Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Director:

Martin McDonagh

Writer:

Martin McDonagh

Stars:

Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell

Top Rated Movies #153 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 128 wins & 230 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Frances McDormand	...	Mildred
Caleb Landry Jones	...	Red Welby
Kerry Condon	...	Pamela
Sam Rockwell	...	Dixon
Alejandro Barrios	...	Latino
Jason Ledford	...	Latino #2
Darrell Britt-Gibson	...	Jerome
Woody Harrelson	...	Willoughby
Abbie Cornish	...	Anne
Riya May Atwood	...	Polly
Selah Atwood	...	Jane
Lucas Hedges	...	Robbie
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Desk Sergeant
Amanda Warren	...	Denise
Malaya Rivera Drew	...	Gabriella

Storyline

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award nominee Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

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Plot Keywords:

billboard | police brutality | black comedy | ambiguous ending | thrown through a window | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language throughout, and some sexual references

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie that Dixon's (Sam Rockwell's) mother is watching with Donald Sutherland and "his dead girl" is Don't Look Now (1973), directed by Nicolas Roeg. This movie was also alluded to in Martin McDonagh's feature film, In Bruges (2008). In this film, Frances McDormand's character parallels Donald Sutherland's character in that they both are driven by the guilt and grief of losing their daughter.

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Goofs

When the mail assistant hands Red the envelope of money she is heard talking but when the camera pans to her she is not moving her lips.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mildred Hayes: [walking into his office] You Red Welby?
Red Welby: Yes, ma'am. How may I help you?
Mildred Hayes: I heard there's three billboards out on Drinkwater Road. You're in charge of renting them out, that right?
Red Welby: I didn't know we had any billboards out on Drinkwater. Where is Drinkwater Road?
Mildred Hayes: It's a road out past the Sizemore turn-off. Nobody uses it since the freeway got put in.
Red Welby: You are right. Got three billboards out there. Nobody's put nothing up out there since 1986. That was 'Huggies'.
Mildred Hayes: How much to rent out all three...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojoUK: Top 10 Movies You Didn't Know Are British (2018)

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Soundtracks

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Written by Robbie Robertson
Performed by Joan Baez
© 1969 (Renewed) Canaan Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
All rights administered by WB Music Corp.
Courtesy of Vanguard Records, a division of Concord Music Group, Inc.

User Reviews

Anger begets more anger

Frances McDormand is a grieving mother who puts up "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" in this 2017 black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh.

Mildred Hayes (McDormand) is disgusted that the police haven't found her daughter's rapist and killer, so she takes out billboards asking why the chief of police, Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) hasn't done anything about the case.

The billboards set off anger, violence, and revenge motifs in this small town. Things become worse when a pent-up police officer, Dixon (Sam Rockwell) becomes enraged and starts acting out.

Lots of swearing, lots of violence, and lots of laughs to be had in this film. It was strange to watch as I had just seen another film, Past Life, that focused on the subject of anger and pain, and how it can eat a person up and destroy them. This film is yet another good illustration of that, as Mildred stops at nothing to make a point.

The one-liners are amazing, and Mildred's speech to the priest who comes by to ask her to remove the billboards is hilarious. The movie is filled with strong performances and equally well-developed characters. We see all of their sides - violent, kind, vengeful, angry, sad; we finally realize they're just people driven in some cases to extremes.

Harrelson's performance is touching -- we're prepared to dislike him but his sincerity and humanity come through. As Dixon, Rockwell seems like a monster, but once he acts out, he's able to focus his energy a little better.

And then there's McDormand, a powerhouse. She's not good ol' Marge in Fargo. She's a tough woman with a broken heart who takes out her anger any way she can. It's a beautiful, multilayered performance. Highly recommended, asking the questions of where revenge and hatred can take us, and deciding when and if it stops.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 December 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Three Billboards

Filming Locations:

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$322,168, 12 November 2017

Gross USA:

$54,513,740

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$160,192,267

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blueprint Pictures, Film 4, Fox Searchlight Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1