Outlaws in Film

If you haven’t heard of 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, you’ve probably spent your whole life under a rock. This is one of those movies that needs your undivided concentration and attention. 3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri leaves you almost angry at the world yet inspired by the persistence of Mildred(the mother). Throughout this entire movie there are stabs at issues in our society and it all bases back to the institutional problems within our society, specifically the very people that are supposed to protect us (police officers). Including the blunt racism, homophobia, police brutality, and misogyny that is exhibited by both police officers and community members. It takes 3 billboards and the rape and murder of an innocent young girl to extrude political and social problems as a facade to the real problem, that is human nature at its ugliest form. Disclaimer there are plot spoilers in this film review.

3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri is a crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh. The story follows a mother (Frances McDormand), Mildred, who rents three billboards to call attention to her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder. The movie starts off with Mildred buying billboards from a gay advertising businessman to display 3 billboards that read “”Raped While Dying”, “And Still No Arrests?”, and “How Come, Chief Willoughby?”. The police(Officer Dixon) discovers the billboards at night along with Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and immediately reacts trying to find a way to take down the billboards (instead of solving the case). This continues bombardment of hatred continues towards Mildred. Diagnosed with cancer Willoughby commits suicide and leaves notes for a couple people marking a turning point in the movie. McDonagh illustrates this by releasing the horses as Willoughby shoots himself. With a crude sense of humor willoughby paid for the next year of the billboards to stay up, he sarcastically said he did it because he knew it would bring struggle to Mildreds life but he really did because he knew the billboards were bringing change. Sometimes you need something as big and blatant as a billboard to communicate real problems and bring them into public eye. Although the billboards never created justice for Angela’s murderer and rapist, they did create fostered change in the community. This is best seen with Officer Dixon starting off as the racist dumb drunk everyone hates, who eventually is fired for beating the gay advertising business man Red Welby, morphs into this compassionate and thoughtful man. After the billboards are set ablaze Mildred retaliates by tossing Molotov cocktails at the police station, which she believes is unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is there to read a letter left for him by Willoughby, advising him to let go of hate and learn to love as the only way to accomplish his goal to become a detective. Dixon escapes with Angela’s case files, suffering severe burns. From here on Dixon sets amends with Red Welby and sets his mind on finding Angelas killer. The movie ends with Mildred and Officer Dixon, former enemies coming together to kill the man that was bragging about raping a girl in the bar.

Directed, written, and produced by Martin McDonagh 3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, astounded the film industry. So much so that it was nominated seven times for the 90th Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Best Original Screenplay; Best Actress (for McDormand), and Best Supporting Actor (for Harrelson and Rockwell). The film has won numerous awards, including Best Motion Picture –Drama; Best Actress — Drama (McDormand); Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell), and Best Screenplay at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. It is typical that McDonagh both is the screenwriter and the director for his movies, this can be seen with Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges, and Six Shooter. It is interesting and important to note that McDonagh also dips into the theater realm with A Behanding in Spokane, The Leenane Trilogy, and The Aran Islands Trilogy. McDonagh seems to favor Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Željko Ivanek, Abbie Cornish, and Amanda Warren all appear in both 3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri and Seven Psychopaths, another thing these two films have in common is that characters both have cancer and end up dying from other causes. This leads me to question if there are more ties between these films other than a number being in the title, both being crime dramas, having similar actors, and both having short lived cancer patients.

There is a scene where police officer Dixon is talking to Mildred about “people of color torching.” This outlines the very movement of colorblind racism that has emerged with the “post-racism” era. In Mildred’s tv interview she says that “Officer Dixon is too busy torchering niggers” Dixon confronts Mildred saying its wrong to say “nigger” and that its “people of color torchering”. Totally disregarding the fact that he is still torching people but doesn’t want to be labeled as racist. Dixon follows this up with “see I hit white people too” after he nearly beats to death Red Welby the gay advertising businessman. Even the church cracked down on the Mildred about the billboards. Mildred exploded on the priest that came to her house calling out the hypocrisy of the church structure using a metaphor to gang violence and “alter boy fucking”. Beyond the superficial problems in the movie everything comes down to one common theme with Mildred and that is vigilantism.

As Mildred is being ostracized by the community she stands her ground, her neighbors, dentist, and even the church (disregarding the real problem of rape and murder) are instructing her to take down the billboard. McDormand is the perfect character to play stern, strong, and determined mother Mildred of Angela, her performance is powerful and invigorating. She has this look and aesthetic of Rosie the riveter wearing a work outfit and a bandanna. She consistently defends herself and her dead daughter both verbally and physically to anyone who challenges her goal of finding the man who raped and murdered her daughter. Typically with the loss of a loved one, especially a child, one mourns in sadness and becomes isolated. In Mildred’s case it is the opposite, she takes action. This movie includes a lot of problems we face in society like police brutality, racism, homophobia, and the feminist movement. This is definitely a progressive trend we see happening in Hollywood right especially with films like The Help, Dallas Buyers Club, and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Another unlikely film that comes to my mind in relation to 3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri is X Men:Logan or the whole series for that matter. If you haven’t seen X Men:Logan I highly recommend it; for a marvel movie it is tastefully executed and even though a little slow at first is very hard to part your attention from. The X Men series as a whole represents a twisted superhero series much different than your typical Marvel movie that ends with Logan busting out his claws one last time. X Men is produced by Marvel, who also created Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, and Hulk. X Men is different from your cliche superhero movie in the sense that Logan is a feral mutant that is just as much superhero as he is outlaw. Not to mention it is the only marvel movie besides Deadpool to get an R rating. Typically in these superhero movies you have your powerful hero saving the world from an apocalyptic villain. In X Men:Logan Logan is only trying to survive and reluctantly save his daughter by fleeing a corporate military group seeking out mutants. Logan transforms from only wanting to save himself and Professor X to protecting Laura. Uniquely there is a developing deep emotional connection between Logan and his daughter. This level of emotion is something you just don’t see in superhero films, it is very refreshing. I am not a superhero movie fan nonetheless a Marvel fan and I typically would not review a one of these films. However X Men:Logan seems to be an outlier in its field of movies. After watching X Men: Logan I along with many other viewers were satisfied with how the X Men series came to a close.

