billboard
The billboard has been silent for many years until it is affixed with a red slogan, like a cry that has been smothered in the throat, and finally blurted out. Billboards with black characters on a red background have almost become a thorn in everyone's eyes. Whether priests, dentists or police officers directly involved in the case see this behavior as heresy.
Missouri in the textual sense is a backward, conservative, prejudiced place among people. Although the town in the film is a fictional place, the relationships between the characters in the town have typical meanings. The presence of the billboards disrupted the relationship between the group. Including the dwarf and the heroine dating, Jason and the advertiser for mutual understanding, after the director died to help the heroine pay the billboard rent, the heroine told her ex-husband to be friendly to the current girlfriend, and finally Jason and the heroine joined forces On the hunt for the murderer's journey. After the billboard triggered a series of effects, the relationship between the characters was reconstructed.
Billboards are dynamic in the movie. From abandoned to new, from burnt to rebirth, the growth and changes of all characters are also closely related to billboards. Those stubborn prejudices also slowly faded with the communication.
police badge
The badge symbolizes the loss and recovery of responsibility.
Jason is a complicated character. He's an alcoholic, a reckless and insecure young man, a policeman who abuses blacks, a big kid who obeys his mother, a good assistant who respects Chief Willoughby, and who may also be a gay who doesn't dare to reveal his identity.
After the chief committed suicide, we learn from his monologue that he was determined to be a good cop. We thought this was the point where the character started to transform, but in the next long shot we see him throwing the advertiser out the window. This is actually when the character is most confused. In the face of the new chief's dismissal order, he couldn't find his badge. Because that police badge representing responsibility never appeared during his tenure.
It was only after the fire that his personality really began to change. Until he risks getting beaten up to get the suspect's DNA, he's a real cop. When he returned to the station to confirm the identity of the suspect, he found the police badge and took back the responsibility. But had to turn it in, the tragic character of the character is perfectly expressed through a police badge.
deer
Deer in the West is a symbol of sacrifice and sacrifice. In 2017 and early 2018, in more than five movies I watched, deer appeared. One of the most typical one is "Death of the Sacred Deer". The deer in this film is directly used as a sacrificial tribute, a symbol of scapegoating.
The appearance of deer in "Three Billboards" is when the heroine is most tangled in her heart. She looked at the charming little deer, showing a weak side for the first time. In the only flashback to appear in the film, she and her daughter are just arguing. Only when facing the deer can we see the soft-hearted side of this stubbornly resisting woman as a mother.
The deer is the externalization of the mother's soft heart and a symbol of the innocence of the daughter who was raped and killed.
fire
A billboard fire caused the heroine to set fire to a police station. As it says in the film, anger begets even more anger. The billboard fire is the biggest threat made by the opponents, and the burning of the police station is also the climax of the heroine's revolt.
But after the fire, the personalities of the two main characters began to change.
Especially Jason, who is trapped in the fire, reading the letter that Chief Willoughby left him. When he found the fire, he quickly picked up the information about the case on the table, repeated Willoughby's advice to him, and then rushed out of the fire. Next, in a unique bandage perspective, we see him meet the advertiser he beats in the hospital, and the conversation between the two reveals Jason's apology.
After being discharged from the hospital, Jason was full of scars, but he was like a new life (reborn from ashes, or emerged from a cocoon). Attentive viewers can find that the characters' hairstyles have also changed.
invisible person
There are two types of invisible people. One is someone who helps the heroine from unknown sources, such as an anonymous letter sending a rent. One is the one who hides in the dark and opposes the heroine. Apart from our reasoning and speculation, the film does not specify who set the billboard on fire or who was the murderer.
This invisible treatment implies the indescribable good and evil in human nature. Taking two Chinese films as examples, this kind of concealment is used, the invisible master (the feudal male power of invisible oppression) in "Raise the Red Lantern" and the invisible president (unshakable) in "Carnival". social elite).
There are two theories about the murderer. The first is that the murderer is the one who beat Jason in the bar. He is a soldier who performs secret missions for the country, so he "can't move"; the second is that the murderer is still unknown. Either way, the murderer is at large.
At the end, the two of them drove the car and planned to go to the suspect, but their attitude was indeed vague. First of all, whether that person is the real murderer, and secondly, what kind of opponent they are about to face, and what kind of inside story is unknown.
And the greatest gratification should be that they finally stood in the same camp to fight.
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