Thank God for Clint Eastwood.

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2005)

Thank God for Clint Eastwood. Every time I am tempted to despair of the American cinema industry, along comes Clint with one of his masterpieces. In this film, he starred, directed and produced. He even composed the music ! Clint Eastwood has a gift for avoiding the typical Hollywood clichés and superficialities without sounding pompous and yet manages to reach the true depth of any given situation. His films avoids any distraction which would not help the story along. This film is long - over 130 minutes - but it seemed short to me. The very tragic ending of this film could easily have been mishandled, but Clint keeps it simple, concentrating on the essentials. For the first time in years, I admit that I cried. Eastwood also made me doubt for the first time about my moral positions on euthanasia. I am still against it, but readily admit that reality has a way of creating situations which are more complex than what a philosopher would imagine. The main actors, Clint Eastwood along with Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, are all simply superb. Now we expect that from veterans like Eastwood and Freeman, but Hilary Swank was an agreeable surprise, at least for me. She is a stunning actress and I hope she will be given other opportunities to star in quality films. Won't Hollywood ever learn ? Don't 'they' ever watch films made by Clint Eastwood ?