DISEMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN CLINT EASTWOOD’S CHANGELING 2008: A SOCIALIST FEMINIST APPROACH

Anggoro, Fajar Dwi (2010)

Abstract
The major problems of this study is disempowerment of women in the society which is reflected in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling. The aim of the study is to analyze the film based on the structural elements and to analyze the film based on the feminist theory. In analyzing Changeling film, the writer uses the qualitative method and Feminist Perspective. The data sources are primarily data source, which uses the Changeling’s script written by Clint Eastwood in 2008, and secondary data source is biography, an essay, comment, historical information and other relevant informations. The method of collecting data is library research. The technique for analyzing is descriptive analysis. The outcome of the study shows the following conclusions. Firstly, based on the structural analysis indicated that each of narrative and technical element of movie have been related into solid unity. Secondly, based on socialist feminist depicted that women tend to be disempowered by patriarchal society. The last, the author wants to assert that everybody has strength and weakness regardless the power to be someone he or she wants.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Changeling is box office 2008 American movie directed by Clint
Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. Based on real life events in
1928 Los Angeles. The film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman who is reunited
with her missing son but retrieved. This movie has five major characters and
eight minor characters, the major characters are Angelina Jolie as Christine
Collins, Jeffrey Donovan as Capt. JJ Jones, John Malkovich as Rev. Gustav
Briegleb, Devon Conti as Arthur Hutchins, Jr, Michael Kelly as Detective
Lester Ybarra.
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood Jr was born on May 31, 1930 in San
Francisco, California, U.S. Before becoming such kind of well-known people,
he firstly graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1949. He began
acting during the mid-1950s, with unaccredited appearances in B-films such as
Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, and Francis in the Navy that become him
as an American actor, film director, producer and composer.
Changeling, in this movie, Christines lives with only one son, that is
Walter in her life. Christine roles as the mother and the leader of her family,
she firmly used her time for working in Telephone operator in Los Angles,
U.S. On Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye
to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she was coming back from
working, she caught her son not in the house. From these events, she reported it
to the police, but the police neglected her recommendation to seek her son.
Christine Coline always insisted to the police to find her son, one day
after, the police come to Christine’s house to hear the chronologies and the
features of her missing son. They were given a latest Walter’s photo. Five
months later, a boy is found in Illinois who fits the description. He said he was
her son. To fanfare and photos, the LAPD reunite mother and son, but she
insists he was not her boy. The cops dismiss her as either a liar or hysterical.
From those cases, the police proposed the bad idea to change the lost
son with other son, and he was forced by the police to confess that his self is
not the real Walter by saying the Address of the Christins’s house. After
meeting the wrong Walter with his mother, Christine, the police insisted that
she had found her son in front of the media. Knowing those cases, Rev. Gustav
Briegleb as pastor helped her to find Christine’s son.
Day to day, Christine underwent the strange activity acted by that son,
through these cases, Christins sued to the police to seek the real son and
rejecting that the boy beside her was not the real Walter. Recognizing the
Christine’s statement in public that actually that boy was not her son, the police
decided that Christine experienced bad temperature, grid, and bad appearance.
As the days and weeks go by, the Collin’s case becomes the object of a
campaign by Pastor Gustav Briegleb who mocks against the incompetence and
corruption of the Los Angeles Police Department. She realizes that the police
have returned a stranger to her in an attempt to bring an end to the public
complaints about their handling of her case. Her attempts to get justice bring
her into conflict with the LAPD who will go to any length to protect their
reputation. When she continues to complain she finds herself arrested and
confined to the mental ward or the hospital. Through her perseverance, she
eventually learns of her son’s fate and exposes the corruption and
incompetence of the LAPD in media.
This movie also created the pro and contra from the public response.
Based on Times on Wednesday in October 22th 2008, changeling was the
sensational movie that why it contained all the horribly elements portraying in
police-procedural fashion. In addition, this film also shown its purposeful
accumulation of depravities, both individual and institutional.
