and realism are this writer’s idea of good British humor. It is not a comedy by any sense, it is even darker than a drama because of the realistic humor in it. What is distinctive about McDonagh’s writing, though, is that he does not care about the traditional rhythms of a film, like when you learn things about characters or how stories are supposed to hit certain beats. His story structure ends up breathing a larger-than-life aspect to the whole movie while keeping it very realistic in its circumstances. And that keeps you from getting taken out of the moment, and plays into the film’s compelling unpredictability. So naturally, he does not care if the characters are likable, as long as you want to watch them, which you do thanks to the brilliant dialogue, the editing of the violent scenes and the actors’ impeccable choices. The main characters are complex, and they are flawed. They do reach redemptive moments, but never in ways you would expect, and not necessarily reaching substantive evolutions. But what matters in this story is that they acknowledge their own defects and see them in others. That is a teachable moment, and they are always better for it. This a very humanist approach to societal interactions. The best of the characters have their flaws, and the worst of them have their moments of redemption. Their truth is always organically followed by comedy and tragedy, just like any real life satisfying narrative.
As John Truby teaches in his book The Anatomy of a Story, stories are about overcoming weaknesses and fulfilling needs by fighting internal demons, in order for one to evolve in one’s own life journey. This is the key in this story, and the moral that is relatable to all viewers. Our two mains characters have regret, anger, and judgement; which all lead to hate others, and ultimately to self-hate. In the end, they forgave each other, and it immediately freed them. They found out that it is also possible to do it for their own selves. That whole moment of realization is the redemption. Because, as we know changes comes from within. As McDonagh put it: “To a degree it’s two people who are in the right, going to war with each other.”
Moreover, Mildred’s only sincere joyous moment is when Rockwell tells her he obviously knew it was her that burned him when she finally confessed. His forgiveness is what gave her solace in the end, when they both discovered there was no antagonist. And that puts the main message of the film front and center: love trumps all. Empathy is what matters in the end. The film also kind of gives you the ending you think you wanted all along, then makes you at that moment, think whether you actually need it, or if it is just your own weakness talking — as opposed to the characters’. Thus, Three Billboards leaves you with an ambiguous ending. But, it does not mean that it was not a happy one.
Works Cited:
Damon Wise, Joe Utichi. “How Martin McDonagh Turned Angry Advertising Into Festival Hit ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ — The Contenders London.” Deadline, 7 Oct. 2017, deadline.com/2017/10/martin-mcdonagh-interview-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-panel-contenders-london-1202184097/.
Sean P. Means. November 18, 2017, “British Filmmaker Talks about ‘Pain and Rage’ in an American Town in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’.” The Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib.com/artsliving/movies/2017/11/18/british-filmmaker-talks-about-pain-and-rage-in-an-american-town-in-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri/.
Fear, David. “Signs of the Times: Inside ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 13 Nov. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/martin-mcdonagh-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-is-about-hope-w511452.
Truby, John. “The Anatomy of Story.” Truby Writers Studio, truby.com/the-anatomy-of-story/.
