'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' affirms that racist violent cops are actually good guys

[Midramble]

This movie may become my one of my favorites of all time.

This is what I got out of it.

Spoiler

The theme is redemption.The chief wanting to redeem his failures as a chief, the mother redeeming the way she treated her daughter, the most ass hole cop trying to be a minimally good person. There is no subtlety that each person's selfishness has put them in the position they are in. The point is though that redemption comes through self change and that is a grueling near impossible path lined with a long row of failures. It's setup for redemption by teeing up the mother getting the killer, the bad cop being a good guy, and the chief all being righted with the capture of the bar rapist. But that is quickly dashed to remind everyone involved that it doesn't come that easy. Beyond all of that I love how human this story is. All the selfishness, the justified anger, the hate, the sudden displays of empathy, the understanding and respect of each other's struggles, tiny acts of forgiveness. There is a lot in this film and I love it. A looooot of good acting too.

Saw ladybird yesterday and this today. Don't know why I compared them in my mind other than they both seem to reach for dark comedy but this film felt ridiculously human. In all its ugliness and some of its beauty.

 

[Transhuman]

Thanks for the fucking spoiler, asshole

 

[TheGhost]

WTF I thought this was actually about Billboards and was expecting Pics... not Spoilers to a movie...lol.

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Hahaha this
I'll blame the movie title for that though

Shame on the OP for giving me cliff notes spoilers while I was looking for billboard pictures though

 

[Ghos]

Thanks for the fucking spoiler, asshole
Today at 7:20 AM

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Mod edit: full movie spoilers
Last edited by a moderator: Yesterday at 11:45 PM

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[Transhuman]

Ghos, the title of this thread is a spoiler. I now know that the police, or maybe one officer in particular, are redeemed in the story. This is going to spoil my enjoyment of the movie.

The thread could have been called "The way 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' portrays police is troubling". Being conscientious to other movie-goers is not that hard.

 

[Ghos]

The title isn't a spoiler. It's the OP's take on a character's arc, which is being contested by pretty much everyone else in the thread.

It's possible and likely if you watched this movie blind the thread title wouldn't have crossed your mind.

 

[PerilousInJ]

You're completely missing the subtlety of all of those interactions.

Spoiler

Dickson is a violent guy raised by a mother who cultivated racism and violence in him. After reading a heartfelt letter from probably the only person he really respects he makes a selfless action and suffers symbolically for his past actions. While recovering he apologizes to the man he put in the hospital and that man takes a higher moral path in forgiveness which is the main underlying theme of the film. Violence begets violence.

 

[Transhuman]

It's the OP's take on a character's arc

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Yes, and OP has unintentionally ruined the story arc for me, by mentioning that it resolves by redeeming the character.

If OP's thread had been called "The story arc of the police in "The way 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' is messed up" that wouldn't give away nearly as much.

 

[Ricky_R]

Need to see this documentary.

 

[Paul]

Holy hell new movie by creator of In Bruges? Finally! Can't wait to watch this, thank you for letting me know about its existence OP.

 

[AtmaPhoenix]

Glad most other people disagree with the OP. Three Billboards was a fantastic movie and the two main characters were both broken, asshole protagonists. I don't think either are redeemed by the end of the movie.

 

[oneida]

you kinda glaze over the part where he's literally set on fire which happens right after he gets that letter

 

[Ghos]

Yes, and OP has unintentionally ruined the story arc for me, by mentioning that it resolves by redeeming the character.

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That is OP's opinion. An unusual one at that. Read the thread and stop reacting to the title alone.

 

[TheIlliterati]

The OP was hoping the board embraced his reductionist outrage hot take...thank god for the thread back fire.

 

[Futureman]

Not reading any of your post cause the first two sentences are rife with spoilers and I saw some towards the end. Fix that shit bro

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wouldn't discussing whether a movie handles racial issues involve discussing the movie? I don't get why a topic like this needs spoiler tags. If you are going to see this movie and don't want to be spoiled then don't read a discussion on it on a discussion board.

 

[Transhuman]

That is OP's opinion. An unusual one at that. Read the thread and stop reacting to the title alone.

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How can I possibly read any of this thread without spoiling the movie? I actually *like* movies. And because of the thread title, which I could not help but read, I know some plot details not included in any of the trailers that I chose to watch.

 

[ishan]

given the replies ive seen op i urge you to reconsider the wording of your post.

 

[hank_tree]

Cheers for the spoilers OP.

 

[Ghos]

How can I possibly read any of this thread without spoiling the movie?

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It isn't that difficult to detect if a post is about to divulge spoilers. If you're this sensitive to spoilers you should already know this and skip to the next post.

I actually *like* movies. And because of the thread title, which I could not help but read, I know some plot details not included in any of the trailers that I chose to watch.

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I haven't watched the trailers but I have watched the film. The only fact in the title is there are violent, racist cops in the film. How is that a spoiler?

 

[Inferno]

This is a reductive take that places empty lip-service to progressive ideals above artistic integrity and nuance. I'm a progressive. I hate the american police force, racists, et al.

