Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2017
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Buy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
| image = Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri poster.png
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Martin McDonagh
| producer =
| writer = Martin McDonagh
| starring =
| music = Carter Burwell
| cinematography = Ben Davis
| editing = Jon Gregory
| studio =
| distributor = Fox Searchlight Pictures
| released =
| runtime = 115 minutes
| country =
| language = English
| budget = $1215 million
| gross = $160.2 million
}}
'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' is a 2017 crime drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh and starring Frances McDormand as a Missouri woman who rents three roadside billboards to call attention to her daughter's unsolved rape and murder. Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, John Hawkes, and Peter Dinklage appear in supporting roles. The film was released theatrically in the United States in November 2017 and in the United Kingdom in January 2018 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and grossed $160 million worldwide.
'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' was acclaimed by critics, who lauded McDonagh's screenplay and direction as well as the performances of McDormand, Harrelson, and Rockwell. McDormand and Rockwell each won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG Award, BAFTA Award, and Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, with Harrelson also receiving Oscar, SAG, and BAFTA nominations. McDonagh won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for his screenplay, and the film won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Picture.
Plot
In the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes is grieving over the rape and murder of her teenage daughter, Angela, seven months earlier. Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, Mildred rents three disused billboards near her home and posts on them: "," "," and "". The billboards upset many townspeople, including Chief Bill Willoughby and the racist, alcoholic police officer Jason Dixon.
Despite harassment and threats, Mildred remains determined for the billboards to stay up. Although Bill is sympathetic to Mildred's frustration, he finds the billboards unfairly attack his character and reveals that he has terminal pancreatic cancer. Angered by the lack of respect for the chief's authority, Dixon threatens the businessman who rented Mildred the billboards, Red Welby, and also arrests Mildred's friend Denise on trivial drug possession charges. Mildred is visited by her abusive ex-husband Charlie, who reveals that, shortly before Angela's murder, he had turned down her request to come and live with him.
Bill takes Mildred in for questioning after she drills a hole in her dentist's thumb when he threatens her. During the interview, Bill accidentally coughs up blood into Mildred's face. Mildred gets help, and Bill is hospitalized, but he leaves the hospital against medical advice and spends an idyllic day with his wife Anne and their two daughters. He then takes his own life in the barn with a handgun to spare his family the pain of watching him die slowly from cancer. He leaves suicide notes for several people, including one for Mildred, in which he explains that she was not a factor in his suicide and that he secretly paid to keep the billboards up for another month, amused at the guilt this will bring her and hoping that they will keep attention on the murder. Dixon reacts to the news of Bill's death by assaulting Welby and throwing him out of a second-story window. This is witnessed by Abercrombie, the chief's replacement, who fires Dixon.
Later, the billboards are destroyed by arson. Mildred retaliates by tossing Molotov cocktails at the police station, which she believes is unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is there to read Bill's letter addressed to him, which advises him to let go of hate and learn to love. Dixon escapes with Angela's case file but suffers severe burns. Mildred's acquaintance, James, witnesses the incident and extinguishes Dixon's burning clothes. He later provides Mildred with an alibi, claiming they were on a date at the time of the incident. Dixon is treated for his burns and put in the same hospital room as Welby, to whom he apologizes.
Jerome, who Red Welby's company employed, gives Mildred the spares made in case of mistakes. She uses them to restore the billboard messages. Discharged from the hospital, Dixon overhears a man who threatened Mildred bragging in a bar of having raped and killed a girl in the same manner as Angela. He notes the Idaho license plate number of the man's vehicle, then provokes a fight by scratching the man's face, thereby getting a sample of his DNA underneath his fingernails. Meanwhile, Mildred goes on a date with James to thank him for the alibi. Charlie enters with his 19-year-old girlfriend Penelope, mocks James, and admits to burning the billboards while drunk. James senses that Mildred went out with him out of pity and leaves angrily. Mildred considers attacking Charlie but instead tells him to treat Penelope well and leaves.
Though commending him, Abercrombie informs Dixon that the DNA sample does not match that found on Angela's body and that the man was overseas on military duty nine months prior. Dixon concludes that the man must be guilty of some other rape and murder and joins Mildred on a trip to Idaho to kill him. On the way, Mildred confesses to Dixon that she set the police station on fire; he replies, "Who the hell else would it have been?". They each express uncertainty about their mission and agree to decide what to do along the way.
