Don't Make a Scene: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Story: Another Sunday. Another scene. Another mourning. Another example of grief.

 

But, we've moved out of the graveyard and out into the realm of the living...where life goes on. 

 

Mildred Hayes is stuck in the "Anger" phase of the Kubler-Moss Model and is striking out at the lack of progress in finding out who murdered her daughter. She has taken her inner protesting public and unmistakable and impossible to miss. She will not suffer in silence.

 

And then, life shows up. And Nature. And Mildred is taken aback by the "you-don't-see-that-every-day" aspect of it. And it disarms her enough to talk...as if the fawn could understand her. Mildred doesn't quite understand herself, either. But, it's a moment of peace in a world of grief, and she talks.

 

Now, currently, I have encounters with deer on a regular basis, and my attitude towards them is they're just calmer dogs. And I've had occasion to escort them away from tasty things that are the source of my boss' income and off into Nature which offers a more diverse menu. The deer, when they first notice my efforts to "shoo" them, give me a look like "What?! I'm just standing here, eating..." But, they do eventually walk, or hop in the direction I'm maneuvering them to. I don't see them as a source of wisdom or reflection. They're just the near-occasion of deer, as Nature seems to be moving in where development encroaches, and people do their little dance depending on their incomes.

 

Life goes on.

 

The Set-Up: Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) is on a mission: her daughter Angela was raped and killed months before, and the investigation by the Ebbing police department has completely stalled. In protest, she has bought three billboards with the words "Raped While Dying" and "Still No Arrests" and "Home Come, Chief Willoughby?" And every day, she goes out to her fonted howls of rage to tend and maintain them.

Action. 

51 EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD - DAY 51  

MILDRED fixing flowers in pots at the billboards, making them look nice. It’s a beautiful, blue-skied day;

 

pretty birds mooch around,  

and out of nowhere a fawn suddenly appears. MILDRED stays dead still, breathless at the beauty of it, watching as it almost appears to look up at “AND STILL NO ARRESTS” and cock its head at the question. It spots MILDRED suddenly and is startled slightly, but stands its ground. 

MILDRED Hey baby. 

MILDRED Yep, 

MILDRED ...still no arrests. How come, I wonder? 

MILDRED Cos there ain’t no God and the world’s empty and it don’t matter what we do to each other? 

MILDRED Ooh, I hope not. (pause) 

MILDRED How comes you came up here outta nowhere, looking so pretty?

MILDRED You ain’t trying to make me believe in reincarnation or something, are ya? 

MILDRED Well, you’re pretty, but you ain’t her. 

MILDRED She got killed, and now she’ll be dead forever. 

MILDRED I do thank you for coming up, though. 

MILDRED If I had some food I’d give it ya, 

MILDRED ...but I’ve only got some Doritos 

MILDRED ...and I’d be scared they’d kill ya, they’re kinda pointy. 

MILDRED Then where would we be? 

The fawn finally decides to amble away, off towards the hazy sunset horizon. 

She almost cries but doesn’t quite. 

MILDRED (CONT’D) Oh Mildred.

 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

Words by Martin McDonagh

 

Pictures by Ben Davis and Martin McDonagh

 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Fox Home Video.