“Things Have Moved on in the South,” Or the Art of Forgiveness as in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh (2017)

Abstract

Martin McDonagh’s 2017 film entitled Three Billboards.. has been critically hailed as the film “about vengeance, violence and the acceptance of death,” controversial mainly “for its handling of racial themes” and considered “empty of emotional intelligence” as well as “devoid of any remotely honest observation of the society it purports to serve.” How come, then, that yet another embodiment of the U.S. South as culture’s “bad guy,” has managed to win so many accolades, including Oscar nominations (7) and Oscar awards (3) as well as e.g. 4 Golden Globe awards or 5 BAFTA awards? My paper attempts to approach this question by claiming that the film successfully “advertises,” much as its titular billboards do, and on all levels of its cultural production, contemporary southernness as the art of forgiveness. I am curious to see if and how such a vision of the South lets the region off the hook as culture’s aberration.