Cast
* Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes
* Woody Harrelson as Bill Willoughby
* Sam Rockwell as Jason Dixon
* Abbie Cornish as Anne Willoughby
* Peter Dinklage as James
* Lucas Hedges as Robbie Hayes
* eljko Ivanek as Cedric Connolly
* Caleb Landry Jones as Red Welby
* Clarke Peters as Abercrombie
* Samara Weaving as Penelope
* John Hawkes as Charlie Hayes
* Kerry Condon as Pamela
* Darrell Britt-Gibson as Jerome
* Kathryn Newton as Angela Hayes
* Brendan Sexton III as Crop-Haired Guy
Additionally, Amanda Warren portrays Mildred's friend Denise. Malaya Drew plays Gabriella, a local reporter, and Christopher Berry plays bar patron Tony. Jerry Winsett appears as Geoffrey, the dentist who has his thumb drilled by Mildred. Momma Dixon, Jason Dixon's mother, is portrayed by Sandy Martin. Nick Searcy makes an uncredited appearance as Father Montgomery.
Production
Development
While traveling through the Southern United States around 1998, Martin McDonagh came across a couple of accusatory billboards about an unsolved crime, which he described as "raging and painful and tragic" alleging the murder of a woman named Kathy Page by her husband Steve Page in Vidor, Texas. The billboards highlighted the incompetence of the police work and deeply affected McDonagh; he said that the image "stayed in my mind [...] kept gnawing at me" and presumed that they were put up by the victim's mother. This incident, combined with his desire to create strong female characters, inspired him to write the story for 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'. McDonagh discussed the creative process, saying that it took him about ten years to decide "that it was a mother who had taken these things out. It all became fiction [...] based on a couple of actual billboards".Casting and filming
The character of Mildred was written with Frances McDormand in mind, and likewise the character of Dixon was written specially for Sam Rockwell. McDormand initially felt that she was older than the character as it was written, and suggested that Mildred instead be Angela's grandmother; McDonagh disagreed, feeling that it would change the story too much. McDormand's husband Joel Coen persuaded her to take the part regardless. McDormand took inspiration for her character from John Wayne; and Rockwell, wanting to make his character "the exact opposite" of Mildred, took inspiration for his character in part from Wayne's co-star in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', Lee Marvin.Principal photography began on May 2, 2016, in Sylva, North Carolina, and ran for 33 days. Allison Outdoor Advertising of Sylva built the actual billboards, which were put in a pasture near Black Mountain, North Carolina because that location was better. Most of the time the billboards were covered because people in the area found them upsetting. David Penix of Arden, North Carolina bought the billboards and used the wood for a roof in Douglas Lake, Tennessee, though the messages are no longer in order. Town Pump Tavern in Black Mountain, which had appeared in 'The World Made Straight', was used as a set and was closed for three days during filming. A pool table and booths were added. The bar's actual sign appeared in the film.
Music
The musical score was written by Carter Burwell, who had also supplied the score for McDonagh's films 'In Bruges' and 'Seven Psychopaths'. As well as Burwell's score, the film features songs by ABBA, Joan Baez, The Felice Brothers, the Four Tops, Monsters of Folk, and Townes Van Zandt. The score was nominated for Best Original Score at the 90th Academy Awards.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Carter Burwell unless stated.
Release
'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' premiered in competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2017. It also had screenings at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2017 San Sebastin International Film Festival (where it won the Audience Award), the BFI London Film Festival, and the 2017 Zurich Film Festival. It was also screened at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
In the United States, the film was released, by Fox Searchlight Pictures, on November 10, 2017, beginning with a limited release, before "going wide" on December 1. The film was released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 27, 2018. 'Six Shooter', McDonagh's Academy Award-winning short film, is included as a bonus.
Box office
'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' grossed $54.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $105.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $160.2 million.In its limited opening weekend, the film made $322,168 from four theaters for a per-theater average of $80,542, the fourth best of 2017. The film made $1.1 million from 53 theaters in its second weekend and $4.4 million from 614 in its third, finishing a respective 9th and 10th at the box office. In the weekend following its four Golden Globe wins the film was added to 712 theaters (for a total of 1,022) and grossed $2.3 million, an increase of 226% from the previous week's $706,188. The weekend of January 27, 2018, following the announcement of the film's seven Oscar nominations, it made $3.6 million (an increase of 87% over the previous week's $1.9 million), finishing 13th. The weekend of March 911, following its two Oscar wins, the film made $705,000, down 45% from the previous week's $1.3 million.
Reception
On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film had a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Owen Gleiberman of 'Variety' praised the film's performances, stating "It's Mildred's glowering refusal to back down that defines her, and McDormand brilliantly spotlights the conflicted humanity beneath the stony faade," and called Rockwell's performance a "revelation." Steve Pond, writing for 'TheWrap', praised McDonagh's writing, calling it "very funny, very violent and surprisingly moving."
