THREE BILLBOARDS, NO WAITING

I managed to see 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. And of course, being someone who (1) generally lives outside of the 24/7 media bubble that is America and (2) avoids trailers when I can help it, I went in not really knowing much about it apart from the cast and the director – both of which were enough to convince me to see it. I really enjoyed Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, and any film with Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell seems like a good bet.

So naturally, it was only after I saw it that I found out some people were complaining about it – specifically, about the treatment of Sam Rockwell’s character, the dumb violent, racist cop Dixon.

The basic complaint is that he’s set up to be a stereotypical dumb violent, racist cop, and then he’s given a redemption arc that is both unconvincing (i.e. he does almost nothing to earn it) and a middle finger to the black American experience (i.e. giving white cops a shot at redemption is more important than anything white cops have ever done to black people).

So a few thoughts on that:

( And I’ll cut for spoilers .... )

The downward spiral,

This is dF