Worth watching if only for the 70's rundown urban Massachusetts motif. This is a blue collar mob flick. No romanticized wiseguy antics. Just good acting and storytelling.

The walls of the law are caving in on Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum), so he chooses to betray his friends. The cast delivers credible performances, and location shooting throughout Boston furthers the credibility. It almost feels like a documentary. Kudos to director Peter Yates.

Good story but couldn't keep me interested enough to finish

Movie is surprisingly gritty, realistic, and dialogue heavy, ala pre- Tarantino. Anchored by a great, low key peformance by Robert Mitchum

A Hidden All Time Classic Gem. The music is catchy and memorable. The editing is really good although it can be a bit jumpy and complex bordering on a Noir type complicated but it makes sense eventually. The pacing is excellent with and so is the cinematography with Boston being a very memorable location and great camerawork for all on location shots. The bank robberies are super intense as well. The thing that makes this standout though this the phenomenal acting, if it wasn't as good as it is this wouldn't be as riveting. Mitchum is the standout though hands down and excellent jobs by the supporting cast as well. This is something everyone should see once.

Authentic old school gangster movie. A fantastic cast of characters that made this movie so enjoyable.

It's a dirty grubby world out there and Eddie Coyle's friends like it that way Based on the book by George V. Higgins starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle directed by Peter Yates Eddie is a Boston gunrunner looking at jail time if he doesn't divulge information to ATF agent Dave Foley After buying guns from another he gives them to Foley who's still not satisfied Eddie then chooses to give up the gang of bank robbers he's been supplying to But Foley already catches wind of this and the gang sees Eddie as a snitch This film managed to crack the combination on this type of genre Turns out no heroes exist in this story and no one is actually friends with each other The film has a grey grimy look to it having an element of danger in the air This kind of life's hard but much harder if your stupid, most of us have a rich history of coming up from the bottom learning to survive, socially and economically immigrant parents suffered much like these characters The film is a lot of talking and there's not enough of the bank robbers doing their thing so it ends up being tedious devoid of tension There’s much better types of stories like this out there

Solid, crisp, efficiently directed and very well acted.

The worst kind of 1970's crime movie. The cinematic equivalent of your grandad's grey bomber jacket with the tartan lining. Everything about it is drab and tedious; the plodding pace, the dour cinematography, the horribly dated 70's score. If the 70's is not your favorite film era, definitely avoid this.

Props to Mitchum for this one, but all in all I was not too interested in the plot. It was tedious. Saw on TCM.

Mitchum's last hurrah is a grim, gritty, and bruising noir that reflects on the nature of the criminal underworld.

Eddie Fingers Coyle (Robert Mitchum) is a low level criminal from Quincy, MA looking at some serious jail time for a truck hijacking in New Hampshire. While still supplying weapons to a crew of bank robbers in the South Shore, Coyle works as an informant for ATF Agent Dave Foley (Richard Jordan), who is secretly working with the informant that set Coyle up (Peter Boyle). Based on the George V. Higgins novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a gem of an indie film and some fantastic performances by the late actors Robert Mitchum, Richard Jordan and the fantastic Steven Keats as the gunrunner Jackie Brown (Elmore Leonard liked the Higgins novel so much, he named his lead character and book after it). While adrenaline junkies potentially might not be satisfied, cinephiles and fans of the raw 70's gangster verite style will be. Ben Affleck borrowed heavily from this film for THE TOWN. It's influence is all there. A great, little seen gem.

A dour, pensive, unromanticized look at gangster life in 70s Boston. Mitchum is fantastic here as the weathered gunrunner at the end of the line.

Not much happens in this film's 100 minutes. Not much that interested me anyway.

An underrated and little seen gem of a crime thriller that is one of the few films where the majority of the criminal elements take place in broad daylight. Great tone and feel, wonderfully paced and gritty with realism. The setting of early 70's Boston is a character itself amongst the many great performances, especially that of the late actors Richard Jordan, the fantastic Steven Keats (named Jackie Brown) and the domineering powerhouse that is Robert Mitchum as Eddie Fingers Coyle. This film has influenced many in the genre including another Boston-based film, The Town (masks, hostage walking on the beach blindfolded, Florida) and was worthy enough to be included into the Criterion Collection. It is one that gets better with each viewing.

