“Staff Picks” is a deeper look into movies that we love here at Video CULTure. Each edition of this column will focus on a single film that we think you should check out, either for the first time or for a long-overdue revisit.
By Matthew Essary (Twitter: @WheelsCritic)
“Look, I’m gettin’ old, you hear? I spent most of my life hanging around crummy joints with a buncha punks drinkin’ the beer, eatin’ the hash, and the hot dogs and watchin’ the other people go off to Florida while I’m sweatin’ out how I’m gonna pay the plumber. I done time and I stood up but I can’t take no more chances”.
Those are the words of Eddie “Fingers” Coyle (Robert Mitchum, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER). Eddie is an aging Irish gangster nearing the end of the line. You can tell from his size and demeanor that once upon a time he was the heavy; someone who made things happen but that dangerous, capable man doesn’t exist anymore in this story. He missed the opportunity to move up or retire wealthy to a sunnier climate. Now, he’s just a beaten “never was”, who is as broken as the fingers on his left hand and looking at “3 to 5” upstate after being caught driving a truckload of stolen booze into the area from Canada as part of one of the many low-level mob hustles he does to make ends meet and support his family.
He’s looking for a way out of his impending jail time though. He knows if he can just talk to the right person, make the right deal. He can save his own skin and have another chance at a peaceful retirement. Eddie knows lots of people after-all. One of the ways he earns money is as a middle-man acquiring guns for other people to use in bank robberies. So, he has connections to dangerous people, and surely the ATF agent he feeds information to sometimes (Richard Jordan, LOGAN’S RUN) will find something there worth Eddie’s freedom.
Eddie’s grind to stay afloat and out of jail is at the heart of Peter Yates’s (BREAKING AWAY) crime masterpiece THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE. The original story comes from a novel of the same name by author, and former Assistant United States Attorney, George V. Higgins. He wrote the story based on his own experiences dealing with Boston-area gangsters in the legal system. He wanted its unflinching portrait of desperate low-level thugs and hustlers to serve as a response to what he felt was a glorification of organized crime presented in Mario Puzo’s wildly popular novel, published just a few years earlier, THE GODFATHER.
Higgins was successful in his messaging and that is carried over to the film adaptation by Yates. There is nothing glamorous about Eddie Coyle’s world. It’s all dingy hangouts, like the barroom run by Dillon (Peter Boyle, TAXI DRIVER) the liaison to the upper-echelon of the criminal organization or the late-night cafeteria where Eddie meets up with another link in the gun-running chain, Jackie (Steven Keats, DEATH WISH) to haggle over prices and delivery details. When Eddie meets up with the man the guns are for to drop them off, Jimmy Scalise (Alex Rocco, THE GODFATHER)- the handoff is done in Scalise’s modest mobile home on the outskirts of the city. Even when meeting with ATF agents in daylight the locations are drab rest stops or empty playgrounds.
Yates also refuses to add any unnecessary action flourishes to the story. Except for one economical yet beautifully staged car crash stunt during an arrest near the end of the film, you would never know that this film was directed by the same man behind, the 1968 Steve McQueen action classic, BULLITT. Everything is played for realism. What little violence is present in the film is shot in a plain unassuming manner. It’s a last resort, for the characters on-screen, and nothing to be dwelled on.
The locations in the film may not be scenic and the action may be sparse but the dialogue between the characters is dynamite and where THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE really shines. The film is almost entirely just conversations between various characters; discussions of plans, processes, deals, and inevitable double-crosses. It hums with a tension that it could all fall apart at any moment but it also has a “lived-in” weariness to it that feels authentic. Take, for example, this bit of dialogue from near the beginning of the film where Eddie explains to Jackie, during their negotiations, how he got his nickname and the dangers of messing up in their profession:
“Look at that. You know what that is?”
“Your hand.”
“I hope you look closer at those guns than you did at that hand. Look at your own goddamn hand.”
“Yeah?”
“Count your fuckin’ knuckles.”
“All of ’em?”
“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. So, I got an extra set of knuckles. They put your hand in a drawer then somebody kicks the drawer shut. Hurt like a bastard.”
“Jesus.”
“What makes it hurt worse, what makes it hurt more is knowing what’s going to happen to you, you 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 somebody doing time for it. There’s nothing personal in it, you understand, but it just has to be done. Now get your hand out there.’ You think about not doing it, you know.”
Eddie’s world is a grimy, ugly one but the characters in it, deeply flawed as they are, are like us, the audience, in more ways than is readily apparent. They want things anyone wants; stability, recognition, and hope but they go about it unsavory, selfish ways.
There is a moment midway through the film where one of the characters says, “This life’s hard man, but it’s harder if you’re stupid!” In the end, there’s nothing more stupid than trying to have friends in a culture of violence, where everyone is concerned first and foremost with their own survival. Still though, it’s human nature to want those connections. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, despite its tough exterior, is a lonely, desperate film that is an achingly honest portrait of flawed humanity even at it’s darkest moments. It also may be the finest work of everyone involved with its production and considering the talent on display here and their respective legacies that is the highest possible praise.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch