On the basis of deeply probing conversations with the actor-director, conducted over a three-year period, and interviews with friends, colleagues and family members, Schickel gives us the most candid and close-up portrait of Eastwood we have ever had.

We see the boy, Clint, regularly changing homes and schools as his family struggles to overcome the hardships of the Depression. We watch a restless West Coast adolescent obsessed with cars and jazz turn into an angry young man going through years of frustration and rejection as he tries to establish himself as an actor.

After Eastwood achieves star status in the television series Rawhide, we witness him making the daring choices that propel him first to international stardom - the decision to make a spaghetti western (Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars) - and then to superstardom as the controversial Dirty Harry. We trace, too, the emergence of Eastwood the director, from modest beginnings (Play Misty for Me) through increasingly complex and ambitious films such as The Outlaw Josey Wales and Bronco Billy to the Oscar-winning success of Unforgiven.

And finally Eastwood becomes not only one of the most admired figures in his profession, but an American icon.

Here is the essential Eastwood, caught in action as he directs and stars in some of his most important movies, reflecting on what is unquestionably a remarkable career. Here is Eastwood describing his feelings about his own work, about his unwillingness to settle for the roles he knows he can play and his desire to challenge himself; about films and filmmakers, directors, actors and actresses; about his family; about what he has accomplished and what he hopes to accomplish.