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SALESK
1Dec11
Screen EDDIE COYLE with THE FRENCH CONNECTION if you want to shame every single "serious" cops & robbers drama made in the last 35 years. It doesn't get any more street. Mitchum gives one of his best performances: reserved, resigned, earning the world-weariness etched in the lines of his face.
Graveyard Poet
12Nov11
A more realistic crime film, one of conversations. Dialogue is priceless. Mitchum's best performance (alongside his definitive role, of course, in Night of the Hunter.)
Poughkeepsie
30Oct11
Shot in the streets of Boston, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a seminal work of '70s Hollywood. Simplistic in its direction and naturalistic in its photography, the film brings you into an underworld. Robert Mitchum gives an understated performance, probably portraying a gangster better than DeNiro or Pacino combined. I look forward to watching this again and again. A new favorite.
Graveyard Poet likes this
Pierluigi Puccini
28Oct11
Seventies noir that owes much of the austerity and realism to the cold city of Boston as well as to the the french crime thrillers of Jean Pierre Melville mostly to the superb "Le Doulos" as the character study of a man moving between two factions. The street prose of writer George Higgins, and Peter Yates' minimalist direction are the stronger points of this notable film
Tony Pauletto
3Feb11
Like many directors of the 1970's, Peter Yates strips the luster from the genre with dingy locations, frumpy characters, and an understated plot to evoke a sense of realism. The marvelous writing gives a rhythm to Yates' easy-going style.
Justin Kane
3Jan11
Great on location scenes, an intensely interesting performance from Robert Mitchum and a first rate treatment from the Criterion Collection. This puts most if not all of the recent Boston area crime films to shame.
Jazzaloha
27Nov10
The way some 70's films embrace bleakness stands out for me. In a way this like a reverse Capra film.
Poughkeepsie likes this
Zachary Curl
18Oct10
this is my favorite Peter Yates movie, and it's also my favorite Robert Mitchum movie. and if i really cared that much about Peter Boyle, it would be my favorite of his, too. great crime fiction the likes of which we only see in Ed Brubaker comics anymore. which makes me so happy to read those comics, but makes me sad that there aren't movies like this anymore.
Ronald Wilson
13Oct10
Great undervalued film with a greatly undervalued perfprmance by Robert Mitchum!
S Campbell
20Sep10
Well done to Criterion for finally getting this film on DVD ,its a real class act with a fine performance from the great Robert Mitchum
Peacekeeper
6Apr10
Far less enagaging than Charley Varrick or the (original) Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (and the score by Dave Grusin is pretty bad, especially when compared to those of David Shire and Lalo Schifrin for the movies above). Mitchum does nothing for me in this role. Peter Yates adds some nice touches (cops out of breath and wired after a chase, the stillness of the bank robberies) but as a director he just isn't very special.
runfromfire
14Mar10
Nothing particularly stellar but a good example of the 70s crime flick: largely straightforward with a few little backstabby twists. If half of today's crime flicks were this good we'd all be better off.
Christopher Smith
23Jan10
Acclaimed crime drama from director Peter Yates is, for the most part, a dull disappointment - failing to distinguish itself from many much better gritty crime films from the 1970s. Robert Mitchum is excellent, and the rest of the cast turns in equally authentic performances. But with the exception of a few genuinely tense robbery scenes, it lacks an overall energy and tension, making it a chore to sit through. Dave