Some criticized the script for McDonagh's portrayal of small town America. 'The New York Times' columnist Wesley Morris called McDonagh's portrayal of rural America a caricature: "a set of postcards from a Martian lured to America by a cable news ticker and by rumors of how easily flattered and provoked we are." Writing for 'The New Yorker', Tim Parks praised the "magnificently photographed images", but wrote that the plot contained "a thousand cheap coincidences". Parks concluded that the film is "empty of emotional intelligence" and "devoid of any remotely honest observation of the society it purports to serve." In her review for 'The New York Times', Manohla Dargis wrote "[McDonagh's] jokes can be uninterestingly glib with tiny, bloodless pricks that are less about challenging the audience than about obscuring the material's clichs and overriding theatricality."
The film was also controversial for its handling of racial themes, particularly surrounding the redemptive arc of Officer Dixon. In 'The Daily Beast', blogger Ira Madison III described the treatment of Rockwell's character "altogether offensive...McDonagh's attempts to script the black experience in America are often fumbling and backward and full of outdated tropes." Alyssa Rosenberg noted in 'The Washington Post' that "[Dixon's] redemption doesn't merely defang his previous venomous bigotry; it softens Mildred's character development."
Accolades
At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' won for Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Actress Drama (McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell), and Best Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Score.At the 71st British Academy Film Awards, the film received nine nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role (McDormand), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both Rockwell and Harrelson. It won five awards, including Best Film and Outstanding British Film (making it the only film along with 'The King's Speech' to win both awards since the latter category was reintroduced in 1992) while both McDormand and Rockwell won the Lead Actress and Supporting Actor awards, respectively.
The film was nominated for four awards at the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning three, including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
The film was also nominated for six at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, winning three, including Best Acting Ensemble.
At the 90th Academy Awards, the film received seven nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Frances McDormand, Best Original Screenplay for Martin McDonagh, and Best Supporting Actor nominations for Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. McDormand and Rockwell took home their respective awards.
'Three Billboards' was named one of the top 10 films of the year by the American Film Institute. At the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the film won its top prize, the People's Choice Award. At the 2017 San Sebastin International Film Festival, it won the Audience Award.
Impact
On February 15, 2018, Justice4Grenfell, an advocacy group created in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, hired three vans with electronic screens in a protest against perceived inaction in response to the fire. The vans were driven around London, and displayed messages in the style of the billboards in the film: ', ', '
In response to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that took place on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida, activist group Avaaz had three vans circle Florida senator Marco Rubio's offices displaying ', ', '
On the night of February 15, 2018, the movement #OccupyJustice set up three billboards and a number of banners in Malta, marking the four-month anniversary of the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The billboards bore the text ', ', and ' The authorities removed the billboards the following day, stating that they were illegal. The government was criticized for this move, and a day after their removal, activists laid down banners with similar text near Auberge de Castille, the Office of the Prime Minister.
Outside Bristol city centre in England on February 3, 2018, a mural was erected depicting three billboards reading ', ', and '. It was installed by the groups People's Republic of Stokes Croft and Protect Our NHS in response to the alleged privatization of the National Health Service (NHS) and the death of a 15-year-old girl which the coroner attributed to neglect caused by a lack of NHS resources and care.
demonstrators in San Diego March 24, 2018
On February 22, 2018, the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, protesting the inaction of the UN's role within the Syrian Civil War, set up three billboards outside the United Nations building in New York that read ', ', and '.
On or around March 1, around the time of the 2018 Oscars, three billboards in Los Angeles were taken out by conservative street artist Sabo, stating "", "", and ""
On March 8, 2018, International Women's Day, three billboards were put in downtown Pristina, Kosovo to protest the death of two women as a result of domestic violence.
Both McDormand and McDonagh have responded positively to the protests, with McDonagh saying "You couldn't ask for anything more than for an angry film to be adopted by protests," and McDormand saying she is "thrilled that activists all over the world have been inspired by the set decoration of the three billboards in Martin's film."
On March 24, 2018, signs inspired by 'Three Billboards' appeared at March for Our Lives gun safety rallies across the US and around the world.
Wang Qishan, China's vice-president, said that he understood supporters of US president Donald Trump in part through watching the film.
In January 2019, Chinese artist Wu Qiong and a gay policeman launched a public protest campaign in which bright-red trucks bearing slogans denouncing homosexual "conversion therapy" were being paraded through several major cities in China, including Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing.
Notes
References
Buy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2017