Took two nights to finish. The direction was mixed, with obvious care being given to the climbing scenes while much of the story's block and tackle being shot boringly. I'm assuming that this was early in Eastwood's career and largely a vehicle to illustrate his climbing skills.

As an aside, my friend Scott is a climber and, as I like to giving rowing movies a pass for involving my sport, he gave this one a pass, said it was one of his favorites.

One thing that did stand out was this film's poor (if perhaps period correct) attitude and acceptance of overly racist and sexist comments and actions. It's frankly jarring to see men casually (and repeatedly, even in the same act) smack women on the ass. Or how, in response to a hard workout, Eastwood's character notes to a woman assumed to be Native American, "I wish Custer had won."

That, along with a generally absurd plot, weird nods towards Bond, and fight choreography that was severely lacking, really hurt this one in my opinion. The final act, the ascent, does really bolster the entire film though. That and George Kennedy's Ben being the only person giving a meaningful line reading.