“When true hearts lie withered，And fond ones are flown，Oh! who would inhabit，This bleak world alone?” ("When the sincere heart has withered and the loved one has passed away, who wants to remain alone in this desolate world?") ”）
There are many good folk soundtracks in "Three Billboards," which appears at the beginning of The Last Rose of Summer. The ancient Irish folk song that has been circulating for a long time is used here, which is the expression of the strong tragedy of the heroine of the film herself.
It's a film about a girl's rape and murder, but the director gives the audience a different perspective: the conflict between the mother who lost her child and the police officer who solved the crime. This is a crime movie with a special character:
It's a crime movie, but the focus isn't on solving the case.
There is no homicide process, and there is no murderer.
The mother's antithesis is not the murderer, but the police.
The truth exists, but it doesn't need to be revealed.
The film begins with a solemn mother who rents three billboards in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of town. The fiery billboard tells some obscure stories: "Rape to death", "Still haven't caught the killer", "What's going on, Sheriff Willoughby?" ”
This is not advertising, this is accusation and questioning!
Seven months ago, her daughter, who was out of town, was raped in a billboard and then burned to death with gasoline, and the case has not progressed so far. The woman who lost her daughter shouted at the police officer in charge of the investigation.
The well-respected sheriff was displayed on billboards, which caused an uproar in the town.
First of all, as the boss of the police station, the party Willoughby Sheriff lost face, he found the heroine, told the difficulty and helplessness of catching the prisoner, and even threatened with the shortage of rent, but the heroine ruthlessly dissed back, even when he learned that the sheriff was suffering from cancer and the death date was approaching, he did not show a little sympathy.
The setting of Willow's cancer is very important, driving the progress and direction of the plot and the case.
The town is warm and harmonious on the surface, and the residents are very supportive of the police guarding the homeland, and they are also aware of the sheriff's illness, so after the sheriff is written on the billboard, there are priests and dentists who have come to intercede, but they are all fought back in a spicy way by the determined heroine. Even the heroine's son and ex-husband have said they disagree with this practice, but this has not helped.
The loss of a child is the deadliest blow to the mother. In addition to the hatred for the murderer, the heroine's greatest concern is the police who investigate the case, but she does not see any hope. At this time, she was out of anger and wanted to fight these incompetent policemen to the end!
However, the heroine also has her weaknesses, she is alone, and the other side is multi-powerful, which is a contest that can only be won by working harder.
Dixon, the sheriff's subordinate, is an emotionally irritable and violent policeman, who arrests the heroine's only friend, making the heroine even more helpless.
The advertiser said that according to the contract, the female owner did not actually pay the billboard rent for the first month, but only paid the deposit, and had to pay in a short period of time. I think that the advertiser deliberately made it difficult for the heroine to make her retreat.
At this time, the magical moment came, and a little boy sent a sum of money, and this money happened to be for the heroine, and it was just enough to pay a month's billboard rent. Who is the person who sent the money? The results were really surprising.
With the rent, the heroine can continue to play with the police. However, this is when a huge turning point occurs, which pushes the whole movie to a climax: Sheriff Willoughby shoots himself!
Undoubtedly, people must think that the death of the sheriff is related to the heroine. Her situation is even more difficult.
Sheriff Willoughby left three letters: one to his wife, one to the heroine, and one to his subordinate Dixon. In the letter, he explained that the reason for his suicide was that he did not want his family to see his unbearable side, revealing that the heroine's windfall was given by him.
Putting the heroine's friend in prison and weakening the other party's strength, Dixon is triumphant. But Sheriff Willoughby's suicide, once again inspired by the violent beast that awakened him, he crippled the advertising man and threw him out of the window. If he hadn't rented a billboard for the hostess, he wouldn't have had the sheriff's name. After that, the heroine's billboard suddenly caught fire and was burned, which was also done by Dixon, because without the name of the sheriff on the billboard, the sheriff would not have committed suicide.
The ballad "The Last Rose of Summer" at the beginning of the film reminds me again that the heroine whose billboard was burned threw three bottles of gasoline at the police station, and the fire was raging, which was a demonstration and resistance against the powerful.
Just then, Dixon was reading the letter the sheriff had left him. In the letter, the sheriff, like a close friend and elder, glimpses Dixon's heart, affirms his integrity, points out his shortcomings, and teaches him the secret of being a successful police detective: to have love. It looks like chicken soup, but it also explains the origin of Dixon's personality.
The letter's role is not to be underestimated, it gives Dixon's character a 180-degree turn.
He was burned with a terrible fire and indulged in alcohol, but he kindly told himself that he had seen the suspected murderer, igniting the hope of the heroine's despair.
Who is the cruel murderer? I think about it as the man who smashed the heroine's bunny, the man who showed off to his peers in the bar that he raped the girl. I have the same expectations as the heroine, Dixon, however, the director let the audience pounce, and the DNA does not match.
At the end of the film, the heroine embarks on a journey with the dismissed Dixon to pursue the rapist, "Are you sure we still have to do this?" "I'm not sure." We can decide slowly on the way..."
The open-ended ending seems meaningful, making the story itself and what the story conveys more complex and real, because in real life, not all the truth can be revealed.
In addition to the confrontation between the victims and the police, the film also reflects many social phenomena. For example, the issue of white and black race, the film mentions and white ghosts, as well as the problem of abuse of colored people, although it is only a dragonfly, but a grain of sand sees the world. For example, the relationship between the people and the authorities, the blacks and advertisers at the beginning of the film do not pay attention to the police, or even have hostile implications, which is also a potential social contradiction. There is also a focus on the problem of dwarfs and homosexuality.
The plot of the film is interlocking and full of tension, the camera transition is concise and smooth, the soundtrack is close to full score, the face of the characters is gradually three-dimensional in the development of the plot, and each person is clear, unique and complex characters.
The heroine is played by Oscar actress Francis McDormand, she just won the 90th Academy Award for Best Actress, the seemingly cold, well-behaved heroine in the film, there is also a kind and gentle side, one second and the sheriff tit-for-tat, the next second the sheriff vomited blood, blurted out "baby", immediately shouted the sheriff to send the will.
The supporting character Sheriff Willoughby seems incompetent, but he loves his family and faces his own death calmly; the injury of the best actor Dixon's loss of his father makes him vulnerable and irritable, and he will be completely changed by a letter... The whole film is unexpected and reasonable.
Director Martin Macdonald, known as the "ghost talent" of the British film industry, he is also a screenwriter with a unique style, and his observation and thinking about society touches the essence but is somewhat naïve, because some problems are cosmopolitan.
At the end of the film, I believe that the director did not deliberately direct the audience to the issue of Atrocities committed overseas by the U.S. military (perhaps implying that the murderer was another soldier returning from Afghanistan or Syria), but unexpectedly revealed a mixture of problems that the United States had never really solved since the nineteenth century, and the growing conflict and hatred in the new century. From the mother of a small American town, to the bloody storm that spread to the whole world, race, hegemony, gender, etc., unfortunately, Sheriff Willoughby only exists in the movie.