Script Analysis: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — Part 5: Dialogue

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all this week.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Dialogue.

You may download a PDF of the script — free and legal — here.

Written by Martin McDonagh.

IMDb plot summary: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Some questions to consider in relation to dialogue in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

• What do you consider to be the most memorable lines… and why?
• Any notable callbacks (a line used once, then used again later in a different context)?
• How about set-up & payoffs?
• Any exposition that caught your eye for being handled exceptionally well?

Head to RESPONSES and let me know what dialogue in the script made the most impact on you.

Major kudos to Halil Akgündüz for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, go here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Major Plot Points discussion, go here.

For Part 3, to read Characters discussion, go here.

For Part 4, to read Themes, go here.

To access 60+ analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.