Three Billboards has been showered with awards, including Oscar nominations for McDormand and Rockwell. Photo by Merrick Morton – © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved (via IMDB) By contrast, the racist police officer, played by Sam Rockwell, experiences what appears to be a character arc, from being violently racist to being indiscriminately violent, to what many reviewers have read as taking redemptive action. The few African American characters in this film serve the purpose of moving Mildred and Dixon’s narratives forward they have incongruously cheerful demeanors (even after days in jail), limited lines, and no backstories. But the experiences and the fates of the other characters at the mercy of this scene-the victims of Dixon’s violence-are never explained. The scene is played for laughs, with Dixon as the butt of the joke. This comment was based on an argument between Mildred and Dixon that references his reputation for racist brutality. Musing on the latter, my fellow movie-goers asked me if racism is supposed to be funny in the United States. Much of the motivating violence in this film happens out of the frame: the rape and murder of Angela Hayes and Dixon’s torturing of an African American in police custody. (The fact that the film was preceded by the trailer for I, Tonyalikely only added to this reading.) Her partner joined in, and our conversation quickly turned to the off-screen violence. “Is everyone so angry?” she asked, shaking her head. Walking out of the theater, my neighbor muttered something about American violence. The film follows Mildred’s confrontations with Chief Bill Willoughby, Officer Jason Dixon, and various other locals, including the town priest, the “fat dentist”, her abusive ex-husband Charlie, and can-throwing teenagers.Īs a native Southerner who lives in Belfast, I was interested in the local reception to this film, especially after I learned of the writer-director’s Irish roots. The titular Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri are Mildred’s way of calling out the local police force for their investigative failures in the case of her daughter Angela, who was raped, murdered, and set ablaze seven months prior. “That’s right, I’m Angela Hayes’s mother,” Mildred Hayes, played by Frances McDormand, says ruefully, and viewers begin to learn why this woman wants to rent billboards, and why that’s making the local ad man nervous. Warning: spoilers for the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri abound.