A big problem when it comes to our criticism of media today is that we don't allow ourselves to wrestle with things anymore. In the age of instant Twitter reactions and Rotten Tomatoes scores that instantly assign a numerical value to a film before audiences even get a chance to see it, we don't take the time to actually think about what we've experienced, wrestle with it, analyze it, etc. That does a disservice to both the viewer and the artist.

 

[Cymbal Head]

I was looking forward to seeing this, but reactions have been intensely divisive. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to end up playing near me anyway.

Guess I'll check out of this discussion until it's on video.

 

[Transhuman]

I haven't watched the trailers but I have watched the film. The only fact in the title is there are violent, racist cops in the film. How is that a spoiler?

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Violent, racist cop who are, at some point in the movie, likely the end, redeemed.

The whole movie I am going to be waiting for these cops to be redeemed, because I now know that that's a thing that happens in the movie.

 

[Ghos]

Violent, racist cop who are, at some point in the movie, likely the end, redeemed.

The whole movie I am going to be waiting for these cops to be redeemed, because I now know that that's a thing that happens in the movie.

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Okay, so you're trolling.

 

[Sanjuro]

I was about to head out shortly to see this film.

...maybe I should just see Justice League.

 

[Inferno]

I was about to head out shortly to see this film.

...maybe I should just see Justice League.

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Do you hate yourself?

 

[Geoff]

Haven't seen this film but is this a bit like Once Upon a Time in America where (anti)hero was a

Spoiler

rapist?

Because I like films that make you look at characters as they are as opposed to as a personification of good or evil forces.

 

[Sanjuro]

Do you hate yourself?

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[HStallion]

Violent, racist cop who are, at some point in the movie, likely the end, redeemed.

The whole movie I am going to be waiting for these cops to be redeemed, because I now know that that's a thing that happens in the movie.

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Are you being serious with these comments? The title isn't a spoiler because that's not how things play out by most everyone's account but the OP's. So unless saying there are racist cops in the story is a spoiler I'm not so sure what you're making a big stink over.

 

[Min]

If anything it kinda just puts Mildred in a worse light and makes a statement about how hate allows someone to become sympathetic to an extremist and join in on extremist acts.

 

[Fancy Clown]

You would be right if your title were

You need to reply to this thread in order to see this content.

But as it stands I think your reading of the film is kinda crazy in how simplistic its conclusions are.

 

[More_Badass]

If anything it kinda just puts Mildred in a worse light and makes a statement about how hate allows someone to become sympathetic to an extremist and join in on extremist acts.

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Yeah, it's a quietly depressing ending. The entire movie is one gradual downward spiral

 

[Transhuman]

Okay, so you're trolling.

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No, i'm not.

Are you being serious with these comments? The title isn't a spoiler because that's not how things play out by most everyone's account but the OP's. So unless saying there are racist cops in the story is a spoiler I'm not so sure what you're making a big stink over.

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Yes, I am.

I take it you've seen the movie. I havn't. In Australia it comes out in January. Imagine being told that one of the detested characters in the movie (and it will become very clear when I see the movie which character this refers to) is redeemed by the story, and the story happens to be about a woman who is trying to shame the police into finding her daughter's killer. I mean you have to be willfully obtuse not to see how these details form an impression that would lead someone to assume certain plot points ahead of time as they're watching the movie. It's a dick move.

 

[More_Badass]

No, i'm not.



Yes, I am.

I take it you've seen the movie. I havn't. In Australia it comes out in January. Imagine being told that one of the detested characters in the movie (and it will become very clear when I see the movie which character this refers to) is redeemed by the story,

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The person telling you this has an extremely poor grasp of what happened in the movie. So if anything, you actually still don't know what's going to happen

 

[Deleted member 24118]

I

"The Shawshank Redemption is a celebration of the friendship of convicted murderers that literally affirms that crime pays."

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I

"The Shawshank Redemption is a celebration of the friendship of convicted murderers that literally affirms that crime pays."

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Oooh.

"Play Dirty celebrates the sacrifices soldiers make and ends with the protagonists heroically dying for their country."

 

[Carthago Delenda Est]

Violent, racist cop who are, at some point in the movie, likely the end, redeemed.

The whole movie I am going to be waiting for these cops to be redeemed, because I now know that that's a thing that happens in the movie.

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Are you being serious with these comments? The title isn't a spoiler because that's not how things play out by most everyone's account but the OP's. So unless saying there are racist cops in the story is a spoiler I'm not so sure what you're making a big stink over.

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It isn't that difficult to detect if a post is about to divulge spoilers. If you're this sensitive to spoilers you should already know this and skip to the next post.



I haven't watched the trailers but I have watched the film. The only fact in the title is there are violent, racist cops in the film. How is that a spoiler?

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Actually I'd say Transhuman is right, the thread title is definitely a spoiler. I'll put the rest of this in spoiler tags so I can explain it to the two of you and you can stop giving him shit for being legitimately upset. Transhuman, sorry it was spoiled though I do think it may not go exactly where you expect it to go and the movie is still worth seeing.

