The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Film Comment Selects Special Event Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 6:30pm
Dour realism, romantic fatalism, and Robert Mitchum’s world-weary mug ~ a rare screening of Peter Yates' hard-boiled ’70s crime drama.
Please note: Unfortunately, Mr. Yates will not be able to attend tonight's screening.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Peter Yates, USA, 1973; 102m
“Time is what I haven’t got,” says Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum), the small-time crook at the center of Bullitt director Peter Yates’s low-key crime drama. Already busted for an illegal trucking job, he’s got to make a deal to spare his wife and daughter from a life of welfare. But will he turn to his mob “friends” or to the police that are closing in on them? Adapted from George V. Higgins’s novel, this underappreciated ’70s classic features Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, reputed ex-mobster Alex Rocco, and grittily authentic South Boston location work 30 years ahead of The Departed. Yates’s prosaic direction is the perfect match for Mitchum’s performance: unflappably restrained and effortlessly assured.
Film Comment Selects is sponsored by Stella Artois and the National Endowment for the Arts.
