Warning: May contain spoilers
The first part of this article
summarises the film, and in the second part I deliver my thoughts and comments
(In case you don’t need or want to read the story)
a. Summary
This film tells the story of a
distraught mother mourning her teenage daughter, who was savagely raped and
murdered in the town of Ebbing, Missouri. A year has passed after the crime and
the local police have yet to come up with a suspect or any clues at all as to
why this horrible crime happened.
Mildred Haze, brilliantly played by
Frances McDormand, decides to spend her last five thousand dollars to install
three billboards along the road near her house. These signs read: “Raped While
Dying”; “And Still No Arrests?”; “How Come Chief Willoughby?” and can be seen
by everyone entering the small town.
These signs generate a lot of
distress and hatred towards Mildred. Chief Willoughby, played by Woody
Harrelson, is a well-liked official who is revered by his colleagues and
respected by everyone. His second in command, a racist Officer Dixon, is played
brilliantly by the usually underrated Sam Rockwell. Dixon is not only openly
racist and possibly homophobic but also stupid, bordering on retarded.
Dixon, a loyal lieutenant to Chief
Willoughby, tries to bully Mildred into removing the signs and even sends her
best friend, an African American lady named Denis, to prison for possession of
marihuana. The town’s priest pays Mildred a visit invited by her son Robbie
(Lucas Hedges of Manchester by the Sea’s fame) who tries to convince her to
take the signs down. Mildred kicks the priest out of the house after implying
that he’s an altar boy molester. It becomes clear that Mildred won’t stop at
anything including authorities, the church or even the abuse his son is a
victim of at school to keep the signs up and the pressure for her daughter’s
killers to be captured.
Chief Willoughby pays Mildred a visit
and tries to convince her that he’s doing everything he can, and probably is,
to catch the killer. He doesn’t threaten Mildred, but it is revealed then that
he’s dying of pancreatic cancer, something that Mildred doesn’t care for.
Once every character is well
established and we get to know them, or at least what the Director wants us to
know about them, things start getting out of hand. Mildred goes to the dentist
to have a tooth removed and when she realizes the doctor is going to try to
inflict pain on her she grabs the drill and puts a hole through the doctor’s
thumbnail. The Chief confronts her and she denies the doctor’s story saying
“it’s his word against mine”.
Chief Willoughby shoots himself and
leaves a suicide note clearing Mildred of having any influence in his decision.
He justifies his actions by writing he didn’t want the suffering of the few
last months he had to live and didn’t want his wife and daughters to see him
become a shadow of himself.
Officer Dixon goes crazy and gives
the guy who owns the billboards a beating, throwing him out a first floor
window leaving him badly injured. This is witnessed by the new Chief of Police
who has just arrived in town and is dismissed from the police force. Dixon goes
on and sets the billboards on fire during the night. Mildred retaliates by
setting the Police Station on fire. Dixon was there at night by chance and gets
badly burned, just saving his life by the actions of the town’s midget (played
by a great Peter Dinklage, who else?)
James, the midget, notices Mildred
and realises she’s the one who started the fire but when the Chief of Police
asks them what happened James says he and Mildred were together and noticed the
fire, promptly attending to Dixon and saving him. He gives Mildred an alibi and
it appears she’s out of trouble.
Inspired by a letter that Chief
Willoughby left him, Dixon, who is now seriously disfigured with burn marks,
seems to want to change his ways. He overhears a stranger in a bar telling a
friend about how he enjoyed raping a girl and starts a fight scratching the guy’s
face. He gets badly beaten up but with the flesh from the guy’s face sends a
sample for DNA testing (the DNA found on the girl’s body wasn’t a match to any
known criminals) in the hope to find a match to the killers DNA.
Dixon tells a surprised Mildred about
what he did and she thanks him. Unfortunately the DNA isn’t a match but he
finds the guy’s address in Idaho.
He tells Mildred the bad news but
asks her to go to Idaho to kill this guy as he’s guilty of rape anyway. These
two very different characters set off on a road trip with sandwiches and
shotguns and along the way they ask each other whether they really wanted to
kill this man. We are left with the question of what happened next
b. My take on the film.
This was a pleasantly surprising
film. The story is unconventional and brilliantly written by Martin McDonagh,
who also directed it.
Like many new authors, McDonagh
provides a script full of comedy which is odd given the tragedies unfolding all
around Ebbing. It reminded me of Fargo and in some degree of Manchester by the
Sea.
Several times there are references to
racism. “So how’s it all going in the nigger torturing business Dixon?” was
blurted by Mildred. This nigger torturing line was mentioned a few times and
the self-appointed moralists of America have blasted the film for this which I
found absurd. It’s clearly not the Director’s intention to offend but to rather
denounce these practices. In fact the three African American characters are
portrayed as decent and hardworking citizens.
The performances are brilliant.
McDormand delivers a powerful Mildred, a woman who won’t stop at anything to
drive her cause. She drills the dentist’s thumbnail, verbally abuses Dixon
every chance she’s got, calling him “fuckhead” in front of his fellow officers and
slams the priest with a monologue for the ages.
The best role belongs to Sam Rockwell
as Dixon. He manages to get the audience to hate him and then slowly turn
around to like him when he decides to do the right thing for Mildred. A racist,
violent and almost retarded grown man living with his mother who totally
controls him.
This movie is totally character
driven. And the main two are extremely powerful and masterfully written.
Mildred Haze is one for the ages. The best female character I’ve seen probably
since Nurse Ratched, and the lines written for her were just brilliant. The
speech she gives the priest when she accuses him of abusing altar boys is
simply perfect. The Officer Dixon character is even better. Sam Rockwell
delivers Dixon with all his violence, racism, arrogance and stupidity guided by
some brilliant script writing. He reminded me of the Wild Bill he played in
Green Mile some twenty years ago. The midget was a fantastic touch and Peter
Dinklage was great in this part.
This is a movie which I describe as a
tale of anger and redemption. Anger because everyone in Ebbing is enraged for
the horrible crime that was committed. Enraged at Mildred for blaming good old
Chief Willoughby for the failure to provide a culprit. This rage overflows and catches
poor Robbie who’s bullied at school; Dixon for the loss of his boss whom he
idolised; the Chief’s wife for losing him; Robbie himself for having to be
reminded every day of the horrible crime that took his sister. And of course
Mildred, who unleashes her anger at everyone, including herself.
Officer Dixon seeks redemption by
trying to catch the killer and to do so he gets badly beaten in a bar with the
sole objective of collecting DNA. Even though he knows he got disfigured and
almost died from the fire started by Mildred, he forgives her for this. He also
seeks redemption and apologises to the billboard guy while they share a
hospital room.
But the ultimate redemption for
Dixon, and for that matter for Mildred, lies in their last adventure, their hunting
trip to Idaho in search for the rapist. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t
involved in her daughter’s murder. He had to pay. Someone had to pay. The anger
needs to be unleashed and the cycle of hatred must be closed. Did they do it in
the end? I think they did.
But that’s only my opinion. And I might be wrong.