This is Eastwood's mature vision

Rating: 10/10 (18 April 2006)

Beautifully written, produced, acted; Eastwood continues to grow, and it's great to see that. May he continue to be the maverick who takes on stuff like this and do things few dare to do.
You can't ask for better; a movie which says everything that needs to be said about the choice to make the search for truth one that involves a fight. For Dunn, life is a fight. Contenders for claims to the divine must run through searing heat, so the dross burns off and what comes out the other side is pure gold. This movie pushes us right into the volcano. Do we come out with or without hope that this process produces something ultimately beautiful? Sorry, but this movie declines to convince or reassure. That is for each of us to decide at the movie's end, just as we will have to assess at our lives' ends. If that sounds like a "stone bummer, man," then don't watch this film.
This movie joins others, like Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, that dare to leave us with no clear and pat conclusions about the fates of the protagonists. In the end, the real issue involves our feelings as we face life's challenges--and deal with the outcomes, both desired and undesired. Will your final take on the fates of Dunn and his protégé relate in any way to your own life decisions as you face your future?