The meaning of the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Winner of the Golden Globe in the category “Best Film”, honorary winner of two Oscars for the best female and male roles, winner of the Golden Eagle – who is this? This is Martin McDonagh’s goosebump-inducing, dramatic and extremely touching film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
What is the movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” about?
The plot revolves around Mildred Hayes, a mother whose daughter Angela was raped and brutally murdered a few months ago. The woman was tired of the inaction of the local police and decided to take the investigation into her own hands, so that justice would eventually prevail. Under a wave of anger and a desire to act, Mildred sells the car, and spends the proceeds on renting three large-scale billboards standing alone along the road where her daughter was killed.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the work of the police on billboards, literally officially declaring them a struggle and her desire to personally investigate the crime, the woman turns away almost all her acquaintances from herself and causes a storm of various discussions and rumors in the town. Of course, there are people who understand her and empathize with her loss, but still consider such behavior extravagant and devoid of any meaning.
Throughout the film, many events take place: quarrels between the police and Mildred, the burning of the police station by her, the conversation of a group of men in a bar about the act of one of them, which is too reminiscent of rape, and much, much more, from which indescribable emotions arise in the audience in the soul. The film ends with a scene in a car halfway to the narrator of that very ill-fated story in a bar, who in the end turned out not to be directly involved in the murder of Angela, but clearly guilty of some other rape: Mildred Hayes and Dixon (a former officer) go to a man to restore justice.
What is the point of the movie?
The film tells the story of a woman’s struggle with the injustice and indifference of the world around her. The picture is overwhelmed with feelings and emotions, which arise and fade away between the main characters. Issues of trust, family, forgiveness, relationships between children and their parents, truth and lies, and many other important aspects – all this gives viewers the right to boldly call this film a drama.
The film literally tells us that each person has his own problems and experiences, because of which he tends to act in an indefinite way. All the inhabitants of this small town are on the verge of two opposites – condemnation and farewell.
The director diligently reveals to us the problems of heroes from different segments of the population, shows their pain and suffering, and also surrounds them with condemnation and persecution from the rest of the inhabitants in order to make the whole atmosphere of the film much more depressing than it already is only due to the grief of the main character. Also, as we said earlier, the film is about wrestling. A woman, fed up with her own grief and the indifference of those around her, is forced to look for the criminal who abused her poor child on her own.
What kept Mildred afloat all along? Strength of mind, the desire to restore justice, a sincere desire for revenge and the absence of fear of possible losses – because the heroine has nothing more to lose. A touching, heartbreaking story that raises the most disturbing questions and themes from the depths, exposes the terrible reality of the world and its true side, forcing the audience to sit with their mouths open. But it also gives us hope for the best, for the restoration of justice, for the compassion of people and for the remnants of that very much desired humanity in people around us.
What does the end of the movie tell us?
It would seem that if the film contains a detective direction and is built on the question “Who committed such a terrible and disgusting act?”, We simply have to reveal the identity of the criminal in order to logically complete the picture. But you won’t get that in this movie! Until the end of the film, the identity of the rapist is not revealed to us, because in fact the plot is not based on his name. As absurd as it may sound, the purpose of the film was not to find the criminal.
Here it was important to show how a person copes with grief and the feelings that it causes. The relationship of living people, not the dead – this is the main plot of the film. And the trip of Mildred and Dixon gives us a clear idea of restoring justice, albeit not the one that we expected throughout the entire storyline.
We sincerely hope you enjoyed reading our explanation! And if you haven’t watched this touching film in some way, run to watch it!
