Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Dvd

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a 2017 black comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Martin McDonagh and starring Frances McDormand as a Missouri woman who rents three billboards to call attention to her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder. Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage appear in supporting roles. It was released in the United States in November 2017 and in the United Kingdom in January 2018 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and grossed $160 million worldwide.

The film received widespread acclaim, particularly for the performances of McDormand, Harrelson, and Rockwell, and McDonagh’s screenplay. McDormand and Rockwell each won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and SAG Award for Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. McDonagh won a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his original screenplay, and the film won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Picture.

Plot

In the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes is grieving over the rape and murder of her teenage daughter, Angela, seven months earlier. Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, Mildred rents three abandoned billboards near her home and posts on them: “Raped While Dying”, “And Still No Arrests?”, and “How Come, Chief Willoughby?” The billboards upset many townspeople, including Chief Bill Willoughby and the racist, violent, alcoholic Officer Jason Dixon. The open secret that Bill suffers from terminal pancreatic cancer adds to everyone’s disapproval. Despite incurring harassment and threats, and the objections of her son Robbie, Mildred remains determined to keep up her billboards.

While Bill is sympathetic to Mildred’s frustration, he finds the billboards an unfair attack on his character. Angered by her lack of respect for the chief’s authority, Dixon threatens businessman Red Welby, who rented Mildred the billboards, and he arrests her friend and coworker, Denise, on trivial charges for drug possession. Mildred is visited by her abusive ex-husband Charlie, who reveals that, shortly before Angela’s murder, he had turned down her request to come and live with him.

Bill takes Mildred in for questioning after she drills a hole in her dentist’s thumb when he threatens her. During the interview, Bill accidentally coughs up blood into Mildred’s face. Mildred gets help and Bill is hospitalized, but he leaves the hospital against medical advice and spends an idyllic day with his wife Anne and their two daughters. He then dies by suicide to spare his family the pain of watching him die of cancer. He leaves suicide notes for several people, including one for Mildred, in which he explains that she was not a factor in his suicide and that he secretly paid to keep the billboards up for another month, amused at the guilt this will bring her and hoping that they will keep attention on the murder. Dixon reacts to the news of Bill’s death by assaulting Welby and throwing him out of a window. This is witnessed by Abercrombie, the chief’s replacement, who fires Dixon. Meanwhile, Mildred is threatened by a crop-haired stranger in her store.

The billboards are destroyed by arson. Mildred retaliates by tossing Molotov cocktails at the police station, which she believes is unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is there to read Bill’s letter to him, which advises him to let go of hate and learn to love, as the only way to realize his wish to become a detective. Dixon escapes with Angela’s case file but suffers severe burns. Mildred’s acquaintance, James, witnesses the incident and extinguishes Dixon’s burning clothes. He later provides Mildred with an alibi, claiming they were on a date at the time of the incident. Dixon is treated for his burns, and put in the same hospital room as Welby, to whom he apologizes.

Jerome, who was employed by the advertising company to put Mildred’s messages up on the billboards, gives her the spares that were made in case of mistakes. She uses them to restore the billboard messages.

Discharged from the hospital, Dixon overhears the man who threatened Mildred bragging in a bar of having raped and killed a girl in the same manner as Mildred’s daughter. He notes the Idaho license plate number of the man’s vehicle, then provokes a fight by scratching the man’s face, thereby getting a sample of his DNA. Meanwhile, Mildred goes on a date with James to thank him for the alibi. Charlie enters with his 19-year-old girlfriend Penelope, mocks James, and admits to burning the billboards while drunk. James senses that Mildred went out with him out of pity, and leaves angrily. Mildred considers attacking Charlie, but then tells him to treat Penelope well and leaves.

Though commending him, Abercrombie informs Dixon that the DNA sample does not match that found on Angela’s body, and that the man was overseas on military duty nine months prior. Dixon concludes that the man must be guilty of some other rape and murder, and joins Mildred on a trip to Idaho to kill him. On the way, Mildred confesses to Dixon that she set the police station on fire; he replies, “who the hell else would it have been?” They each express uncertainty about their mission, and agree to decide what to do along the way.

Cast

Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes
Woody Harrelson as Bill Willoughby
Sam Rockwell as Jason Dixon
Abbie Cornish as Anne Willoughby
Lucas Hedges as Robbie Hayes
Željko Ivanek as Cedric Connolly
Caleb Landry Jones as Red Welby
Clarke Peters as Abercrombie
Samara Weaving as Penelope
John Hawkes as Charlie Hayes
Peter Dinklage as James
Kerry Condon as Pamela
Darrell Britt-Gibson as Jerome
Kathryn Newton as Angela Hayes
Brendan Sexton III as Crop-Haired Guy
Additionally, Amanda Warren portrays Mildred’s friend Denise. Malaya Drew plays Gabriella, a local reporter, and Christopher Berry plays bar patron Tony. Jerry Winsett appears as Geoffrey, the dentist who has his thumb drilled by Mildred. Momma Dixon, Jason Dixon’s mother, is portrayed by Sandy Martin. Nick Searcy makes an uncredited appearance as Father Montgomery.