Film Twitter Needs To Learn More From Dixon, Among Other Things

For the first case, this can be seen with officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) in Three Billboards when he throws Red (Caleb Landry Jones) out of a second-floor window. Then goes down the stairs onto the street to keep punching him. For the second case we can see this with Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) in I, Tonya when both her mother (Allison Janney) and her husband (Sebastian Stan) use her as a punching bag for their own frustrations. Using as an excuse that it will toughen her. Both instances remind you violence is bad. It’s not put there to glorify it, the director lets you interpret it.

There have also been complaints about both films because one major character is redeemed, or that one film asks us, the viewers, to forgive someone. I, Tonya shows us another point of view in the well-known Tonya Harding story. It shows us the difficult childhood she had, the failed marriage, the issues by those who decide who represents the USA at competitions. The director wants us to feel sorry for her. He even gives us a courtroom scene where we learn that Tonya will lose the only thing she really ever loved: ice skating. Yet, does she deserve our forgiveness? That’s for the audience to decide. The director wants you to choose his point of view, but you can decide to go the other way.

Three Billboards’ case is more complicated. Dixon, who we watch during the entire first two thirds as a bit of a monster. He wins a redemption arc, and changes his character (or so we think) completely to become a better person. The director gave him, of all characters, a redemption, a chance to be better. Will that erase his past? No, but some people are interpreting that redemption as “forget his past”, and this has been the core of lots of discussion and think pieces on Film Twitter.

The director here, again, asks us to choose a side, to believe if Dixon deserved redemption or not or if his change is believable. Should I agree with him? For me, I believed in Dixon’s change in Three Billboards. Did he deserve redemption? Honestly? No, but I believe that every person deserves a second opportunity no matter how evil they were before. Call me naive, young, but I believe in that. Maybe that’s why I didn’t have so much trouble with it happening.

Another detail that made me believe his change is that it happens after a near-death experience. People argue it was Chief Willoughby’s (Woody Harrelson) letter that changed him, but actually it was the combination of the letter, the near-death experience, and the act of kindness and compassion by Red in the hospital (when he gives Dixon a straw for his orange juice even when he knows he’s the responsible for his injuries). That sold me his change.

In the case of I, Tonya, I understood the reasons for her behavior, but I simply couldn’t excuse that she decided to do what she did (or wanted to do) to Nancy Kerrigan. I believe that she learned her lesson eventually. I will never forget what she did though. The same with Dixon because the past can’t be erased. None of the films state that you should forget their past, you decide if you want to. I don’t fully appreciate any of the two directors’ intentions, but that doesn’t change the fact that both movies are good and that I liked most things about them.

Not agreeing with the director’s intention doesn’t mean the movie is gross or bad, it means simply that you don’t agree. It doesn’t make you less smart or smarter. Also, not liking some elements, like the use of violence, shouldn’t condemn a film. You can discern from it and the other elements you liked and disliked, put them on a balance and give an appropriate general evaluation of the film, being objective while not forgetting that little hint of subjectivity that every work of art needs.

I agree, though, that these directors need to be more careful and judgmental when deciding how and how frequent to use violence. There’s very fine line to exaggeration and glorification, and most people took the latter as interpretation. I thought the former and that’s why I felt at ease. It doesn’t make me less smart suddenly, I just see it differently, and that’s okay. With this I’m trying to urge people to be more cautious on how they express their feelings towards a film.

Don’t make people feel less because they liked or disliked something you didn’t. I’m sharing my interpretations of both films main issues because I want you to know that thinking differently to your point of view doesn’t make me less or more than you. If you think you‘re smarter or better than someone because you disliked or liked something and they think otherwise, then you’re potentially being a pretentious prick. Don’t do that. Share feelings, opinions, point of views, complaints, but don’t act as if you understood it better. I also encourage people to be open to other people’s interpretation of a film. Don’t close your mind to whatever got into it first.

The Florida Project is a film that everyone has love on Film Twitter. When I watched it, I didn’t love it as much because I had an issue with its ending; it almost ruined the film for me. Nevertheless, since the film was so great before that moment, I gave it a good grade and put it in my list of films I liked or “found okay”. One day I read a tweet of someone who watched the film and explained his interpretation of the ending. While I read that, I felt enlightened, because his take of the film made sense to me and it made me understand why that was the ending. It made me appreciate more the movie and now it’s higher in my ranking of best films of 2017. Yet, this wouldn’t have happened if I had left my mind closed to other people’s point of views, ideas, and opinions.

Be open to anyone’s interpretation, not only your peers and pals, or experts, anyone. Even the “dumbest” of takes has a hint of truth in it. Remember, not everyone that differs from you is your enemy. Don’t be absolute about anything either, especially absolutely negative because everything has a slight of goodness in it. We all love movies, why are we fighting then?