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Apr 28, 2015 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Small-bit gun runner Eddie Coyle—better known among his criminal associates as “Eddie Fingers”—is looking at five years’ hard time in New Hampshire after being nicked for transporting a truckload of stolen booze. The aging ex-convict (played with weathered grace by the great Robert Mitchum) wants out of his life of crime, and will do anything to avoid going to jail and leaving his family behind—including turn informant for an ATF agent. Though he’s only a small player on the totem pole of the Boston crime world, Eddie has his fingers in all sorts of illegal activities, from black market machine gun sales to a string of armed bank robberies across New England.

1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle was based on George V. Higgins’ bestselling debut novel. Prior to becoming a novelist, Higgins had worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a journalist and newspaper columnist, and in various anti-organized-crime positions in Massachusetts—all which leant the Boston crime world portrayed in his books a feel for local realism. (It’s similar, in some ways, to how David Simon more recently channeled his experience as a Baltimore reporter into Homicide and The Wire.) The Friends of Eddie Coyle was notable at its time for its un-romanticized portrayal of organized crime, which stood in stark contrast with the majority of American gangster films. In Coyle, the heists don’t go according to plan, the gun dealers are teenagers or junkies, and mob hits are messy affairs. This take on the genre may not seem all that unconventional nowadays, but was far less commonplace in the early 1970s.

As much as the movie pivots around Mitchum’s Eddie, the film devotes an equal amount of screen time to the company he keeps. The Friends of Eddie Coyle features a handful of edge-of-your-seat scenes centering on its side characters: tense bank robberies, a standoffish gun deal, and a police stakeout. None of these are violent shootouts or fast-paced car chases, but they’re nerve-wracking in their relative quietness. At any point in these scenes one wrong move could cost someone their life—which is far more fretful (and exciting) than if the bullets were flying en masse. When it’s not busy tying one’s stomach into knots, Coyle is full of brilliant, coded dialogue. Eddie converses with his “friends”—in particular agent Foley (Richard Jordan) and barkeep Dillon (Peter Boyle)—almost exclusively in metaphor; following this underworld lingo is thrilling, and Mitchum’s superb delivery gives even the most obtuse phrasing some clarifying, emotional thrust.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle was previously released on DVD by Criterion in 2009, and the bonus features included on the new Blu-ray are a carry-over from that previous edition. The highlight is an audio commentary by director Peter Yates, but you’ll also get a behind-the-scenes gallery and a hefty booklet featuring a long essay and a reprinted, 1973 Rolling Stone profile on Robert Mitchum. The main attraction here is an all-new transfer of the film, which looks fantastic in HD (although, their DVD edition wasn’t shabby-looking, either.) It may not be enough to warrant an upgrade for anyone who already owns the previous Criterion release, but if you haven’t seen this gritty, exciting crime film yet, this new Blu-ray is the perfect excuse to stop missing out.

www.criterion.com/films/1426-the-friends-of-eddie-coyle

Author rating: 8/10