Director: Clint Eastwood
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, John Malkovich, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly
Rating: R for some violent and disturbing content, and language.
Early in Changeling, Director Clint Eastwood’s dark and brooding crime drama, a mother explains to her young son why his father abandoned them. “For some people,” she explains, “responsibility is the scariest thing in the world.” This statement sums up the grand theme of the film—responsibility. Changeling is an old-fashioned, often severe morality tale about accepting or shirking responsibility—crime and punishment seen through a stern lens of actions, both good and bad, and the resulting consequences. And of course, there’s the mystery of a mother who swears her missing son, now returned, is not her own.
Changeling centers on the true story of the infamous Wineville Chicken Coop murders which scandalized Los Angeles and made national headlines in the late 1920s. Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single mother who works as supervisor of a busy switchboard in downtown Los Angeles. When her son Walter disappears, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), who uses his pulpit and popular radio broadcast to condemn police corruption and ineptitude, unexpectedly takes up her cause. With each passing week that Walter remains missing, Briegleb causes more embarrassment for the Los Angeles Police Department.
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The Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), who uses his pulpit and popular radio broadcast to condemn police corruption and ineptitude, unexpectedly takes up Christine’s (Angelina Jolie) cause. Copyright © 2008 Universal Pictures.
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Briegleb’s criticisms are well founded. The L.A. Police department of the late 1920s was notoriously corrupt. In fact, as Briegleb points out in one of his barbed broadcasts, the cops only wiped out the mob in order to eliminate the competition. Crimes went unsolved, while the police shook down merchants, took bribes and essentially operated as gangsters in uniform. With Briegleb’s taunts generating public outcry, pressure from the mayor makes it clear that the Collins boy must be returned to his mother. After five futile months, the police proudly announce that young Walter Collins has been found. But here the film takes a bizarre twist: the boy is clearly not Walter. The more Christine protests and insists her son is still missing, the more she is vilified by the authorities.
As Christine continues to insist that police need to find her son, she is accused of being an unfit mother, of being delusional, and most outrageously, of rejecting the returned Walter only to shirk her responsibility as a mother. Eventually the police, without court order or due process, institutionalize her against her will for being emotionally unstable. If this were fiction, it would be unbelievable, but since it’s based on fact, you can only feel amazed at what it says about 1920s culture and what devious lengths the corrupt will stoop to to protect their reputation and riches. In a male-dominated society where women and children were marginalized, the emotional instability of women was accepted as fact and reason enough to take the word of a male expert over a mother who swears a child is not her own.
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Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is introduced to a boy claiming to be hers by Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan). Copyright © 2008 Universal Pictures.
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Christine’s love and determination to save her child are at the emotional core of the film, and Jolie powerfully portrays this fierce devotion. She is a testament to perseverance and courage. If this mother’s love is the film’s heart, then the idea of responsibility is its head. Responsibility or accountability is the central ethical question of the film. The police shirk their essential responsibility to protect and serve. They also refuse accountability when they present Christine with a child not her own. Rather than admit that they have found the wrong boy (who lies about being Walter), they accuse Christine of being hysterical and an unfit mother.
The theme of retribution or judgment is clearly tied to the idea of responsibility. Eastwood has explored this theme before, particularly in Unforgiven. In Changeling, several of the characters—including the Chicken Coup Kille—express a fear of “going to hell” for their sins. It’s thought provoking that this modern crime drama explores the old-school idea that the consequences of our sins follow us from this world to the next. In fact, the child killer fears hell more than the hangman.
Changeling isn’t for everyone; its story is grim and very dark. But for anyone who has enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s late career renaissance as a director, Changeling holds its own alongside other somber classics like Million Dollar Baby and Letters from Iwo Jima. Most importantly, although the film explores the darkness of human nature, it still leaves you with a ray of hope.
Study Questions
- Why do you think the film was called Changeling? What changed? What didn’t?
- Can you believe that this story actually happened – that a woman was told a child was hers that was not? Do you believe something like that could happen today?
- What do you think this true story said about the status of women and children in the 1920s? Have attitudes changed?
- The film shows the determination and love of a mother for her child. Have you ever known a mother or father who has done amazing things or suffered for a child’s sake?
- How does God’s love for Jesus provide a model for human parent and child relationships? (See John 3:16.)
- Do you believe, as Christine said in the film, the responsibility is the scariest thing in the world to some people? Have you ever avoided a responsibility that should have been yours?
- Who in the film accepted their responsibilities? Who did not?
- What did the film say to you about consequences? Was its position on guilt and punishment too severe for you?
- Were you surprised that the subject of going to Hell for crimes was included? What are your thoughts on Hell? Do you believe in it?
- Did you find the ending o the film hopeful? Can you identify with Christine never giving up on her son?
Resources
Official Changeling site
Theatrical Trailer
