Pretty Good

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

As Good As It Gets

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

"This life's HARD man, but it's HARDER if you're stupid!"The atmosphere simply cuts your breath away. The dialogue is clever and, at times, ironic. Robert Mitchum plays the role of a gangster, who wants to retire from that life full of danger, impeccable. Richard Jordan and Peter Boyle also delight us with their solid performances. Simply put, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a realistic movie, a film that portrays the ruthless life of gangsters, a film without mistake.

The grizzled and tired Eddie Coyle (Mitchum) sits opposite a young man (Keats) at a diner. It's a tableaux we've seen plenty of times before; two people exchanging information back and forth; tit-for- tat. Yet there's something mesmerizing about the two actors on the screen. Maybe it's the fact that both characters are unsure of whether to trust the other. Maybe it's the camera which dances at a distance before listening intently to Coyle's story of his broken knuckles; the reason they call him "fingers". Maybe it's the natural magnetism of the actors. Maybe it's all three.The Friends of Eddie Coyle is full of intimate moments like these, immediately differentiating itself from the exhausting grandeur of The Godfather (1972) and the frenzied mis en scene of The French Connection (1971). It's a crime thriller that lets the audience squirm under the pressure of its paranoia. In the center of the tempest is the distrusting Coyle who slowly realizes he's in a den of snakes.Coyle is only a few days from his sentencing in New Hampshire and expects a two-year sentence for driving a truck full of contraband for a friend (Boyle). In order to avoid a stiff sentence, Coyle deals information to the wily agent Foley (Jordan) while simultaneously buying up guns as a middleman for a group of trusting bank robbers. Young Jackie (Keats) the aforementioned young man is the one Coyle buys from. Who will Coyle fink on? Who will be outed as the stool pigeon in this web of deceit? Will Coyle get his sentence lessened or will he pay the ultimate price for his transgressions.The bank robbers in question (Rocco and Santos) make a habit of kidnapping bank managers and holding their families hostage in exchange for compliance. Within the time frame of the first robbery we as the audience become voyeuristic accomplices peering between tree branches and nervous POV shots. These early scenes set the tone making everything from Keat's open air sub-machine gun purchase to Coyle's quaint New England kitchen seem claustrophobic. As the film progresses and the fates of all involved becomes crystallized, we're invited rather glumly to watch Eddie's world come crashing down. Despite its outlook and subject matter, Friend of Eddie Coyle is neither overtly violent or cynical. The story never treats our protagonist as a criminal or a stoolie but rather as a last vestige for a dying way of life. Due partially to harsh lessons in the past, he takes pride and pays attention to the details of his work. The results of his years of overextending himself in the service of an unseen master allowed him a bourgeois existence on par with any working- class stiff. With that existence threatened, he tries everything within his power to keep it, to no avail.Many have cited Friends of Eddie Coyle as Robert Mitchum's strongest performance. While I personally would give that distinction to the downright scary Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955), there's no denying his performance is the stalwart center of a story populated with opportunistic scoundrels. One would argue Mitchum was among the last of the Golden-Age Hollywood screen legends and his prestige created in aura of dignity around the character.The last scene of the film involves Peter Boyle's Dillon character and Foley callously talking about transpiring events. It's worth noting in preparation for the role, Mitchum had pursued a meeting with Irish Mob boss Whitey Bulger. The character Eddie was loosely based on one of Bulger's old associates, Billy O'Brien whose murder was never solved. Could Bulger have something to do with it? After all, in 1997 it was discovered that Bulger had in-fact acted as an FBI informant against the Patriarca crime Family. Without giving too much away, Bulger's relationship with the FBI has parallels to the events in the film. A sad case of fiction imitating truth.

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" is an overlooked little gem of a crime film that's notable for what it doesn't do, and that's inundate us with action or melodrama. It's the very matter of fact, unsentimental quality of the film that makes it something interesting and worth savouring. In its story of cops and crooks, it shows how there can be dishonour among thieves, especially if you're an ageing sad sack like Robert Mitchums' Eddie Coyle, and will do just about anything to avoid doing any more time. This experience benefits from capable storytelling and straightforward, no frills filmmaking. The cast is peppered with top notch veterans of supporting and character parts, Dave Grusins' score is just right, and the use of various Boston locations is excellent.Mitchum is great in the title role, managing to infuse him with some degree of likability. You shouldn't really be rooting for this guy, but Mitchum just might have you doing so. Eddie is looking at a long prison sentence, so he decides to start ratting on his underworld associates to dedicated detective Dave Foley (a typically solid Richard Jordan). Chief among them is gun runner Jackie Brown, played by Steven Keats. There's also a trio of robbers running around holding up banks, and Eddie knows who they are.The film co-stars talents such as Peter Boyle as saloon owner Dillon, and Alex Rocco and Joe Santos as Jimmy Scalise and Artie Van, two of the robbers. Buffs will delight in recognizing other players such as Mitch Ryan ("Lethal Weapon"), Peter MacLean ("Squirm"), James Tolkan ("Back to the Future"), Matthew Cowles ('All My Children'), and Jack Kehoe ("Serpico"). Director Peter Yates, who'd shown an impressive versatility over the years, moving from things like "Bullitt" to "The Deep" to "The Dresser" to "Krull", does an admirable job in creating this world of scummy people. One can imagine that a film of this kind might bore viewers with shorter attention spans, but it's richly rewarding for those looking for a little nuance and not just escapism.Scripted by producer Paul Monash, based on the acclaimed novel by George V. Higgins.Eight out of 10.

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