The other media is Newsweek newspaper. They argued Jolie in
Changeling rolled her with admirable restraint and slow-burning ferocity. On
the contrary, this movie, Changeling does not have the moral nuances of most
recent Eastwood movies. Then again, some stories really are about the good
people and the bad, and it only concerned in moral outrage. The characters
come neatly fit in black or white hats.
The achievement of this movie is able to reach dropped to fifth place at
the box office. Changeling was released on DVD and video on demand in
North America on February 17, 2009 and in the United Kingdom on March 30,
2009. After its first week of release, Changeling placed fourth in the DVD sales
chart with 281,000 units sold for $4.6 million by its fourth week of release and
also the film had dropped out of the top 10, having earned $10.1 million.
Changeling received nominations in three Academy Award and eight
BAFTA Award categories. In categories best actress in leading the role was
reached by Angelina Jolie. In 2008 Costume Designers Guild Awards with
nomination Excellence in Costume Design Period Film was won by
Changeling.
The appearing of the disempowerment of women are viewed as the
object of level in the government, police when they want to get the truth from
the institution. As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in
Prohibition-era L.A. women do not challenge the system and live to tell their
story. Based on the actual incident that rocked California's legal system,
Changeling tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those
who will not stop until they silence her.
Moreover, she still stands in her aim to against the legal system
motivated by the power not injustice. It can be indicated from the utterance
delivered by the Chief of Police James E. Davis makes the following
announcement:
“We will hold trial on gunmen in the streets of Los Angeles. I want them brought
in dead, not alive, and I will reprimand any officer who shows the least bit of
mercy on a criminal." This is immediately followed by a shot of officers
executing a line of criminals in the middle of a dark street. An elimination of the
competition. For a system this dishonest, a persistent woman like Collins is seen
as nothing but a disruption”.
From these cases occurred in the real life, make this film is interesting
to be watched. There are some reason why this film is called interesting to be
watched, the first reason is this film in truly take place in the real life
especially in Los Angles, US and also it is scare adapting the film from the
true story happened in society.
The second reason is impressing film, that why, the story of the film
remains is difficult to be neglected or the other hand it can be called an
unforgettable film. It is shown from the sacrifice of Angelina Jolie as Christine
in obtaining the aim, stand straightly to be single parent in her life. The other
one, the setting used in the film shows the different views from the watcher..
The third reason is conflicting, the conflict here appeared when her son
was missing, and she efforts to insist the police to seek her son. The conflict
here hurtles the government from injustice in society. Conflict which was
taken place in Christine life, was the hot issue to be seen and criticized.
Starting point of the conflict’s appearance was her son, Walter found not in
house. The conflict rised more in police department condition where the
public viewed there were discrimination, intimidation, and injustice system in
the society.
The fourth reason is easy to understand, since the film from the
beginning until the end mostly told the kidnapped son. Therefore, the massage
is simply to convey to others. The watcher of this film would feel enjoy and
relex in understanding the message deliveringby the director. The curiousity of
the viewer was also created by the director, that in the ending of film, no one
knows that a boy who has escaped from the murder was the real Walter.
Finally, the main goal here is disempowerment of woman to be the
issue that carries out into the research. In Changeling film shows the
disempowerment of woman was portrayed by the main character, namely
Christines. That is why, the writer uses DISEMPOWERMENT OF
WOMAN IN CLINT EASTWOOD’S CHANGELING A SOCIALIST
FEMINISM APPROACH as the title of this research. Besides that, the
writer’s reason using such that approach as the theory is to analyze the film,
because that film mostly deals with the disempowerment of woman happened
in Christine’s life. She insisted the truth and justice’s treatment in handling the
problem. The appropriate feminism here is about socialist feminism that focus
on getting equal right based on class and reproduction of capitalism in the
society namely between men and women.
B. Literature Review
In this research, the writer did not find the research regarding the socialist
feminist approach in Changeling film. In the contrary, the writer found two
sources that are an essay and an article.
