Imagine perusing the movie listings in a newspaper and coming upon one entitled Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. What might be your initial conjecture regarding what it would be about?
Well, I actually came rather close. I figured it had to be about one or another attempt to draw attention to something that had really pissed someone off.
And in this day and age it is hardly unusual for the outrage to be directed at the “criminal justice system”. Watch enough “true crime” documentaries and you discover soon enough the appalling amount of incompetency and/or corruption that exists when you are dealing with folks in “law enforcement”.
Crimes [some rather heinous] can become “cold cases” over time. But every once in a while folks come along who refuse to let them. They are there pounding on the door, hounding the detectives to do something. It’s just that not many will resort to billboards to vent their outrage.
It’s one of those films that starts by focusing on a particular set of individuals dealing with a particular set of circumstances that seem important only to them. But then the narrative comes to involve “larger issues” and “bigger themes” that, in turn, come to expose the political realities embedded in institutionalized outcomes. Things unfold not because it’s how they ought to unfold but because that’s just the way they do.
And there are a lot of unlikeable [and considerably flawed] folks on both sides of this particular shitstorm.
See if you can spot the irony.
Hint: Towards the end it’s everywhere.
IMDb
[b]Frances McDormand was hesitant to take the role of Mildred when offered to her, but was eventually convinced by her husband, Joel Coen. She said, "Because at the time he gave it to me I was 58… I was concerned that women from this socioeconomic strata did not wait until 38 to have their first child. So we went back and forth and we debated that quite for a while, and then finally my husband said, ‘Just shut up and do it.’
Director Martin McDonagh was inspired to write the movie after seeing billboards about an unsolved crime while traveling “somewhere down in the Georgia, Florida, Alabama corner.”
The basis of this story is from actual events in Vidor, Texas just outside of Beaumont, Texas. The police ignored facts and the parents of the poor girl murdered in 1991 by an alleged hometown hero from an old money family. As the police have done nothing and still the billboards are up on I-10.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt5027774/tr … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Bil … ,_Missouri
trailer: youtu.be/Jit3YhGx5pU
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh
[b]Mildred: You Red Welby?
Red: Yes, ma’am. How may I help you?
Mildred: I heard there’s three billboards out on Drinkwater Road…you’re in charge of renting them out, that right?
Red: I didn’t know we had any billboards out on Drinkwater. Where is Drinkwater Road? Mildred: It’s a road out past the Sizemore turn-off nobody uses since the highway.
Red: You are right. Got three billboards out there. Nobody’s put nothing up out there since… 1986. That was ‘Huggies’.
Mildred: How much to rent out all three of 'em the year?
Red: A year? You wanna pay for three billboards on a road no-one goes down unless they got lost or they’re retards, for a year?
Mildred: Quick, ain’t ya, Welby?
…
Mildred: What’s the law on what ya can and cannot say on a billboard? I assume it’s ya can’t say nothing defamatory, and ya can’t say, ‘Fuck’ ‘Piss’ or ‘Cunt’. That right?
Red: Or… Anus.
Mildred: Well I think I’ll be alright then.
…
Red: I guess you’re Angela Hayes’ mother.
Mildred: That’s right, I’m Angela Hayes’ mother.
…
First billboard: RAPED WHILE DYING
Second billboard: AND STILL NO ARRESTS?
Third billboard: HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?
…
Dixon: He said what?! To your face?!
Cedric: No crime has been committed here.
Dixon: C’mon, defamation of character ain’t a crime?
Cedric: It isn’t defamation if she’s simply asking a question.
Dixon: What are you, an idiot?
Cedric: Don’t call me an idiot, Dixon.
Dioxon: I didn’t call you an idiot. I asked if you was an idiot. It was a question.
Chief Willoughby: He got ya there, Cedric.
…
Reporter: So, Mildred Hayes, why did you put up these billboards?
Mildred: Well, my daughter, Angela, she got abducted, and she got raped and murdered seven months ago, on this self-same stretch o’ road here. It seems like the local police department is too busy goin’ round torturing black folks to be bothered doing anything about solving actual crime. I thought these here billboards might concentrate their minds some.
…
Chief: I’d do anything to catch the guy who did it, Mrs. Hayes. But when the DNA don’t match no-one who’s ever been arrested, and when the DNA don’t match any other crime nationwide, and when there wasn’t a single eyewitness from the time she left your house to the time we found her, well, right now there ain’t too much more that we can do.
Mildred: You Could pull blood from every man and boy in this town, over the age of eight.
Chief: There’s civil rights laws prevents that, Mrs. Hayes, and what if he was just passing thru town.
Mildred: Pull blood from ever’ man in the country, then.
Chief: And what if he was just passing thru the country?
Mildred: If it was me, I’d start up a database, every male baby what’s born, stick 'em on it, and as soon as they done something wrong, cross reference it to make a hundred percent certain it was a correct match, then kill 'em.
Chief: Yeah, well, there’s definitely civil rights laws prevents that.
…
Chief: There’s something else, Mildred. I got cancer. I’m dying.
Mildred: I know it.
Chief: Huh?
