The Friends Of Eddie Coyle (1973) by Peter Yates

Some movies have to try hard to impress you, and they revel in their showiness. Other movies are quietly confident that based on the strength of the story and the solid performances that they give – the richness and truth of the world that they create, that they will have you thinking and talking about them long after you have watched them.

This movie is one of those movies, and with Robert Mitchum at the beating heart of it it is not hard to see why.

I don\’t remember having ever seen this before, but being interested in it every time it passed through my periphery.

It is a movie with no real heroes, and most of the villains, being likeable enough, kind of occupy a grey area.

The sense of impending doom edges through it like the veins in a cheese. You don\’t know how it is going to go down, but you know that the end is not going to be good.

This movie is easy to watch, you are never compelled to look at your watch, and when it is over you feel like you really experienced soemthing, and really got to look into the hearts and minds of some real people. More films like this and less vapid films filled with ciphers and the world would be a better place.