Resilient Femininity in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

This chapter examines “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” through the method Analysis of spectatorship. From the opening shots we sense that the main character Mildred is aggressive and dangerous, but we are relieved later on as she starts acting increasingly through receptivity. And just when we are feeling calmer, the ending poses the question whether Mildred is not a murderer after all. The strength and passion of spectator identifications are the means by which the film unlocks the ambivalence in our unconscious and forces us to ponder what we would do if we were in Mildred's place. Through the contradiction of doing terrible things for a good cause and the open-ended finale, the film suggests that the solution is neither easy nor black-and-white.