Mildred: I know it. Most everybody in town knows it.
Chief: Then you still putting up those billboard?
Mildred: Well, they wouldn’t be as effective after you croak, right?
…
Mildred: Y’know what I was thinking about today, Father? I was thinking 'bout those street gangs they got in Los Angeles, the Crips and the Bloods? I was thinking about that buncha new laws they came up with, in the 1980’s I think it was, to combat those street-gangs, those Crips and those Bloods. And, if I remember rightly, the gist of what those new laws were saying was if you join one of these gangs, and you’re running with 'em, and down the block from you one night, unbeknownst to you, one of your fellow Crips, or your fellow Bloods, shoot up a place, or stab a guy, well, even though you didn’t know nothing about it, even though you may’ve just been standing on a streetcorner minding your own business, what these new laws said was you are still culpable. You are still culpable, by the very act of joining those Crips, or those Bloods, in the first place. Which got me thinking, Father, that whole type of situation is kinda like your Church boys, ain’t it? You’ve got your colors, you’ve got your clubhouse, you’re, for want of a better word, a gang. And if you’re upstairs smoking a pipe and reading a bible while one of your fellow gang members is downstairs fucking an altar boy then, Father, just like the Crips, and just like the Bloods, you’re culpable. Cos you joined the gang, man. And I don’t care if you never did shit or never saw shit or never heard shit. You joined the gang. You’re culpable. And when a person is culpable to altar-boy-fucking, or anykinda-boy-fucking, I know you guys didn’t really narrow it down, , then they kinda forfeit the right to come into my house and say anything about me, or my life, or my daughter, or my billboards. So, why don’t you just finish your tea there, Father, and get the fuck outta my kitchen.
…
Mildred: So how’s it all going in the nigger torturing business, Dixon?
Dixon: It’s ‘persons of color’-torturing business, these days, if you want to know.
…
Chief: Don’t gimme that look, Mildred. If you got rid of every cop with vaguely racist leanings then you’d have three cops left and all o’ them are gonna hate the fags so what are ya gonna do, y’know?
…
Angela [in a flashback]: So are ya gonna let me borrow the car or what?
Mildred: Why don’t you just walk, Angela? Why don’t you just walk?
Angela: You know what, I will walk, I will walk. And y’know what? I hope I get raped on the way.
Mildred: Yeah? Well I hope you get raped on the way too!
…
Charlie: What’s going on around here? And what the fuck’s going on with these fucking billboards, Mildred?
Mildred: Kinda self-explanatory, ain’t it?
Charlie: Well why don’t you just explain it to me?
Mildred: Guess it ain’t self-explanatory then. Well, y’know, I guess I wanted certain people’s minds kept on certain people’s jobs, is all. I hadn’t heard a word from 'em in seven goddam months, but I tell ya this, I heard an awful lot from 'em since I put those billboards up…
Charlie: You think this has focused their minds? I’ll tell you what it’s focused their minds on. It’s focused their minds on how exactly are they gonna fuck you up.
Mildred: The more you keep a case in the public eye, the better your chances of getting it solved, it’s in all the guidebooks, Charlie.
Charlie: How much those billboards cost?
Mikldred: Bout the same as a tractor-trailer.
…
Charlie: You don’t think I don’t wish she was still here I know you do.
Mildred: I know you do.
Charlie: Billboards ain’t gonna bring her back, Mildred.
Mildred: Neither is fucking nineteen year olds, Charlie.
Charlie: Yeah. But I know that.
…
Charlie: I’m such a shitty dad and you’re such a great mom. Alright. So how come a week before she died she comes around asking if she can move in with me at my place, cos she couldn’t stand the two of yous bitching at each other no more, and fighting with each other no more.
Mildred: I don’t believe you…
Charlie: And I said no, stay at home, your mom loves you. And now I wish I hadn’t, cos if I hadn’t she’d still fucking be here!
Mildred: I don’t believe you!
Charlie: Don’t believe me. Ask Fruit Loop boy.
…
Mildred [after Charlie leaves]: Is it true?
Robbie: I don’t know, mom.
Mildred: Yeah, you do.
…
Mildred [to a deer she spots by the billboards]: Still no arrests. How come, I wonder? Cos there ain’t no God and the world’s empty and it don’t matter what we do to each other? Ooh, I hope not.
…
Chief [from his suicide note]: “My darling Anne. There’s a longer letter in the dresser drawer I’ve been writing for the last week or so. That one covers us, and my memories of us, and how much I’ve always loved you. This one just covers tonight, and, more importantly, today. Tonight I have gone out to the horses to end it. I cannot say sorry for the act itself, although I know that for a short time you will be angry at me or even hate me for it. Please don’t. This is not a case of I came in this world alone, and I’m going out of it alone or anything dumb like that. I did not come in this world alone, my mom was there, and I am not going out of it alone, cos you are there, drunk on the couch, making Oscar Wilde cock jokes. No. This is a case, in some senses, of bravery. Not the bravery of facing a bullet down; the next few months of pain would be far harder than that small flash. No, it’s the bravery of weighing up the next few months of still being with you, still waking up with you, of playing with the kids, against the next few months of seeing in your eyes how much my pain is killing you; how my weakened body as it ebbs away and you tend to it are your final and lasting memories of me. I won’t have that. Your final memories of me will be us at the riverside, and that dumb fishing game which I think they cheated at, and me inside of you, and you on top of me, and barely a fleeting thought of the darkness yet to come. That was the best, Anne. A whole day of not thinking about it. Dwell on this day, baby, cos it was the best day of my life. Kiss the girls for me, and know that I’ve always loved you, and maybe I’ll see you again if there’s another place. And if there ain’t, well, it’s been Heaven knowing you. Your boy…Bill.”
