Very well executed

Amateur movie with Big budget

A Brilliant Conflict

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Rarely have I seen a more celebrated movie that went over my head more than "The Friends of Eddie Coyle". It's just not a movie I can watch, and I think I've proved that to myself after this third viewing.The plot is impossible for me to follow. I get that it's about an ageing hood played by Robert Mitchum who wants to buy machine guns. Some of the people he knows are cops, and some are robbers. I couldn't tell any of them apart.There are maybe two robbery scenes in the movie, but mostly it's just tedious dialogue that makes no impression, like all of the characters and situations. Mitchum isn't really in it that much, but he spends a lot of time meeting guys in booths and at the end he goes to a hockey game.I have no idea what this movie was even about, or why anyone likes it.

Yeesh, talk about a bleak crime movie. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" plunges you into the Boston underworld, full of treacherous people, all playing each other for leverage; a genuine pit of snakes (Peter Boyle most of all). And the tone is superbly set right from the beginning: Fall atmosphere, Dave Grusin funk groove score, '70s muscle cars, locations from comfy suburbs to dingy pool halls. The movie has some pacing issues, but it's also got George V. Higgins' killer dialogue to keep things thrumming along. That, and a good cast (fronted by the always impressive Robert Mitchum, the sap who's doing the most maneuvering).7/10

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