"What's wrong, Commissioner Willoughby?"
"No one was arrested."
"Rape kills you."
The daughter was raped and burned, the police could not find the murderer, the heroine Mildred could not accept, so she bought three billboards, wrote the above three sentences, and accused the police in the air, which caused an uproar in the calm town.
This is the beginning of the story of the movie "Three Billboards".
The director of this film, Martin MacDonald, is a screenwriter, and the previous two well-known masterpieces", "Killer No Holiday" and "Seven Neurotic Diseases", were also written and directed by him.
Macdonald is good at placing characters in an absurd situation full of embarrassment, to observe and capture the state of the characters, "Three Billboards" is very typical.
It was once called "One of the Favorite Movies of the Year" by Gao Xiaosong! "So what's so fascinating about it?
Let's explore four aspects of narrative art, character development and theme to interpret the film in detail.
Narrative art: Using Robert McGee's classic "story principle", layer by layer, the twists and turns of the story are fully presented, and the audience's emotions are effectively brought in in the process.
Character shaping: The shaping of the main character image is placed in the dramatic conflict of the film, and the continuous accumulation of conflict is used to completely present the psychological process of the characters, strengthen the emotional identity of the audience, and make the character image more plump and three-dimensional.
Theme discussion: the complexity of human nature, the distinction between good and evil, redemption and self-redemption, is the focus of the film's exploration, the director intends to tell us that good and evil are not clearly distinguished, not all questions have answers, people must learn to redeem themselves.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > narrative art: using Robert McGee's classic "story principle", layer by layer, the twists and turns of the story are fully presented, and the audience's emotions are effectively brought in in the process. </h1>
Speaking of "storytelling", there is no escape from a person Robert McGee, he is known as the godfather of Hollywood screenwriters, his book "Story" is the world's first must-read classic for screenwriters, the essence of McKee's story theory, can be distilled into a sentence, that is, "conflict subverts life".
"Three Billboards" is a good interpretation of the principle of "conflict subverts life", and we will analyze it in detail from four aspects below.
(1) Abide by the "dilemma principle" to refine and accumulate dilemmas.
For a story, the twist is extremely important, and the brilliance of a story depends largely on whether the twist is unexpected.
The dilemmas and twists and turns in the story, like hooks, firmly grab the audience's attention, and they eagerly want to know, what happened next? Is the problem solved?
Therefore, in the process of storytelling, we must abide by the "dilemma principle", constantly strengthen the dilemma in a person's experience, create a turn through the dilemma, and stimulate the curiosity of the audience.
In this film, the "dilemma principle" is vividly reflected, and the whole article revolves around a dilemma.
Mildred, a desperate mother who has lost her daughter, the biggest motivation to keep her alive is to find the murderer of her daughter, but who is he? This is the dilemma.
The police chief, shouted by the heroine with a billboard, the town set off an uproar, he did his duty, but there was still no clue, and more importantly: he was already terminal cancer! Where will he go from here? This is the dilemma.
Dixon is an ordinary police officer, chaotic life, no family, still living with his old mother, because of his rudeness, was dismissed by the new commissioner, how will he change the status quo? It's a dilemma!
In the film, every dilemma is full of tension, and what is more touching is that the dilemma and the dilemma are closely related, how to solve the interlocking dilemma? It became the biggest dilemma of Umbra!
(2) Refine the emotions and bring in the audience's strong emotions.
Professional screenwriters have found that in order to firmly grasp the audience's attention, it is necessary to touch the three strongest emotions of human beings, namely life, death and love. These are the three quickest entrances for stories to enter the consciousness of others.
"Three Billboards" firmly grasps these three entrances.
The background of the story is that the heroine's daughter is raped and killed, and she wants to investigate the truth, and there is a death full of fog;
The chief of police shot himself, and here death is involved;
Behind the strong and even somewhat brutal behavior of the heroine, there is a deep guilt and love for the daughter, which involves "love";
In the end, whether it is the heroine or Dixon, they have slowly completed reconciliation and redemption in this process, which involves "life".
It is precisely because these emotions are rendered enough that the audience's attention is firmly grasped.
(3) Control the "frequency of difficulties" and follow the 3-minute rule.
After research, professionals have found that a small climax of 3 minutes is the rhythm that is most in line with the audience's viewing psychology.
If your story is full of twists and turns, the audience will not be able to stand it, because it is too brain-burning;
However, if the interval is too long and the pace is too slow, the audience will get bored and give up following.
This is also known as the "3-minute rule", which is equivalent to adding a brake to the dilemma, and most movies and American dramas currently follow the 3-minute principle.
In this film, the 3-minute rule runs through it, and almost every 3 minutes there will be a small climax, and you can never guess what's going to happen next.