Spoiler

When you watch this movie blind, you don't know what will happen to Dickson. In fact, he's not even a main character until he gets the letter. His redemption arc is a surprise and, yes, it fails. But the fact that it happens at all is a spoiler. Now Transhuman will have to watch the movie every step of the way wondering which cop will get redeemed, and it will obviously be Dickson. That's going to recontextualize how you think about the movie while watching it.

Definitely a spoiler. Don't see how you could say otherwise.

 

[shaneo632]

Saw the movie a few months ago and was waiting for the "think pieces" like this as soon as the genpub saw it. Don't agree at all, a very reductionist reading of the film.

 

[krazen]

People going in on the OP as if he made it out of thin air but Ive seen pieces about the same issue. I am going to watch it with an open mind, but lets not act like Hollywood hasnt used racism as a hokey redemption arc in critically claimed movies(lookin at you, Crash)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amph...de-ebbing-missouri-didnt-need-its-racist-cop/

 

[Snowy]

One does not even have to have seen the movie to sense that OP's characterization of it is bullshit.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

This guys movies are always about terrible people doing terrible things and having terrible things happen to them. Pretty much nobody in the movie is redeemable, or is redeemed. We're just along for the ride to see bad decisions lead to more bad decisions.

 

[Kirblar]

People going in on the OP as if he made it out of thin air but Ive seen pieces about the same issue. I am going to watch it with an open mind, but lets not act like Hollywood hasnt used racism as a hokey redemption arc in critically claimed movies(lookin at you, Crash)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amph...de-ebbing-missouri-didnt-need-its-racist-cop/

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They keep making the same mistake because of how they're personally framing the events in the second half of the movie, rather than taking a step back and taking a hard look at what's being shown to you.

If you think the ending is a "redemption", you've been sucked into Dixon's personal narrative.

 

[Dog of Bork]

Thread title is definitely a spoiler, even if it is so reductive it misses the point of the film.

 

[uncelestial]

Can we lock at at least retitle this thread? It's a terrible jumping point for discussion when the OP is insistent on being so incendiary and wrong. It's basically going to be a discussion where everyone who was seen the movie explains to this one person that they're wrong, meanwhile a terrible impression of a really good film is being made.

Pro-tip for the future: in some movies, bad guys aren't punished with death or incarceration -- and sometimes the protagonist can even be a bad guy! A bad person going on to continue their spree of violence is "redemption?" Seriously?

 

[HStallion]

Actually I'd say Transhuman is right, the thread title is definitely a spoiler. I'll put the rest of this in spoiler tags so I can explain it to the two of you and you can stop giving him shit for being legitimately upset. Transhuman, sorry it was spoiled though I do think it may not go exactly where you expect it to go and the movie is still worth seeing.

Spoiler

When you watch this movie blind, you don't know what will happen to Dickson. In fact, he's not even a main character until he gets the letter. His redemption arc is a surprise and, yes, it fails. But the fact that it happens at all is a spoiler. Now Transhuman will have to watch the movie every step of the way wondering which cop will get redeemed, and it will obviously be Dickson. That's going to recontextualize how you think about the movie while watching it.

Definitely a spoiler. Don't see how you could say otherwise.

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Ok I'll say I was wrong and it is a spoiler but its such an inaccurate misleading one I find that getting bent out of shape over it is like getting lied to about any other plot point in any other movie and considering it a serious plot spoiler.

 

[Lord Brady]

Another thread on par with "Why doesn't Horizon get enough praise" where the OP creates an incredibly misguided narrative and then never revisits the disaster of a thread they created.

 

[Gentlemen]

Reframe it in your mind as a revenge western. There are no good guys, only people making very bad decisions based on a variety of intense emotional reactions. Dickson is a racist shitbag who gets cover from his smalltown police department and at no point in the film are you given a reason to think he'll ever change his ways, even when later in the film he makes an attempt it doesn't actually lift him up to 'heroic' status. If you think that somehow the movie tries to affirm him you might be reading something into the film that isn't actually there.

 

[Carthago Delenda Est]

Ok I'll say I was wrong and it is a spoiler but its such an inaccurate misleading one I find that getting bent out of shape over it is like getting lied to about any other plot point in any other movie and considering it a serious plot spoiler.

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You're right. It's not a main plot spoiler. It's a side plot spoiler. But it still changes how you think about the movie. I'd be pretty upset and I'm not even particularly spoiler prone.

 

[plagiarize]

If the thread title is a spoiler 'Soylent Green is made of cats' is a spoiler.

That's my helpful take on this. I loved the film by the way and don't agree that the thing in the title of this OP happens in this movie at all.

 

[Deleted member 42]

You guys are reaching way too hard when it comes to spoilers.

 

[DevilMayGuy]

I feel like AuthenticM has done this before... There should be some standard for the board that if people are going to post completely absurd hot takes that they should at least have to defend them rather than simply fleeing their unfiltered brain diarrhea the moment they've hit submit.

Also the "muh spoilers" stuff continues to be hilarious. Knowing there are shitty cops that may be redeemed (if you have an infant's grasp of nuance) is not a fucking spoiler. Do you close your eyes and plug your ears during movie trailers?

 

[Mudcrab]

This thread is now about how spoiler culture is the worst, not AuthenticM's disaster of an OP.