A sobering second look
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a movie of the moment. Writer/director Martin McDonagh boasted as much back in November when he was interviewed by the L.A. Times: “Putting out a film right now with a strong, smart, determined and outraged woman character in the lead role – that feels right to me.”
McDonagh’s film tells the story of Mildred Hayes, a bereaved mother played by Frances McDormand, who erects billboards near her hometown in an attempt to hold the police accountable for the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter. As women continue to express outrage in the months following the Harvey Weinstein allegations, the link between this work of fiction and the sad reality of the world we live in is obvious.
And it seems that moviegoers have been congratulating themselves for recognizing this association since the film first came out. When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Three Billboards received a 10-minute standing ovation. Days later, it won the prestigious People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Then, at the Golden Globe Awards in January, Barbra Streisand shrieked with delight when she announced the film had won for best drama. Most recently, it received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
Three Billboards may be marketed as a tragic-comic movie about maternal rage, but it’s also a problematic, faux progressive mess. It’s the sort of insidious art that masquerades as feminist and antiracist. Upon closer inspection, however, it can be seen as a movie more concerned with humanizing white supremacists than advancing any worthwhile virtue.
The #MeToo hashtag that called upon women to share their experiences of assault and harassment on social media gave way to the more militant Time’s Up campaign. Founded on New Year’s Day by powerful Hollywood liberals such as Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Hayek, Time’s Up is working to strengthen workplace harassment and discrimination laws. And so, when Hayek introduced Three Billboards at this year’s Globes, she joyfully referenced Time’s Up, characterizing Mildred as a fictional heroine for the movement.
Certainly, the movie deals with violence against women, but the reception to the film has confused simply addressing this type of subject for making a powerful progressive statement on it. In reality, Three Billboards doesn’t champion equality or condemn abuse as much as it twists itself into knots trying to turn a violent, racist cop from antagonist to protagonist.
Dixon, the Ebbing police officer played by Sam Rockwell, abuses his power in the form of racially motivated torture. In one of the most violent scenes of recent cinema, the audience is shown Dixon brutalizing – in an extremely bloody and disturbing manner – an innocent person on screen. Despite the harrowing images of torture, Dixon is then sent on an unearned redemption arc.
Shortly after receiving an inexplicable vote of confidence from the town’s beloved police chief (played by Woody Harrelson), the film transforms Dixon into a vigilante avenging violence against women. This abhorrent character is abruptly recast as a selfless crusader, and the movie seems to suggest that a single sacrifice in the name of women makes up for a lifetime of racist and abusive behaviour.
Meanwhile, Mildred gamely co-opts anti-racist politics in public, but then fails to live up to them in her own life. She gives news interviews accusing the police of being more interested in “torturing black folks” than solving her daughter’s murder, but then casually uses the N-word, reducing a hateful term to a sassy punchline. Soon thereafter, Mildred’s antics lead to the unjust imprisonment of her one black friend. Nevertheless, Mildred devotes no time to fight for the innocent woman’s release. The only racism Mildred cares about is the kind that distracts police from finding her daughter’s killer.
Admittedly, we shouldn’t indict a movie because it has a complicated character. There’s nothing wrong with introducing hypocritical protagonists. We all possess contradictions, and it can be refreshing and even insightful to see that portrayed in movies. However, when a character full of these types of contradictions gets held up as some sort of standard or icon for a movement, it feels exceedingly misplaced.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri tells the story of a young girl’s rape and murder, and the fall-out from the heinous crime. However, the reception to the film suggests that Hollywood liberals would do well to set their standards a bit higher. Merely addressing progressive themes and showing subject matter that relates to the cause of the day does not, in itself, make for a virtuous movie.