The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

This movie starts out with bankrobbers, who as a rule of attack, take hostage of the bankdirectors wife and childeren BEFORE they do the heist. Very suspenseful start indeed. Great groovy soundtrack by Dave Grusin. Great acting. Looks like a real cold blooded gangster heist movie. Robert Mitchum is the leadrole, who plays a hustler providing weapons to the bankrobbers, he is the middle man. That is unfortunately where the movie loses it's edge. Mitchum is bigger than life. The coolest dude on earth. But this story made Mitchum into a married man who wanted to be with his wife in the later years of his life. He got spooky of another prison sentence and wants to play it safe in his older years. That is not the coldblooded Mitchum we knew from other gangster movies. And although it is a more realistic picture of an aging hustler, it isnt very cool looking to see Mitchum wine about married life and do grocery shopping. That is the first let down. The second let down: Snitching on itself is the lowest one can go in the world of gangsters. And this movie is about snitching to save your own ass. Who is gonna snitch on who I wont reveal, but the snitching kinda spoils the fun of a suspenseful start of this heist movie. Why does it get spoiled? Because in the end the snitches are on the winning hand. Snitches never win in gangster movies. They die, they are on the run from being killed or live a meak and sober life in protection. But in "The friends of Edddie Coyle" the word friends is used sarcastically, because Mitchum hasnt got any. And the guys he does know are ratting on him. The snitches win! Terrible! Then Mitchum starts snitching himself too, which is just a disgrace and big letdown, however realistically it may be...To summarize. This is a great heist movie for the first half of it. Even if we forget about the rather peculiar "feminine" Mitchum, then the end where the snitches win, is still a downer. They should have made another ending to the story, wherein the snitches gets wasted and the gangsters win. Now the movie ends on a downer. It could have been a classic, now it is only half way there.

Dear Peter Yates,you made an edgy film that was true to the book by George.V.Higgins. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is about a bunch of crooks squealing on each other to escape jail sentences. The film is mostly entertaining dialog. The people (actors), places or events are not given too much space. The characters and the plot develops almost entirely through the sparse but often realistic and witty dialog. The film is set in a a male world. There is a lot of machismo. For example, a couple of the crooks casually discuss a woman's vagina. Someone like Tarantino would have tried to emphasize the best dialogs if he had directed this film. What I mean is that most directors would have tried to create a huge event if they had dialogs like the ones in the movie. But your directing style is unromantic and sparse. It was original and faithful to the book. The tension is caged in because of which the film never really rises above a certain level of entertainment. The gangsters in the film are total losers without any honor. They would rat each other out and kiss establishment ass in a second. Norman Mailer expressed surprise for the book - "that so good a first novel was written by the fuzz." I have not watched another gangster flick like The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Robert Mitchum was effortlessly brilliant as Eddie Coyle - a small time gangster who is on his way down. Well done, Peter.Best Regards, Pimpin.(10/10)

From the Ironic Title to the Ironic Ending this Peter Yates Neo-Noir is an ultimate Character Study of Boston's Criminal Element in the Early to Mid Seventies. Robert Mitchum Plays Eddie, a Busted-Knuckle Grunt for the Mob that is a Stand-Up Guy. A whole lot of Good that has done and will do the Aging Criminal. He is looking at a Stretch and is Desperate to get Free.Of Course, in the Cinema World and the Real World for that matter, the Odds are Stacked against Him. That is the Film's Concern and through the use of Gritty, Realistic Dialog, and Unfettered, Chilling Locations both Interior and Exterior, it Weaves its Downbeat Tale with Good Characters and Character Actors.Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, and Steven Keats are there for Mitchum to interact as the Story Spirals to its Inevitable Conclusion. In Minimalist Fashion and "Fly on the Wall" Realism, the Writer and Director make No Apologies for the Abandonment of Hollywood Gloss and Action.The Energy is in the Tension, the Nervous Waiting and over Thinking of every Detail, to Avoid certain Arrest or Death. Considered one of Robert Mitchum's Best Late Career Roles, He Masterfully Underplays with a Smoldering Sense of Angst and Acute Awareness that the Walls of His Chosen Life are Closing In.A Must-See for Mitchum and Neo-Noir Fans and Lovers of No-Frills Street Life Crime Thrillers.

As esteemed film critic Kent Jones explains in his excellent Criterion essay, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is "an inside job". Although this heist movie is sprinkled with two stifling bank robberies and a frenetic parking lot double-cross, director Peter Yates (who got in an early career best directing Steve McQueen in 1968′s Bullitt) manages to cause a stir in the film via an introverted look at old-timing gangsters and the new wise guys.Robert Mitchum is the titular Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle. A lifelong middleman gangster, he earns enough bread to keep his wife and two kids at home sweet. Needing to get his quick hands on thirty guns for a friend's big bank robbery job, he gets mixed up with bigmouth gunrunner Jackie Brown (Steven Keats). Whilst the heists go accordingly, ears are burning in the Boston underworld. At risk of heading back into jail after being caught drug smuggling, Coyle breaks the outlaws' code of conduct and grasses the names of his friend's to the nuisance detective, Agent Dave Foley (Richard Jordan) in a desperate attempt to keep his name in the clear. But the ears of the Boston Mafioso are burning and soon Eddie looks like he's in for white-knuckle trouble.Lifted from the George V. Higgins novel (which is also very good, FYI), screenplay writer Paul Monash manages to get some authentic swagger in the perfectly timed, heavy dialogue sequences, like when Detective Foley suggests to Coyle that "everybody oughta listen to their mother". It not only had me in stitches, but managed to validate and humanise everyone's greasy fingered pursuit.There's some great, beaten up performances here from some forgotten American greats. Peter Boyle is dynamic and unpredictable as the shifty local barman, and Coyle's only friend, Dillon, whilst the ruffled Steven Keats makes his feature debut as the gun smuggling Jackie Brown (ahem – namedrop!). Best of all, and perhaps unsurprisingly, is Bobbie Mitchum as the titular character. Slurring his way through a pitch-perfect accent (a rare attempt, throughout his career), the once lovable Hollywood rogue is clearly relishing the opportunity to become it's downtown elder statesmen. With flecks of grey, a looming hunch and wise, baggy eyes, Mitchum's depiction of Coyle as a man looking for rope is laconic, yet expressively wrought.It does have the same congested air of gritty Blaxploitation features like Super Fly, only the survivalism tactics exist now in a typically white, Boston vein. There's no moral judgement. The characters we expect to be pure evil are the do-gooding nice guys, whilst the meek prove the quickest to stab someone in the back. Unpredictable, and even with a few bum-note exchanges, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a nuanced, melancholic portrait of the distinctly unglamorous American underworld.Read more reviews at www.366movies.com