The Friends of Eddie Coyle
The Criterion Collection
In one of the best performances of his legendary career, Robert Mitchum plays small-time gunrunner Eddie "Fingers" Coyle in Peter Yates’s adaptation of George V. Higgins’s acclaimed novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle. World-weary and living hand to mouth, Coyle works on the sidelines of the seedy Boston underworld just to make ends meet. But when he finds himself facing a second stretch of hard time, he’s forced to weigh loyalty to his criminal colleagues against snitching to stay free. Directed with a sharp eye for its gritty locales and an open heart for its less-than-heroic characters, this is one of the true treasures of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking—a suspenseful crime drama in stark, unforgiving daylight.
Member Reviews
Great film - GPG71
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a very solid crime drama. Robert Mitchum is excellent in the lead role and Peter Yates (Bullitt) directing is great. The story moves along quickly and builds to a great finale. My favorite scene involves Bobby Orr playing for the Boston Bruins at the Garden.Somewhat interesting Crime Caper - MikeB
If you are a fan of crime films and/or Robert Mitchum you may enjoy this movie. However it starts to fade in the last half hour. There are reasons for this, there are too many sub-plots weaving around, the characters are pretty much unsympathetic and not likeable. In fact the characters are very cardboard like. The plot is interesting with well constructed bank robberies and, fortunately, a lack of histrionics (no big car chases, no lengthy and bloody shoot-outs).
Also the movie is somewhat inconclusive – I was never too sure on who ‘ratted’ on the bank robbery gang and who gave the ‘order’ to snuff out Robert Mitchum? When the arms seller guy is arrested there is no follow-up, which is too bad because he was one of the more interesting characters. This is just left dangling.
Incidently at the close of the movie there is a scene with Robert Mitchum at a hockey game – the Bruins and Black Hawks. This may be interesting to some viewers (like myself) but it gives a very dated appearance to the film.Stands up well years later - Superdave
Other reviewers have mentioned this film's very 70s look and concluded that it looks dated, but it doesn't really. Shot now, but set in the 70s it might look and play just the same. More a slice-of-lowlife character study than a crime thriller, the acting and writing are wonderful. Mitchum's character is world-weary in the extreme, Boyle is so duplicitous that he succeeds in deceiving himself and Richard Jordan hits just the perfect amoral note as an exploitative Fed who manipulates both of them with shaky promises and dirty deals. Boston itself, with its grungy urbanity is very well used and the dauntingly fortress-like architecture of Government Center seems an appropriately sinister nest for the conscience-less bureaucrats who work there. Here, none of the glamor visible in The Godfather is present. The criminal characters live quietly desperate, lower middle class lives and bungle along from one 'job' to the next. They are working stiffs whose metier is crime, and their world is a dark and unpleasant one. It was nonetheless a privilege to visit it.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Great film - GPG71
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a very solid crime drama. Robert Mitchum is excellent in the lead role and Peter Yates (Bullitt) directing is great. The story moves along quickly and builds to a great finale. My favorite scene involves Bobby Orr playing for ...Somewhat interesting Crime Caper - MikeB
If you are a fan of crime films and/or Robert Mitchum you may enjoy this movie. However it starts to fade in the last half hour. There are reasons for this, there are too many sub-plots weaving around, the characters are pretty much unsympathetic and not likeable. ...Stands up well years later - Superdave
Other reviewers have mentioned this film's very 70s look and concluded that it looks dated, but it doesn't really. Shot now, but set in the 70s it might look and play just the same. More a slice-of-lowlife character study than a crime thriller, the acting ...