The Friends of Eddie Coyle

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. Directed by Peter Yates, the screenplay was adapted from the novel by George V. Higgins.

Plot

Eddie Coyle is an aging, low-level gunrunner for the Irish Mob in Boston, Massachusetts. Facing several years in prison, he decides to become an informant for the ATF.

The mob finds out that Eddie is talking to the police, so they assign his best friend, Dillon, to kill him. However, before carrying out his orders, Dillon treats his friend to a night on the town, taking him to dinner and a Bruins hockey game.

Cast

• Robert Mitchum as Eddie "Fingers" Coyle
• Peter Boyle as Dillon
• Richard Jordan as Dave Foley
• Steven Keats as Jackie Brown
• Alex Rocco as Jimmy Scalise

Production

Filming took place throughout the Boston area, including Dedham, Cambridge, Milton, Quincy, Sharon, Somerville and Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Reception

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is often said to be the best Boston movie ever made. Some reviewers consider it to be the best film ever made by Robert Mitchum; as Eddie Coyle, his portrayal is dark but sympathetic, well drawn and intense. This film gave Peter Boyle a meaty, prominent role as Mitchum's best friend who's been assigned the job of killing Mitchum by the Mob. A gently sad but beautiful film, it's regarded as a minor masterpiece of director Yates. However, as of early 2007, it has never been released as a DVD in the United States by the studio, and circulating DVDs are taken from occasional airings of the film on cable channels. It has a wide and appreciative following, almost a cult status, and appears on occasional "best of all time" crime-film lists. The cinematography has an intimate, soft-color, cluttered feel that perfectly fits the plot and locale.

See also

• List of films, operas, and plays set in Boston
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle (novel)

References

External links

• Review at Starpulse

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Last updated on Saturday March 01, 2008 at 20:26:15 PST (GMT -0800)
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