- #WATCH THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI MOVIE#
- #WATCH THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI SERIES#
#WATCH THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI MOVIE#
“It’s a movie that has a violent, racist cop as a central player, and uses his history of torturing black people as a kind of edgy character detail,” NPR’s Gene Demby wrote on Twitter, describing it as “a movie that’s in large part about a cop who beats up black people - to say nothing of the black woman (Denise) he throws in jail as a way to get back at Mildred - but the movie is mostly concerned about *his* feelings. The Dixon character has tarnished many largely positive reviews of Three Billboards, including the Washington Post's, which ran the plainly stated headline: " Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri didn’t need its racist cop." Review: Frances McDormand gives a brutally great performance in topical 'Three Billboards' Even after an incident where he stages a false arrest and detains Hayes' colleague Denise (one of the movie's few black characters with a name) for possession, Dixon goes on to become the movie's hero of sorts by its final act.Īdditionally, the town's black characters play a much smaller role in the film, and those who are supposedly tortured by Dixon are all but forgotten. Whether the film glosses over Dixon's racist past in a hasty moral redemption has become the point of contention.
#WATCH THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI SERIES#
After a series of personal tragedies, Dixon becomes a changed man and Three Billboards' unlikely hero.
Sure enough, Dixon's good-heartedness emerges over the course of the movie, which gives him nearly equal time onscreen as McDormand's central character. Soon after, Dixon's boss Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) explains to Hayes that the younger officer has a "good heart," and that if he "got rid of every cop with vaguely racist leanings, you’d have three cops left and all of them would hate the fags." "How's the (n-word) torturing business, Dixon?" Hayes cracks in one scene, to which Dixon replies, "You can't say '(n-word) torturing' no more, you gotta say, 'Peoples-of-color torturing'," in a back-and-forth that establishes Dixon's oafish views. The majority of the backlash is aimed at Rockwell’s character, Officer Jason Dixon, which earned him best-supporting actor nominations for both the SAGs and the Globes.ĭixon is introduced to the audience as outspoken and lewd, a cop with a penchant for racial slurs who supposedly tortured the town's black prisoners in previous incidents. What parts of the movie are controversial? Here's a rundown of why Three Billboards is attracting negative buzz as awards season gets underway: More: Golden Globes 2018: Who will win - and who should? Yet, even as many critics praise McDormand's character, a growing number of observers are criticizing Three Billboards' racist cop, played by Sam Rockwell, and the casualness with which the movie treats his bigoted views and history of violence.Īnd as Rockwell begins to win awards for his role, taking home the Globes trophy for best supporting-actor, a category he also won at the Palm Springs Film Festival last week, the backlash against the movie remains, which began bubbling on social media around the film's release and expanded after Three Billboards began raking in nominations in December, inspiring headlines that call the movie " tone-deaf," “ hopelessly bad on race," and the cinematic equivalent of a family's racist uncle.
The McDormand-led film about a mother, Mildred Hayes, whose daughter has been raped and killed and seemingly forgotten by local police, has been largely praised by film critics, with USA TODAY crediting the movie for "blending black humor and menace and fostering a pervading sense of hope amid a relentless story of revenge." The film's narratives of female power and revenge also feel particularly timely in today's charged Hollywood climate of sexual assault revelations. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is gearing up for awards season domination, leading the film categories at the Golden Globes with four wins, including best drama, best actress in a drama for Frances McDormand, best screenplay for writer/director Martin McDonagh, and best supporting actor for Sam Rockwell. Watch Video: 'Three Billboards' offers small-town tragedy and one mean mother