Jerome and Denise (Amanda Warren) – who is harshly imprisoned by Dixon later in the film – make their disdain for the police and their prejudices clear. The script describes a ‘vicious edge’ between the two, one that continues to simmer away for much of the story. THE racial underpinnings of Three Billboards are made clear from the hostile interaction between Jerome (Darrell Britt-Gibson) and officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) in the early stages of the film. A mistrust that has been simmering since Watergate and has only intensified over the eight years the script for Three Billboard was floating around – especially in relation to racial tensions. The provocative and confrontational language Mildred plasters on the billboards (in an earlier draft of the script they go up on the 4th of July and in the film Easter Sunday – a resurrection reference) speaks to a lack of trust in American authority that is rooted in the nation’s founding. Through this lens, the billboards become a means to shine a light back – not just at individuals like Chief Willoughby (an excellent performance from Woody Harrelson), but powerful American institutions (the police). And for the same reasons it strikes a chord with the town’s African-Americans who feel wronged by the said police-force. It embarrasses her son who would rather keep his head down while enraging members of the local police-force who do not like their credibility challenged. It upsets people like the fat dentist and priest who prefer to keep the order of things. Mildred’s mission reverberates around the town.
Mildred, a resilient and abrasive figure, goes on to claim the billboards, subverting their commercial purpose for a personal fight that also speaks to wider American societal issues. In this state, these wasted billboards stand as the symbol of a decayed and tainted American Dream. As described in the script, they ‘sit like tombstones on a dusty road’ – a reference to the death of Mildred’s daughter in this same spot and (perhaps) to a deeper malignance within American society.
They can signal opportunity or exploitation, depending on your vantage point – the American Dream (or the American Greed) encapsulated in eye-catching imagery and snappy taglines.Īt the start of Martin McDonagh’s film Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes (played by the magnificent Frances McDormand) drives past three worn-down neglected billboards. BILLBOARDS are a symbol of American commercialism, prosperity and corruption.
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