Soundtrack Review: Changeling (2008)

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This is a review of the motion picture score for Changeling by Clint Eastwood.

“With more feeling, more use of the themes, more like the first cues, Clint Eastwood could have stumbled upon greatness with Changeling, but instead falls down in the pit of mediocrity.”

Clint Eastwood is known to most people as an actor and a director. He is also a composer; I guess the man can do it all. Changeling is his latest movie and it has gotten more harsh critic than his previous movies. He usually composes for his own movies, last year for “Grace Is Gone” which was a very good effort by Mr. Eastwood. Changeling is a movie inspired by true events that occurred in the late 1920s. A mother’s son is kidnapped, but gets him back, however the mother feels the son she gets back isn’t her son. She has to constantly fight corruption in the police force and seek the truth. It’s always interesting with these period dramas to look to the music and wonder: Is this going to be a period piece like Randy Newman did for Leatherheads or is Clint Eastwood going for a more modern take to a new story in an old setting?

Track List

1.	Main Title
2.	Ride To School
3.	Mom’s On Call/Late to Trolley
4.	Looking for Walter/Waiting for Police
5.	Where Do You Live/Who Are You
6.	I Want My Son Back
7.	Arrive At Ranch/Looking for Sanford
8.	People Can’t Change
9.	We Killed Some Kids
10.	I Won’t Sign It
11.	Sanford Digs
12.	Room 18
13.	What Is Happening/Trial Montage
14.	Davey Tells Story
15.	I Want To Go Home
16.	End Title

Modern Score

Clint Eastwood chooses to go the way of a modern score for this period drama. I have nothing against that, and it can work very well. Sometimes there are usually mixed in some music from that period but not here. I really enjoyed last year’s “Grace Is Gone” and also “Mystic River” composed by Eastwood which had a nice sound to it. Since this is a very different movie set in a different time, I expect the film score to be different and it is. It starts off well, but quickly goes astray and I’ll explain why. The jazzy “Main Title” is a great little piece of music, although sad it might be, it’s a nice and relaxing theme which I had hoped Eastwood would use more throughout the Changeling soundtrack, but unfortunately doesn’t. The first 3 cues are easily some of the best on this scorand the horn creates an aura of relaxing and soothing music played on top of the main piano theme, a truly great combination.

After the first 3 cues it goes very wrong, but I see what Eastwood is trying to do. Obviously the movie changes somehow, and he tries to do that with the music, but when he does that, the whole feeling you had with the first 3 cues goes away. “Looking For Walter/Waiting For Police” and “Where Do You Live/Who Are You” are heavy string cues which feels very serious, which to be fair is the situation for the main character. The change for me didn’t work though and I feel I just want to skip to the next cues. “I Want My Son Back” starts off the same as the previous cues, but it’s different. It uses piano to get across something which Eastwood missed in the previously string-heavy cues. This one uses string as well, but the added piano makes this cue a whole lot different, a warmer fuzzier feeling.

Always Changing

He likes to change things as he does again with “Arrive at Ranch/Looking for Sanford” in which he uses a guitar, piano and strings in a cue that starts positively but the strings make it a very serious and boring cue. Still, it’s better than the following cues “People Can’t Change”, “We Killed Some Kids” and “I Won’t Sign it”. The reason that these cues don’t work as well as expected is that unlike “I Want My Son Back”, there is no thematic elements. Perhaps there is hint of it, but it’s not a very good or even passable. It just feels like background strings to me. Granted “We Killed Some Kids” has an eerie tone to it, which sets it apart, but the feeling is the same as “I Won’t Sign It”, which doesn’t touch me at all on any level.

I think we will skip the next cues as it’s just more of the same and go straight to the “End Title” which is a nice roundup of what is good about this film score. I guess you can feel my negativity as I write this score, but it’s very presence is quite insignificant and will have done nothing to me one way or another. I expect a score of this magnitude to at least evoke some emotions, but it rarely does. What is good about this score is the few themes that matters, the main theme and the jazzy ones, the ones that make you feel that this is going to be a good score, but the execution fails miserably.

Conclusion

This “nothingness” is the problem with Changeling as there are only a few cues to prove it even is worthy of a listen. You will forget this one really fast unfortunately and it’s one of those missed opportunities which will haunt Eastwood no doubt. With more feeling, more use of the themes, more like the first cues, Clint Eastwood could have stumbled upon greatness with Changeling, but instead falls down in the pit of mediocrity. Get it only of you enjoyed the movie and thought it was interesting on film, because that’s the only way you’ll get some worthwhile emotions out of this very disappointing score.

Listen to Changeling by Clint Eastwood below:

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Other articles of interest:

• Soundtrack Review: Spirited Away (2001)
• Soundtrack Review: 2012 (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Soundtrack Review: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Soundtrack Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

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