Do you think the police chief will actively solve the case after a warm picnic and win a big victory? No, he chose to commit suicide.
Do you think Officer Dixon will follow the vine to catch the murderer after eavesdropping on the chat of the? No, the guy was just bragging.
The story is constantly reversing in ways you didn't expect, and you always feel as if something is wrong, but you can't tell what's wrong. You can only follow the screenwriter's thinking and follow the evolution of the plot step by step.
(4) Create a "logical vacuum" and an "emotional vacuum" in the audience's mind.
The reason why "conflict subverts life" has infinite charm is because it creates a vacuum in people's minds, people can tolerate negative information such as mistakes and sadness, but they cannot tolerate a vacuum in consciousness.
Who is the murderer?
Can the case be solved?
This logical vacuum makes people can't stand it, and can only look down step by step with the development of the plot.
In addition, the emotional vacuum is equally unbearable.
How exactly should this anguished mother finally put her anger to rest?
Will the sloppy cop finally be able to return to the police station and find himself?
In short, the unresolved emotions of the characters in the play, like a hook, hooked the attention of the audience.
Summary of the narrative art of this film: Robert McKee's classic "story principle" will be seen in many classic movies. In the end, literature and film are, in the final analysis, the art of "storytelling", and "Three Billboards" is a classic that can be regarded as "storytelling".
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > character shaping: the shaping of the main character image is placed in the dramatic conflict of the film, and the psychological process of the character is fully presented with the continuous accumulation of conflict, strengthening the audience's emotional identity, and making the character image more plump and three-dimensional. </h1>
(1) [Angry Mother: Behind the fear of heaven and earth, is the inability to forgive yourself]
The heroine Mildred is a lonely mother in the play, because no one in the whole town supports her.
The crime occurred on the highway, and the daughter was raped and killed, which is difficult to accept on any mother. For seven months, the case was pending.
Mildred angrily accused willoughby, the police chief of terminal cancer, of being unkind, and those around her turned from sympathy to accusation.
She didn't care, she didn't need sympathy, she just wanted the truth.
Man blocks killing, Buddha blocks Killing Buddha, and she is like a completely angry bullfighting, attacking all those who stop her.
She went to see the dentist, and as soon as the dentist opened his mouth to persuade her, she drilled a hole in the dentist's hand with an electric drill.
The priest went to her house to try to persuade her, but she was dumbfounded.
Sending her son to school because of the attack on "three billboards", she showed no mercy and kicked at the students one by one.
Nearly tyrannical attacks, anger to destroy the world, paranoia about killing Buddhas. Its essence, after all, is the despair of the powerlessness of fate.
She exploded in anger, not only to the outside world, but also to herself.
On the day of the accident, the rebellious daughter said that she was going to the city, her mother did not agree to her use of the car, she angrily decided to go on foot, and cursed herself "I hope I was raped on the road", Mildred gritted her teeth "I also hope you are raped on the road".
It was her last words to her daughter.
As a result, in a word, life is so speechless and helpless. Therefore, her gushing anger is not so much to the outside world as to herself, to her condemnation and hatred, and to her own unforgiveness.
(2) [Police Officer Dixon: From muddy nightmares to self-recovery, only one can redeem oneself]
Although the most important role in the film is the heroine Mildred, Police Officer Dixon is also an important role in the film, and through the changes in front of him, the director conveys his profound intentions.
Police officer Dixon is an alcoholic, his reckless style of doing things is well known in the town, he did not start a family, he still lives with his elderly mother when he is old, is he still "ridiculed" by his mother.
The outward reckless violence is only his protective color, and he uses self-paralysis to escape from the reality he does not want to face.
Mildred's intrusion was a shock and a shock to her, how dare a person rely on her own weak strength to contend with the heavy reality? It stung the heart that he did not dare to face reality.
He put pressure on the merchants who rented billboards, put pressure on Mildred, and after sheriff Willoughby's death, he pushed the advertising merchants down the second floor.
It wasn't until he saw the handwritten letter written to him by the police chief before his death that he realized that he was valuable in the eyes of others;
Until he saw that Mildred would rather burn down the police station than fight to the end, he realized that relying on personal strength could change reality.
His self-paralyzed nerves began to loosen, and slowly, he embarked on the path of self-redemption.
He begins to appreciate Mildred's struggle and helps her achieve her wishes, and this process is also the process of slowly finding himself.
From the initial misunderstanding, to the deepening of the misunderstanding, to the reconciliation and resonance after experiencing various experiences, the occurrence and dissolution of this contradiction itself has become part of the ending.
(3) [Police Chief Willoughby: Conscientious policeman, kind father, pessimistic optimist]
Originally, the audience thought that this was an important male protagonist of the film, but unexpectedly, the police chief Willoughby quickly chose to commit suicide.
