Review: This is definitely a movie that is going to split a lot of people. That is because it is a redemption story. The person who is being redeemed is not a guy who is a bit of a jerk, but rather the president of the Ku Klux Klan. As can be told by some of the backlash on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, many people don't want to see a violent racist redeemed, because very understandably they view this kind of character as beyond redemption. Though I really enjoyed this movie, if you feel this way you might want to skip this film. Me being a Christian probably has more than a little to do with it, but I personally don't believe there is anybody too evil that it is impossible for them to become changed and redeemed. Sadly most won't ever have this happen, but that doesn't mean it can't happen to someone who has spent most of his life filled with venomous hate. Those sadly much too rare times when it does happen it is beautiful and inspiring. And that is much of why I love to see a story like this.
Most movies like this would have a simplified and clichéd version of a Klan member (let alone the president), and that is what makes the depiction of CP Ellis here so powerful. When speaking in front of his fellow Klansman he does not appear as a mad man yelling hate speech at the top of his lungs instead he talks like a regular guy speaking with his buddies. One might at first think this movie is going soft on the Klan from this, but that is not so. We soon see him and his buddies shooting a woman's (who has a black boyfriend) house and scaring the poor lady to death. Here is what is truly terrifying about people like this. They are not over the top cartoon villains, they are people, who are otherwise normal that have convinced themselves that what they do is somehow right. This is further shown the more we see CP Ellis. This man is a guy who loves his family and would do anything for them. He joined the Klan to feel like he belongs to something bigger than himself and he does. However because of this he has to believe certain things that are pure evil, and do horrible things to innocent people. He convinces himself these things are right, because doing what he does he must believe that. Still whenever his beliefs are questioned he seems unable to actually explain them. As much as many of us would like it to be the world is not a simple place and people are not walking stereotypes. This is what the movie shows brilliantly and often times uncomfortably through this character. Not hurting of course is a fantastic performance from Sam Rockwell.
The treatment of Ann Atwater is given much less insight than the treatment of Ellis. We see much of Ellis' family and know much about who he is outside of his Klan activities. On the other hand Atwater, we really get to see only when she is being a civil rights speaker. Some might say that this is because the filmmakers decide to favor a white character over a black character. I disagree. The audience who would go to see a movie like this would already been on Atwater's side before even seeing the movie as our beliefs about race relations more align with hers. We have to be convinced that Ellis would come to his senses and want to see him give up his hateful ways. We definitely don't automatically like a character like Ellis the way we automatically like a character like Atwater, and therefor she doesn't need as much insight into her life. None of this means she is a bland character though. She is a powerhouse of determination and spirit. Yet under all this she is still deeply human.
Even though this film is based off a true story, many of the story points feel like we have seen them before. Anyone who has seen enough movies before can tell you what is going to happen next at almost every turn. I don't know all that much about the true story to be sadly honest, but with how cliché the story can get at times there is no doubt that it take liberates with what really happened.
This movie may not be one of the most original films, but it is also one filled with great emotion and performances, as well as some complexity to our two main characters.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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