This is NOT the Robert Mitchum your granny would have watched! Soon after the film began, I was a tad surprised to hear the 56 year-old Mitchum and his cohorts using language that even by 1970s standards was harsh. The F-word and racial epithets might catch the casual viewer by surprise! While this does add to the film's realism, it certainly ISN'T what many will expect from one of his films.

Mitchum plays the title character. He's in a bind. He's about to be sent back to jail and he's grasping at straws to escape this fate. At the same time he's supplying guns to hoods for a robbery, he's also desperate enough to try to work out a deal with feds to finger the person that supplies him with the guns. This double-dealing sure makes the word "friends" in the film's title ironic, huh?

As far as the robberies goes, they're a big highlight of the film. The perfection and professionalism of the plans are amazing. Additionally, I noticed that at times I stopped breathing with trepidation. In particular, with the first one, as the bank manager was told to walk away from the car with the robbers--I kept waiting for the worst and was on the edge of my seat.

The gun running aspects of the film are also amazingly tense. Watching gun deals go down as well as going down badly once again set my heart to pounding as well.

Overall, it's extremely well written, tough and realistic. I'm actually surprised this film isn't more well-known considering it's a high quality film throughout. I like how the film is very tough but also not mired if ultra-violent images like more recent gangster films have been. In other words, it's a nice middle ground between the sanitized gangster films of the 30s and 40s and the so violent that they are repellent films of the 80s and 90s.

Anyone who does not think Robert Mitchum is a serious actor has never seen The Friends Of Eddie Coyle. All of Mitchum's considerable talents are working here including his fantastic ear for accents. You would think that Mitchum lived in Boston all his life.

Playing the title role in The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, Mitchum so submerges his own personality that you forget in fact you are watching Robert Mitchum and you really think you are seeing the downfall of a man named Eddie Coyle. How he was overlooked for an Oscar nomination here is a mystery.

The film is based on a novel by George V. Higgins who was both a prosecutor and defense attorney in his legal career and saw the system and all the system from both sides of the courtroom. The protagonist Eddie Coyle is a career criminal sliding into middle age and up for a sentencing in a transporting of stolen property charge in neighboring New Hampshire. He's a three time loser already and this would involve a much longer stretch in the joint. So he's looking to deal.

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle rather neatly disposes of the notion that there is honor among thieves. But thieves also don't like being informed on. When Mitchum rats out some old friends for a series of bank robberies where two people were killed, he's sealed his doom.

The obvious comparison to make with this film is the John Ford classic, The Informer. Although Coyle would probably scorn at being compared to a slow lug like Victor McLaglen's Gypo Nolan, in fact he's not a terribly bright man either. He's far down on the criminal food chain so that he is a very disposable man.

Another good performance from this film is that of Steven Keats as a gun runner who Mitchum does business with and decides to rat out when convenient. If he survives in another 25 years Keats will be in the middle aged position that Mitchum is in now with few options in life. Also take note of Peter Boyle as the bartender/criminal, Richard Jordan as a really smarmy cop and Helena Carroll who has a few, but some really well played scenes as Mitchum's long suffering wife.

The film was shot totally on location in the Boston area and I recognized quite a few locations from my travels there. No mention of the Red Sox, but towards the end of the film there are some nice shots of a Boston Bruins hockey game at the old Boston Gardens. Some very interesting comments there about star Bobby Orr and the bright future he has in the world of hockey from a man whose world is about to crumble.

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle is a classic from the Seventies one of the best films Robert Mitchum ever did and not to be missed, especially if one wants to see a different side of old rumple eyes.

A dark character study of an ageing man out of luck and companions, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is about as far away as it gets from the decade's best-known thrillers like THE FRENCH CONNECTION. This one does have its fair share of action, including a number of violent and suspenseful bank robberies, but it's not about them at all, instead an introspective character study of a broken down man and the difficult choices he makes at the end of his life. A lot of the gravitas comes from the thoroughly decent performance of Robert Mitchum in the title role, but the good quality supporting cast - including Peter Boyle and Richard Jordan - doesn't hurt either.