Monday, April 09, 2018

"Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri"-- not a who done it

If you have not seen the Academy Award film "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" then you might want not to read my assessment of the film.
Most probably know, generally, it involves a mother (Frances McDormand)  whose daughter was killed and raped, in that order, in Ebbing, Missouri and its police inability to solve the heinous crime.  It is about a woman's justifiably insatiable anger, played brilliantly by Frances McDormand, and her indefatigable attempt to force the police to keep looking for the murderer of her daughter by putting up three billboards (at considerable cost) asking essentially why the Ebbing Police have not solved the murder yet.
If one was expecting a "who done it" film that leaves the viewer satisfied at the end by the murder's capture then one should not see this movie. It is substantively, I think, about much more than that.
I believe the film is about anger and a human being's inability to satiate its imprisoning grip.  I believe this film is omni applicable not only to those who have lost loved ones through the violent acts of another but also to nation states whose occupants carry insatiable anger that compels them to commit the most heinous and illegal acts against another without guilt.  One need only look at the recent horrific poisoning of children in Syria by nerve gassing them to death.  What could possibly justify this act that compels men to commit this crime against humanity? 

If one thinks Hitlerian Fascism died in 1945 at the end of WWII one must think again and see the rebooting of it in the present day Europe.  Right wing violent extremist nationalism swimming in hate is alive and well living in Hungary, Poland, France, Britain and in some Scandinavian nations as well.  It can be seen through Russian oligarchic tyranny, corruption and the attempted murder of two innocents sitting on a park bench in London by a mass destructive poison attempting to kill them in torturous fashion.  In Syria, Israel,Yemen and many other Middle East states one can see over decades and sometimes centuries man's constant desire to crucify the other. 

In "Billboards" it is said by one that "anger begets anger" and so it does.  Its cousin revenge is man's attempt to quell the rage within which seldom through the ages, gets resolved.  Finally, there is, lest one forget, the tyranny of Trump. One who in Vel' d'Hiv Roundup fashion (French round up of Jews during the Holocaust) captures those brought to this nation as young children, loving this nation and knowing no other only to face being sent back to their parent's country of origin where they may face death upon their return to violent alien cultures. Trump orders the round up of those allegedly undocumented workers who came to this country to escape fractured nations defying Lady Liberty's mandate: "Give me your tired your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Trump pardons the Torquemada torturer of inmates, former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, found guilty of contempt of court. Trump who lets his cabinet steal millions from this nation showing Trump is the swamp he said he would clean.  Who would have thought this evil, mendacious, miscreant would be catapulted to the apex of power in the most advanced nation on earth? 
Where and when does the anger end?  Where is its peaceful resolution?  In Ebbing, Missouri Mildred's anger is diffused .... a bit .... through the kindness, empathy and forgiveness of others.  Luke 6:29: "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other to him."  How many of us are able to do that?  I think "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" was a film about anger and its resolution through the help of others from whom one might be least likely to expect help.  We should learn how as it is three minutes to midnight and we have a sick man in the presidency just itching to press the button that would end all of man's problems while ending all life on earth itself.

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...