This is a gritty tale of small-time criminals, and one in particular, set in early 70's Boston and told with searing realism. Robert Mitchum is outstanding. It's a sad story, with a sense of doom that increases with each frame. One of the great things about this movie - let's credit the author, the screenwriter, the director and Mitchum - is that it unfolds naturally. We feel like we are living it, Well done!

I love these gritty-looking 70's movies. This one in particular reminds me a lot of The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, and Mean Streets. Robert Mitchum man!! I love him, he's great. And here he looks like a veteran actor. Man, I love the flow and movement of the camera in this movie. It's very fluid - almost as if we're looking through human eyes. Exceptional cinematography. I haven't seen this movie in so long. I forgot how great the soundtrack and music is - cool, jazzy and groovy. I kind of feel for Eddie. He's got a family with kids and he's trying to get away from this criminal world. But on the other hand it's like well, why'd you get mixed up with all these people and take that truck job? And it's like, he's still selling guns. And now he's snitching on all the guys that he was selling and buying from. Like he's kind of asking for it. It's interesting seeing the contrast and similarities between Eddie and the bar owner played by Peter Boyle. They're both trying to find a way out of the game, tying to get out scott-free as best they can by snitching on the people they know. The big difference is Eddie has a family and the bar owner doesn't seem to have one. It's crazy how the government are the ones that are pulling the strings. They say who goes down or who gets away clean. They have the ex-criminals trying to avoid doing time in their back pocket and they know how to use them to their advantage. Smart commentary on guns in America and how quick people are willing to arm themselves so they can feel safer - or so that they can do a job without any heat. It's an honest look at what happens behind the scenes within the seedy underbelly of the criminal underworld. Taking a realistic and naturalistic look into what happens when people get too involved and too deep with the wrong people - and that includes government personnel as well. It makes you question who are Eddie Coyle's real friends? Shot with a very keen eye to detail that accentuates all the tension, action and drama. This is a very well made movie that doesn't get talked about enough. A terrific movie, I'd watch it again.

My second from Peter Yates I believe. "Breaking Away" was great, but a very different type of movie. This is a dialogue-rich, character-driven, slick 70's crime drama. It got that sweet music and the cool cars, but most importantly it's a very good film. I dig the story. Eddie Coyle is a shady man with loads of shady friends, but after spending some time in jail he has got to cool down his own crime efforts. He still does some jobs and one of them makes sure he is up for severe time behind bars. One way to get out of it is to rat out on some of his friends. He still knows what they're up to, so it's not very hard to get details. He trusts a cop to fix him a good deal so he decides to snitch on some old mates. Great acting - cool characters everywhere that we gradually get to know better. Robert Mitchum is doing very well as the lead, so is Steven Keats as Jackie Brown and Richard Jordan as the cop. The pace is very smooth, so are the surroundings and atmosphere. Neat dialogue and funny punchlines and real talk. Great masks in that first hit, that needs a mention. It's great to see Peter Boyle from "Everybody Loves Raymond", with as little hair then as he had in the newer series. It influenced "Jackie Brown" a whole lot I have read, but I have not seen that one in a very long time so I never spotted similarities, but there probably are. Over 40 years old, but stands as a very good film. They are not made like this anymore, sadly. 8.5 out of 10 nice days.

Peter Yates's best film, and one of the greatest heist films ever made, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is thorough dive into the heart of a robbery.

Low level crime flunkie Eddie Coyle gets into trouble and turns snitch in order to stay out of trouble, but the noose tightens when the criminal underworld hears about it. Featuring an excellent performance from Robert Mitchum and the gun runner (scene stealer), The Friends of Eddie Coyle is an interesting little low key crime thriller.