The Friends of Eddie Coyle [Criterion Collection]

Director: Peter Yates

Overview

Based on the best-selling novel by George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle chronicles the last days of a weary Boston-based weapons dealer. Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum) doesn't want to serve a sentence in prison, so he becomes an informant for the the treasury department. Coyle is likewise unwilling to give up his lifestyle, thus he continues his illegal gun-running operation for the underworld. The mob becomes aware that Eddie is squealing to the cops, so they send his friend, Dillon (Peter Boyle), to rub him out. Dillon compassionately takes Eddie out on the town, treating him to dinner and a hockey game...then leaves him in a bowling-alley parking lot after carrying out his orders.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2009
UPC:	0715515044813
Original Release:	1973
Rating:	R
Source:	CRITERION COLLECTION
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:42:00
Sales rank:	11,805

Special Features

New restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Peter Yates; Audio commentary featuring Yates; Stills gallery; Booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kent Jones and Grover Lewis's 1973 Rolling Stone profile of Robert Mitchum, from on the set

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Mitchum	Eddie 'Fingers' Coyle
Peter Boyle	Dillon
Richard Jordan	Dave Foley
Steven Keats	Jackie Brown
Alex Rocco	Scalise
Joe Santos	Artie Van
Mitchell Ryan	Waters
Helena Carroll	Sheila Coyle
Peter MacLean	Partridge
Kevin O'Morrison	Manager of 2nd Bank
Carolyn Pickman	Nancy
Marvin Lichterman	Vemon
James Tolkan	The Man's Contact Man
Matthew Cowles	Pete
Margaret Ladd	Andrea
Jane House	Wanda
Michael McCleery	The Kid
Alan Koss	Phil
Dennis McMullen	Webber
Judith Ogden Cabot	Mrs. Partridge
Jan Egleson	Pale Kid
Jack Kehoe	The Beard
Robert Anthony	Moran
Ted Maynard	Sauter
Sheldon Feldner	Ferris
Gustave Johnson	Ames
Lloyd Bremseth	Extra
Ben Lautman	Restaurant Customer
Bobby Orr	Self
Rick Azulay	Actor
Dave Grusin	Composer

Technical Credits

Paul Monash

Paul Monash	Producer,Screenwriter
Charles H. Maguire	Producer
Ron Kalish	Sound Effects
Dick Vorisek	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Richard P. Cirincione	Sound Effects

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1. Gathering Details [4:43]
2. Knuckles and Pieces [4:57]
3. Dillon's [1:08]
4. Changing Hands [5:21]
5. For a Twenty [2:07]
6. Like Clockwork [12:06]
7. Family Man [2:21]
8. Helping "Uncle" [4:32]
9. Undisclosed Interests [1:54]
10. Two Problems [3:53]
11. No Time [3:54]
12. Smart Plays [5:08]
13. Going South [4:15]
14. New Plans [1:55]
15. An Uneasy Position [1:27]
16. Bread for Bread [2:54]
17. Sold Out [7:59]
18. Something Else [4:11]
19. Special Delivery [3:35]
20. Hooked [3:39]
21. Too Late [2:24]
22. Orders From "the Man" [3:13]
23. All Wrapped Up [3:56]
24. Game Time [3:31]
25. "He's Out" [4:37]
26. Friends [2:19]
1. Color Bars

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Play the Movie
Chapters
Commentary
The Friends of Eddie Coyle Commentary: On
The Friends of Eddie Coyle Commentary: Off
Index
A Favorite
Mitchum and Keats
A Good Contrast
Rehearsal
"A Lovely Actor"
Boston Crime
Location Importance
Sound Recording
Giving Higgins Credit
Attitude to Amateurs
Mitchum's Stillness
Nighttime Challenges
Becoming a Director
Yate's Vow to His Star
Beauty of Boston
Like Mick Jagger
Storyboards
"One of My Favorite Scenes"
"A Style That I Love"
Camera Car
Landing Mitchum
Dialogue Dilemma
Boyle's Beer Problem
Two Shoots
Help From a "Friend"
Handheld Preferences
Color Bars
Stills Gallery

Editorial Reviews

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a beautifully sad little film that packs a tremendous punch. A gangster film on the surface, it's really a character study, an examination of a little man with little dreams, a guy just trying to keep his head above water when all the bigger guys are making waves that threaten to engulf him. That the man in question is a small-time hood and the bigger guys are amoral policemen and immoral gangsters means his efforts are futile -- and imbues his story with a melancholic poetry. Coyle is a loser, and he pays the price that losers in his line of work have to pay -- but director Peter Yates and adapter Paul Monash make this disreputable character into a man that tugs at a viewer's heartstrings, even as the viewer is appalled by him. Monash's screenplay is a marvel of economy, skillfully creating entire histories out of a few telling lines and employing a few carefully selected phrases to give reams of information. Yates' direction is taut, moody, and elegiac, yet it knows how to move at full throttle during the action sequences. The film's biggest asset, however, is the incredible performance by Robert Mitchum. World-weary to the extreme, this is a man who has seen it all and is tired of it all -- but who prefers to not give it up. Constantly struggling between determination and resignation, Mitchum is a man whose entire life is a series of dilemmas and struggles; the viewer can practically see the trials and difficulties physically eroding him. It's an understated and marvelous performance. Mitchum is joined by an absolutely perfect Peter Boyle and a magnificent Richard Jordan -- but it's Mitchum's picture, and he gives it melancholy, desperate life -- and in abundance.