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The Friends of Eddie Coyle
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Wikipedia article
'The Friends of Eddie Coyle' is a 1973 American neo-noirSilver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). 'Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style' (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. crime film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle and directed by Peter Yates. The screenplay by Paul Monash was adapted from the 1970 novel 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle' by George V. Higgins.
The film tells the story of Eddie Coyle (Mitchum), a small-time career hoodlum in the Irish Mob in Boston, Massachusetts. The title is purely ironic: Eddie has no friends.
While critical reception was positive, with particular praise for Mitchum's performance, the movie was not popular with filmgoers and failed to rank in the top 30 either in 1973 (when it was released mid-year) or 1974, and failed to recoup its budget in combined box office.
Plot
A crew of bank robbers successfully hits a suburban Boston bank.
Eddie Coyle is a low-level career criminal and defacto member of Boston's Irish Mob, clinging to a blue collar life in Quincy, Massachusetts. Skilled and trusted, he supplies disposable pistols to the bank heist gang led by Jimmy Scalise. He plays hardball with a gunrunner named Jackie Brown to get them.
Coyle is facing down prison, he will soon be up for sentencing for driving a truck full of stolen liquor in New Hampshire, a job set up by his friend Dillon, a barkeep at the dive Coyle and other criminals frequent. Dillon is also a paid informant for Federal agent Dave Foley of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Coyle had kept his silence as to who was behind the liquor truck job; he was afraid of what those behind the job would do to him if he informed on them. Instead, Coyle decides to go to Foley and give up Brown in hopes Foley will get his upcoming sentence cleared.
Scalise's gang robs another bank. This time, the heist is botched by a fatal shooting. They know they have at most one more payday before they have to quit.
Brown delivers a rush-job shipment of pistols to Coyle, for the bank robbers' last score, while letting slip that he has a rendezvous set up later that afternoon at the Sharon train station to deliver some M16s. After leaving Brown, Coyle immediately phones Foley to relay the information. Brown shows up at the train station car park and cases it out. He's wary of the risks in front of him but not yet wise enough to cover his back. He is arrested when Foley's ATF stake-out closes in. Furious, he immediately knows who informed on him, and vows revenge.
Coyle meets with Foley to hear the good news on the Fed's meeting with the prosecutor in New Hampshire, but he is told the Brown tip was not enough and the federal prosecutor needs more. Eddie is repulsed as he had remained silent and did time covering for the Irish Mob before and even endured his fingers on one hand being broken for a small problem on a gun deal. He refuses to become a serial rat.
Following their pattern, the Scalise gang shows up at a bank manager's suburban home to kidnap him and hold a family member's life as ransom while they do the job. They're ambushed by Foley and his ATF crew without firing a shot, thanks to information Dillon had been passing to Foley about criminal activities being arranged at the bar where he bartends. Unaware of the bust, Coyle arranges a meeting with Foley the next day to rat on the Scalise gang. Foley shows him the morning paper, leaving Coyle with nothing to trade.
Dillon meets a mob go-between to discuss a job; Dillon is a skilled hit man and a higher up known as "The Man" wants him to kill the suspected informant, Eddie Coyle. Dillon is exacting in his demands for advance money and the timing of the killing so the job can be set up right. Later, Eddie enters Dillon's bar and Dillon buys him drinks. Eddie confides to Dillon that he has no idea who informed on Scalise. The bar payphone rings and Dillon gets word his conditions will be met. He tells the caller Coyle is there, putting on an act of sorrow about the big bust, and Dillon promises to do the job.
Dillon serves up another free round and invites Coyle out to a Boston Bruins hockey game at the Garden later that night.
At the Garden, Dillon ensures the disconsolate Coyle gets drunk, oblivious that his host isn't joining him in drinking. On the ride home, Coyle passes out. Dillon executes Coyle, then has the driver park the car in a bowling alley parking lot next to one indistinguishable from their own, swap into it, and drive away.
The next morning Dillon and Foley meet outside the Boston Federal Building. Foley gives Dillon his weekly $20, with a tip for Scalise. Eddie Coyle's murder is an afterthought - Dillon says he can't talk about it and Foley takes him at his word. They part ways.
Cast
* Robert Mitchum as Eddie Coyle
* Peter Boyle as Dillon
* Richard Jordan as Dave Foley
* Steven Keats as Jackie Brown
* Alex Rocco as Jimmy Scalise
* Joe Santos as Artie Van
* Mitchell Ryan as Waters
* Helena Carroll as Sheila Coyle
* Jack Kehoe as The Beard
* Margaret Ladd as Andrea
* James Tolkan as The Man's Contact Man
* Peter MacLean as Partridge
Production
Filming took place throughout the Boston area, including Government Center in Boston, and Dedham, Cambridge, Milton, Quincy, Sharon, Somerville, Malden, and Weymouth, Massachusetts.
During the making of the film, Mitchum was interested in meeting the local gangsters as part of his research. Journalist George Kimball, a sports writer on the 'Boston Herald' at the time, claimed that Mitchum wanted to meet Whitey Bulger and was warned against it by Higgins. What is claimed instead is that cast member Alex Rocco, who grew up in Somerville, introduced Mitchum to Howie Winter of the Winter Hill Gang.
Reception
'The Friends of Eddie Coyle' was not well-received by the filmgoing public. It failed to place in the top 30 in film revenue in 1973https://www.the-numbers.com/market/1974/top-grossing-movies "Top Grossing Movies, Annual Movie Chart - 1973", thenumbers.com (when it was released mid-year)https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Friends-of-Eddie-Coyle-The#tab=summary "The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)", thenumbers.com or 1974,https://www.the-numbers.com/market/1974/top-grossing-movies "Top Grossing Movies, Annual Movie Chart - 1974", thenumbers.com and failed to recoup its estimated $3 million dollar budget in combined box office returns. It was, however, well-reviewed by some critics, and today is among the most highly regarded crime films of the 1970s by some. Upon its release, Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' gave it four stars, his highest rating, while Vincent Canby of 'The New York Times' also reviewed it favorably, calling it "a good, tough, unsentimental movie". Both reviewers singled out Mitchum's lead performance as a key ingredient of the film's success. Ebert wrote: "Eddie Coyle is made for him [Mitchum]: a weary middle-aged man, but tough and proud; a man who has been hurt too often in life not to respect pain; a man who will take chances to protect his own territory."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 98% from 40 reviews.
Home media
The Criterion Collection released a special edition DVD of the film on May 19, 2009. It included a director's commentary by Peter Yates, who died less than two years after the DVD came out. Criterion released a Blu-ray version on April 28, 2015.
See also
* List of American films of 1973
References
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