Classic 70s Movie: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”

September is Classic 70s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Rob Bell.

Movie Title: The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Year: 1973

Writers: Screenplay by Paul Monash, based on the novel by George V. Higgins

Lead Actors: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Alex Rocco, Steven Keats

Director: Peter Yates

IMDB Plot Summary: After his last crime has him looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, a low level Boston gangster decides to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 70s Movie: In a decade featuring Michael Corleone, Popeye Doyle and Frank Serpico, Eddie Coyle is often overlooked in favor of better known 70s crime flicks. It’s certainly less bombastic, not that any of those 70s thrillers had the Hollywood grandiosity of earlier decades, and it wasn’t even available on home video until Criterion released it on DVD in 2009. But before The Departed, before The Town, there was The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Eddie Coyle and his friends are not kingpins. No grand aspirations or romantic ideals. They aren’t looking for the big score; they’re just looking to get by. Nearly every scene features lamentations of financial woes. Violence is a regretful, sometimes necessary way to preserve business but is always a last resort. A deal sours, guns are raised, and everyone secretly hopes they won’t have to make good on their threats.

Paul Monash’s script loyally retains legendary Boston crime novelist George V. Higgins’ tense, crackling dialogue, drawing suspense from prolonged silences instead of frantic shootouts and wasting no time handholding for the uninitiated. Rarely has a film’s world felt so frighteningly real.

Released in 1973 as the looming threat of “forced busing” sparked a turbulent period of racial hostility in Boston (the law would be implemented into the public schools just a year later), the film’s muted color palette and bleak tone subtly reflect the grim atmosphere of 1970s Boston without dissolving into a “message” movie.

The last decade or so has seen a resurgence of Boston crime flicks. Many are well done but most still overplay those accents and the blue-collar tribalism (if you’re writing a Boston script, please, no more characters named Sully!). No film, not even The Departed, has captured the climate, the parochialism, and yes, the accents of the “Hub of the Universe” like Eddie Coyle and his friends. It is not just another Boston movie; it is the Boston movie.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The film’s third act, which commences with nosebleed seats at a Bruins-Blackhawks game and climaxes with a harrowingly finite car ride, sustains an unbearable level of tension until relief comes from the boom of a twenty-two caliber revolver.

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: This early exchange between Mitchum’s Coyle and gun dealer Jackie Brown (played by Steven Keats) not only clearly establishes the high stakes of its underworld setting but also is perhaps the best example of the rhythmic Boston vernacular that made Higgins famous.

JACKIE BROWN: Did you get my name or didn’t you?
EDDIE COYLE: I got your name.
JACKIE BROWN: All right.
EDDIE COYLE: All right, nothin’. I wish I had a nickel for every name I got that was all right. Look at that. Know what that is?
JACKIE BROWN: Your hand.
EDDIE COYLE: I hope you look closer at those guns than you did at that hand. Look at your own goddamned hand. Count your fuckin’ knuckles.
JACKIE BROWN: All of ‘em?
EDDIE COYLE: Count as many as you want. As many as you got, I got four more. You know how I got those? I bought some stuff from a man. I knew his name. The stuff was traced. The guy I bought it for, he’s at MCI Walpole for fifteen-to-twenty-five, still in there. But he had some friends. I got an extra set of knuckles. They put your hand in the drawer and somebody kicks the door shut. Hurt like a bastard.
JACKIE BROWN: Jesus.
EDDIE COYLE: What makes it hurt worse, what makes it hurt more is knowin’ what’s gonna happen to me, ya know? There you are, they just come up to you and say, “Look, you made somebody mad. You made a big mistake and now there’s someone doin’ time for it. There’s nothing personal in it, you understand. It just has to be done. Now get your hand out there.”

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: Note there are only six gunshots fired in the entire movie.

For Godfather fanatics, look for Alex Rocco as low-level bank robber Jimmy Scalise, in a performance antithetical to Moe Green.

Considering Higgins was once a federal prosecutor and district attorney, it is interesting how his criminals, particularly Eddie, are often portrayed as victims of an oppressive, omniscient legal system. Note the borderline-sociopathic methods ATF Agent Dave Foley uses to snare Eddie, filling him with false hopes before deflating them and ending every conversation with a sarcastic, “Have a nice day.”

Yes, Quentin Tarantino pulled his title character’s name from Steven Keats’ Jackie Brown.

Still not convinced of Eddie Coyle’s influence? Listen closely in The Town and you can hear Robert Mitchum’s Boston accent on Jeremy Renner’s TV when Ben Affleck asks him to “hurt some people.”

Thanks, Rob! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

You can follow Rob on Twitter: @reahview.

We already have a set of 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 70s Movies.

Thanks to all of you for your participation in this project, creating a resource for writers, movies we should all watch to help learn the craft of screenwriting!

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