X Men: Logan is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series, as well as the third and final Wolverine solo film directed by James Mangold. X Men: Logan follows the Wolverine(Hugh Jackman) on his finally quest. Logan, like in some of his previous X Men films reluctantly finds himself in a protetor role. The film is set in 2029, at a point where X Men appear to be gone, and no new mutants have been born in 25 years. A rogue geneticist (Richard E. Grant) with a cocky general (Boyd Holbrook) and an army of military cyborgs employed by Transigen genetically create mutant children. After the company abandons the project a few of the kids escape including Laura in an attempt to make it to a safe haven called Eden in North Dakota. The movie starts off with Logan working as a limo driver under his original name, James Howlett. His age is catching up to him, his unbreakable skeleton is slowly poisoning him and his healing abilities are failing. Him and his band of mutants including a dying Professor X and Caliban live in an abandoned farm. Logan soon finds himself looking after both the sickly Professor X and to Laura (Dafne Keen), a child in whom is his mutant daughter. The movie further complicates with its blood lust, through corporate violence in a lawless future. At first Logan wants nothing to do with Lauren and only cares about Professor X and himself. Professor X immediately takes a loving appreciation for Lauren and suggest that affection to Logan. Throughout the movie, until Professor X’s death, Lauren and Professor X form a protective bond with each other. Once its down to just Logan and Laura they form an emotionally complicated version of what you would call a father daughter relationship. Logan begins to see the best and worst things about him in Laura. Much of Logan is a lengthy chase sequence, with Logan at the center being forced to run while pursued by Transigen corporation on his final journey. On their flee they encounter a couple detours and kind hearted strangers, that all contribute to the violence and traumatized bodies. In the final scenes Laura is reunited with her mutant child experiments in a final effort to get to safety in Canada away from Transigen, Logan saves the day one last time.

Logan and the rest of the X Men series was directed by James Mangold. The film, which takes inspiration from “Old Man Logan” by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. The screenplay was co-written by Mangold with Michael Green and Scott Frank. Mangold is best known for directing the films Cop Land (1997), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Kate & Leopold (2001), Walk the Line (2005), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and Knight and Day (2010). Logan was well-received by critics, who praised its performances, screenplay, action sequences, themes, its departure from traditional superhero films, especially with its emotional depth. Logan became one of the best reviewed films in the X-Men series, with some critics calling it one of the greatest superhero films of all time, and on top of that it was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017. It was even nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards, becoming the first superhero film to receive an Academy Award nomination in a screenplay category. It grossed over $616 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing R-rated film ever. This level of success with film is not unfamiliar to Mangold however he was surprised to get his first academy nomination with Logan. I found some similarities between Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma and Logan. Interestingly enough they both had that western outlaw esque to them. 3:10 to Yuma is about a drought stricken rancher who takes on the dangerous job of bringing a notorious outlaw to justice. This in a sense is identical to Logan’s plot, both Logan and the farmer become outlaws of their own that turn from fleeing to fighting their offenders. It seems like Mangold likes shooting in New Mexico, both sets were shot here.. Director James Mangold has also said that Logan’s influences included “visual reference points” of cinema, citing The Cowboys (1972) another western.

A common theme you see between both 3 Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri and X Men:Logan is they incorporate a sort of vigilantism or western outlaw. Not to mention both of these films take place in the rural southwest countryside surrounded by desolate land and farms. A memorable scene that solidified this idea for me was when the mutants are hiding out in the Oklahoma city casino hotel Laura and Professor X are watching a old western outlaw film on tv. This foreshadows the lawless future and theme in the movie that Logan and the mutants will endure. Another example of this vigilantism is the corn farmer that temporarily harbors the mutants is being taken over by technology and big farming companies. Logan of course helps this man fight against the corporate farmers that shut off his water, but with a lawless twist the entire farmers family is killed by Transigen. Throughout the entirety of 3 Billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri Mildred is an outlaw in her community, going against society’s norms and wishes of her taking down the 3 billboards. The final scene encompasses this idea completely. The two polar characters and former enemies Officer Dixon and Mildred end up coming together to kill the man that was bragging about raping a girl in the bar. Mildred took matters into her own hands by bringing justice to her daughter and other victims in the extreme of murdering rapists. Another thing I noticed between these vigilante films is the transformation of Logan and Officer Dixon. In the beginning of 3 Billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri Officer Dixon is a selfish, racist, drunk, and incompetent cop but by the end he has an epiphany following Willoughbys suicide. A similar transformation happens to Logan, in the begging he is also a selfish drunk that keeps to himself but by the end he is a compassionate protective father. Both of these movies have many similarities if you look closely. Ironically enough both Mildred and Logan are defending their daughter, whether she is dead or alive. As societies moralities seem to be sleeping from reality Mildred and Logan, both outlaws in their environment, take matters into their own hands to achieve justice. This vigilante theme is growing in popularity with modern trending movies, which could be a sign of what people internally feel and desire with their own lives.