The first is an essay written by Cecilia Rasmussen entitled “Reunited
Son”, on February 17th 2009 Los Angles, America. She said that film involves
not only apparent abduction, but also impersonation, police coercion, false
imprisonment, psychiatric abuse, and a court fight that stretched on for more
than a decade. Moreover, the changeling film was a story with victims and
villains.
Why is it called as a story with victims and villains, because there is a
pressure which is pointed to the women. Christine Colline should accept that
boy given by the Police Department although he is not the real son.
The second is an article written by Omar P.L. Moore on Wednesday,
March 18, 2009. This article entitled “A long life Search” viewed as jabbing
critics to the police department, legal and political underbelly of 1920s Los
Angeles. Christine is a single mother to Walter, working as a supervisor at a
telephone-operator station. Returning home from a last-minute shift, a day on
afternoon she was to take Walter to the movies, but Christine finds Walter
gone. Panicked, she calls the police, who promptly delay her missing-persons
claim. Her crisis draws the attention of Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John
Malkovich), an outspoken critic of police corruption.
Eventually, Walter’s rescue is seen as positive response for a department
wheezing with sickness, and Captain J.J. Jones to make it a priority.
Unfortunately, Captain J.J Jones as the Missing Son Department convert
Christine’s son, Walter with other boy.
C. Problem Statement
The crucial problem of the study is “how disempowerment of woman in
the society is portrayed in Christine’s life of “Clint Eastwood’s Changeling.
This kind of disempowerment is closer with the habit in woman’s life in
Changeling. It is occurred in Christine’s life in the society as the major
character.
D. Limitation of the Study
The writer limits the study on the disempowerment of woman portrayed in
Christine Collin as the major character. By adopting the socialist feminist
approach by Andersen theory, the writer tries to explore the disempowerment
of woman portrayed by Christine Colin.
E. Objective of the Study
Based on the problem statement above, the objective of the study is to
analyze the film “Changeling” by using socialist feminist theory.
F. Benefit of the Study
The writer do hope that this research is able to contribute the benefits to
others, the benefit of this study as follows:
1. To give theoretical contribution to the larger body of knowledge particulary
in understanding the literary study in Clint Eastwood.
2. This study is expected to enlarge the writer knowledge and experience both
the literary research feminism perspective and the Changeling itself.
G. Research Method
1. Object of the Study
The object of the study is Clint Eastwood’s Changeling.
2. Type of the Study
In analyzing the film, the writer uses the qualitative method, the data
to be performed in descriptively analyzed.
3. Data and Data Source
The writer uses the dialogue and scene as the types of data source
supporting by the script of the film to catch a comprehension understanding.
However, there are two sources of gaining the data that are primary and
secondary data source:
a. Primary Data Source
The primary data source of the study is the Film of Changeling written
directed by Clint Eastwood published in Los Angles, US 2009.
b. Secondary Data Source
Supporting the data such as author biography, an essay, comment,
historical information, and other relevant information.
4. Method of Collecting Data
The technique used in collecting data is the research utilize the
library research, it can be obtained by some steps as follows:
a. Watching the film repeatedly
b. Reading the script of that film
c. Taking a note of the necessary part in both the primary and secondary
data sources
d. Classifying the data into some categories
5. Technique for Analyzing Data
In analyzing the data, the researcher employs the descriptive
analysis, in which the researcher identifies the Gender Inequality in police
department that reflected in major character, Christine by using feminism
perspective.
H. Research Paper Organization
The writer organizes this research paper in order to make easier to
understand. This research is divided into five chapters: Chapter I is
introduction. ln this chapter the writer divided it into six items, they are:
background of the study, previous study, problem of the study, limitation of the
study, objective of the study, benefit of the study, and research paper
organization. Chapter II is underlying theory. It consists of feminist theory,
which is adopted from Andersen’s book. Chapter III is historical background of
America at turn of twenty first century. It presents the social aspects, economic
aspects, science and technology aspects, religious aspect, political aspect,
cultural aspect, and women conditions. Chapter IV is research finding. Chapter
V is feminist analysis. And chapter VI is conclusion and suggestion.