More recent critics have treated the film and Eastwood's direction in a more positive light. Film critic David Sterritt, for example, concluded, "Eastwood's unsubtle directing hammers the story home effectively, with commendable attention to details of performance". In his review on the Combustible Celluloid website, Jeffrey M. Anderson gave the film three and a half out of four stars, calling it "surprisingly effective, even by today's standards". Anderson found the climbing footage "truly gripping" and that the film was "underrated, high-water mark for the great director". Christopher Granger in the "Tampa Bay Movie Examiner" gave the film four out of five stars, writing, "The scenery in the Alps is breathtaking and the action in this spy thriller is end-of-your-seat viewing." Jason Ivey in the "Tea Party Tribune" found the later sequences of the film "truly breathtaking" and wrote, "There's simply something more suspenseful, more dramatic, when you know you're watching Clint Eastwood hanging from a rope 1,000 feet above the rocky earth." Ivey concluded: