British director Peter Yates was very versatile. His varied output ranged from Cliff Richard's musical Summer Holiday, crime classic Bullitt, comedy heist The Hot Rock, teen cycling movie Breaking Away, stage drama The Dresser.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a grimy gritty crime drama as well as a character study set in early 1970s working class Boston. It is clear that the film's style influenced both Micheal Mann in movies such as Thief and Heat. As well as Ben Affleck in his directorial effort The Town.
Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum) is a truck driver and a small time hood for the Irish mob. He is facing jail time for a truck hijacking and he wants a reduced sentence from ATF agent David Foley (Richard Jordan.) Foley wants Eddie as an informer.
Eddie also supplies arms to some robbers carrying out bank robberies. Eddie gets them from gun runner Jackie Brown (Steven Keats.)
With wife and kids, Eddie does not want to do a long stretch and finds Foley is very demanding. Eddie does not know that Foley has other informants such as Dillon (Peter Boyle) a bartender and who set up the job which landed Eddie in trouble.
Mitchum gives a world weary performance as the hood who has been doing low level crime for years. Eddie tells the story to Jackie Brown about how he had his hand broken once because someone went to jail for a mistake he made.
Mitchum gives a good performance but Keats gives an even better one as Jackie Brown. There is a great scene where he tells a novice gun dealer that life is for a gun runner and even harder if you are stupid.
The title of the film is ironic. Eddie has no friends, he is on his own like the other crooks in the movie. You find and push your own edge to get ahead. Dillon knows that.
The drama works better when it concentrates on the small time crooks as well as the cop who wants to get somewhere. The actual bank robbery scenes with the guns Eddie procured get in the way.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a grimy gritty crime drama as well as a character study set in early 1970s working class Boston. It is clear that the film's style influenced both Micheal Mann in movies such as Thief and Heat. As well as Ben Affleck in his directorial effort The Town.
Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum) is a truck driver and a small time hood for the Irish mob. He is facing jail time for a truck hijacking and he wants a reduced sentence from ATF agent David Foley (Richard Jordan.) Foley wants Eddie as an informer.
Eddie also supplies arms to some robbers carrying out bank robberies. Eddie gets them from gun runner Jackie Brown (Steven Keats.)
With wife and kids, Eddie does not want to do a long stretch and finds Foley is very demanding. Eddie does not know that Foley has other informants such as Dillon (Peter Boyle) a bartender and who set up the job which landed Eddie in trouble.
Mitchum gives a world weary performance as the hood who has been doing low level crime for years. Eddie tells the story to Jackie Brown about how he had his hand broken once because someone went to jail for a mistake he made.
Mitchum gives a good performance but Keats gives an even better one as Jackie Brown. There is a great scene where he tells a novice gun dealer that life is for a gun runner and even harder if you are stupid.
The title of the film is ironic. Eddie has no friends, he is on his own like the other crooks in the movie. You find and push your own edge to get ahead. Dillon knows that.
The drama works better when it concentrates on the small time crooks as well as the cop who wants to get somewhere. The actual bank robbery scenes with the guns Eddie procured get in the way.