A hateful film! (SPOILER)

Rating: 3/10 (23 June 2004)

I just finished watching this film, and I'm upset. I of course had heard the hype, and was looking forward to watching this. This is nearly a good film, but in the end I have come away from it feeling sick.
The end message from this film seems to be that it's OK to kill people. Obviously that's a gross simplification, but that's the feeling I'm left with. All of the main characters and most of the supporting ones are fairly hateful disgusting people. This is bleak stuff.
The one character you believe is OK, Sean, the cop, turns out in the end to have apparently protected his friend Tommy from an earlier murder charge, and seems to let him get away with a second murder of Dave, their mutual friend.
Sure, most of the performances are pretty good, although Sean Penn as usual isn't entirely convincing. Watching this move up until the very end I had hope that it was going to turn out OK, but no, the credits rolled and the guilty walked free, because apparently it's OK to kill somebody that you suspect (with no real evidence) of having killed your child. So long as you act strong everything will be OK. Another child is left without a father, a wife without a husband, and there are no consequences for this. What utter tripe.
A final scene or two at the end with Tommy getting arrested would have fixed this movie and made it into something great. Even him getting run over by a random passing car would have been an improvement. Instead I'm left feeling sick, and wanting Mr. Eastwood to give me my $6 rental fee back for subjecting me to such tripe.