Woody Harrelson turns in a terrific performance as Chief William Willoughby, whom Mildred blames for not doing enough to find her daughter’s killer. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to multiple examples of a sinful human nature, racism, cruelty, and the flaws of those in whom we place our trust: the police, the military, and even the clergy. Her ex-husband deals with the death of their daughter in his own way by taking up with a 19-year-old girl. She emerges as character whose goodness has been disfigured by grief, anger, and cruelty. It is hard to watch this movie and not think of Francis Tarwater, the 14-year-old character of O’Connor’s novel, The Violent Bear It Away, “His black eyes, glassy and still, trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus.” Indeed, the shadow of Jesus, seems always to be in the background of this dark, intense, and sometimes humorous film.Īs the film begins, we meet Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) arranging to rent three (is three just a coincidence here?) crumbling billboards with the messages: “Raped While Dying, “Still No Arrests?” And finally, “How Come, Chief Willoughby?” The viewer is quickly drawn into the story of a heinous rape and a bitter, angry, grief-stricken mother determined to find her daughter’s murderer. Although the reference to Flannery O’Connor is brief, it is hard to imagine how this story, written and directed by McDonagh ( In Bruges), was not influenced by O’Connor’s sense of grace rising from the most heinous examples of human iniquity. It is the beginning of an O’Connor-esque tale about grace and the grotesque, love and hate, healing and grief. ![]() ![]() ![]() It's FREE! Click here Įarly in Martin McDonagh’s captivating film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, one of the characters, Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones) is seen reading Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
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