…
Dixon: See, Red? I got issues with white folks too…
…
Abercrombie: None of you cracker motherfuckers got no work to do?
Dixon: Ain’t that racist?
…
Abercrombie: How’s things coming along on the Angela Hayes case?
Dixon: How’s things coming along on the ‘Mind your own fucking business’ case?
Abercrombie: How things coming along on the hand me your gun and your badge?
Dixon: Huh?
Abercrombie: Hand me your gun and your badge.[/b]
There’s a new cop in town. A black dude.
[b]Chief [from his letter to Mildred]: “Dear Mildred, Dead Man Willoughby here. Firstly I wanted to apologize for dying without catching your daughter’s killer. It’s a source of great pain to me, and it would break my heart to think you thought I didn’t care, cos I did care. There are just some cases where you never catch a break, then five years down the line some guy hears some other guy bragging about it in a bar-room or a jail-cell and the whole thing is wrapped up thru sheer stupidity. I hope that might be true for Angela, I really do. Second, I gotta admit, Mildred, the billboards were a great fucking idea. They were like a chess move. And although they had absolutely nothing to do with my dying, I’m sure that everyone in town will assume that they did, which is why, for Willoughby’s counter-move, I decided to pay the next month’s rent on 'em. thought it’d be funny, you having to defend 'em a whole 'nother month after they’ve stuck me in the ground. The joke is on you, Mildred, ha ha, and I hope they do not kill you. So good luck with all that, and good luck with everything else too. I hope and I pray that you get him.”
…
Abercrombie: Can I ask you a couple questions?
Mildred: You can ask me all the questions you want if you take me down and arrest me.
Abercrombie: I’m not gonna arrest you, Mrs. Hayes. I got nothing to arrest you for.
Mildred: Not yet you ain’t.
Abercrombie: We ain’t all the enemy, y’know?
…
Mildred: Fuck 'em.
…
James: So you wanna go out to dinner next week?
Mildred: I’ll go out to dinner with ya. But I ain’t gonna fuck ya.
…
Jerome: You sure you still wanna put up the Willoughby one, him dead an’ all?
Mildred: Why not? He paid for it.
…
Dixon: I don’t wanna get your hopes up, alright, but there’s a guy, and I think he might be the guy. I got his DNA. I got a lot of it, actually. They’re making the checks as we speak.
Mildred: He’s in jail?
Dixon: No, but he ain’t gonna be hard to find.
Mildred: Why do you think he’s the guy?
Dixon: I heard him talking about something that he did to a girl in the middle of last year. I couldn’t hear all of it, but it sounded a lot like what happened to Angela.
…
Abercrombie: You did good, Jason. You did real good. But he wasn’t the guy.
Dixon [stunned]: What?
Abercrombie: There was no match to the DNA, no matches to any other crimes of this nature, to any crimes at all, in fact. And his record is clean. Maybe he was just bragging.
Dixon: He wasn’t just bragging.
Abercrombie: Well, that’s as may be. But at the time of Angela’s death he wasn’t even in the country.
Dixon: Where was he?
Abercrombie: I’ve seen his records of entry and exit to the States, and I’ve spoken to his Commanding Officer. He wasn’t in the country, Dixon. He ain’t our guy.
…
Dixon [on the phone]: He wasn’t the guy.
Mildred: Are you’re sure?
Dixon: He, um, he wasn’t even in the country when it happened. So, whatever he did, he didn’t do it round here. I’m sorry I got your hopes up.
Mildred: It’s alright. At least I had a day of hoping. Which is more than I’ve had for a while. I’d better go.
Dixon: There was there was one thing I was thinking.
Mildred: What’s that?
Dizon: Well… I know he isn’t your rapist. He is a rapist, though. I’m sure of that.
Mildred: What are you saying to me?
Dixon: I got his license plate. I know where he lives.
Mildred: Where’s he live?
Dixon: Lives in Idaho.
Mildred: That’s funny. I’m driving to Idaho in the morning.
Dixon: Want some company?
Mildred: Sure.
…
Mildred: Hey, Dixon.
Dixon: Yeah?
Mildred: I need to tell you something. It was me who burned down the police station.
Dixon: Well, who the hell else would it have been?
Mildred: Dixon?
Dixon: Yep?
Mildred: You sure about this?
Dixon: About killing this guy? Not really. You?
Mildred: Not really. I guess we can decide along the way.[/b]