At the beginning of the film, we see a painful and helpless mother, and when we see her put up a billboard, we point our anger at the police chief, believing that the policeman's inaction caused the mother's pain.
But as the plot continues, we discover that Willoughby, the police chief, is a good and dutiful cop who has done everything he can.
Not all cases can be solved, not all questions have answers, this is the reality.
At the same time, he is now in the terminal stage of cancer, his time is running out, he has a warm family, a wife and children, although he is reluctant to be together in reality, but he can only succumb to the cruel reality.
He would play with his children, be gentle and loving to his wife, and in order to avoid becoming a burden to his family, he chose to end his life with a gun after a warm family gathering.
He said that he hopes that when his wife and children remember him, they are warm and beautiful memories, not pain and suffering.
On the surface, he is strong and optimistic, but in fact, he has a pessimistic background, in order to avoid those pains, I would rather use the cost of ending my life to prevent them from happening.
The film character shaping summary: : "Three Billboards" on the character shaping is rich in layers, it allows us to see the complexity and multi-faceted nature of human nature, we are difficult to use good and evil good or bad to evaluate a person, when you really approach a person, you will find that everything can be understood, "because of understanding, so compassion"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > themes: the complexity of human nature, the distinction between good and evil, redemption and self-redemption, which are the focus of the film's exploration. </h1>
(1) The truth of life: good and evil are not clearly distinguished, and the complexity of human nature is the core background
The angry mother, shouting at the police chief with a billboard, the audience pointed their anger at him as well.
But when we discover that he is not inactive and that he is terminally ill, the audience turns their emotions to Mildred because she is unkind.
But when the film continues to show the mother's fragility and weakness, the audience finds that they cannot bear to criticize her.
The police chief's suicide has further subverted people's expectations, and even though his death has nothing to do with Mildred, people still feel that the police chief is wronged.
An enraged Dick threw the advertiser down to the second floor, further curtailing the audience's liking for him.
However, Mildred set fire to the police station, and Dixon, who was reading a suicide note, inadvertently set up the burned victims.
Our concept of good and evil, which is thus subverted again and again, who is good and who is evil? Difficult to answer.
At the end of the story, Dixon tries to help Mildred find the murderer. The two people who had been inseparable before finally chose to stand together.
I think this is where this movie is profound, we always think that good is good, evil is evil, but "Three Billboards" tells us with a story that is constantly reversed: the boundary between good and evil is not always as clear as the "happiness and revenge" we imagine, and the elusive complexity is the real human nature.
Duality is the simplest and most labor-saving method of legislation, and of course the most lazy way to put it, it simplifies everything, but ignores that man is the most complex animal.
(2) The truth of life: Not all problems will be solved, and not every confusion will have an answer.
This is a film that is a bit mournful, but it is understandable, because real life has a very mournful side, and this film just interprets this reality in a seemingly playful way.
The heroine uses the way of constantly provoking others to cover up the inner collapse and avoid inner self-blame.
The audience was expectant of the police chief, waiting for him to smile and overcome the disease and catch the murderer; however, he chose to end himself with a bullet next to the stable.
Dixon begins in a bluster, but then he is finally resurrected, and when he is confident that he wants to catch the murderer and prove himself, everyone, including the audience, waits for justice to come.
But sorry, the phrase "justice may come late, but never late" didn't really happen, and fate mercilessly mocked them.
Everyone was powerless, but in the end, they embraced reality.
At the end of the film, Dixon asks Mildred, "Are we going to kill that guy?" Mildred replied, "Who knows?" Then the only smile in the whole movie.
We don't know if they're going to kill the man in the end, but in that laugh, they accepted it all, the fact that even if it was extremely unfair, it could only be accepted. After experiencing confrontation and understanding, the characters usher in a true inner peace.
Isn't that the truth of life? Not all problems will be solved, and not every confusion will have an answer.
Everyone's life is a movie with a climax and a constant reversal. Do you have a better option than to go on with a smile?
Seeing through life, but still loving life, this is true heroism.
epilogue:
Whether it is from the revelation of the truth of life, the analysis of human nature, or the overall rhythm and reversal of the film, "Three Billboards" is a commendable masterpiece, which is not a typical "politically correct" film, but the thinking and shock it brings is far-reaching.
Recommended to you!
END.
[Original article, piracy must be investigated.] The author is Tina, Master of Journalism from Zhejiang University, has many years of experience as a media journalist, brand public relations manager of a fortune 500 group, and a psychological counselor. If you like, welcome to like and pay attention to the psychology of @Tina, continue to output original good articles on psychology, and help you interpret life and see through the essence from a psychological perspective. 】