Oh, Eddie, Eddie

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is the cinematic equivalent of a funeral dirge. Well, maybe that's innaccurate. Dirges are slow and lengthy. COYLE is neither. But similiarly, we watch Eddie Coyle (Robert Mitchum), proud middle class Son of Eire try to make a living for his family in Boston, and then march to his doom. The sad inevitability is present from the first moment we see a weary Mitchum, in an expert performance.

Coyle puts food on the table by selling black market firearms to the Mob. Oh, he also feeds info to the Feds and the cops, and he's not above ratting out any to the others. Being an informant never ends well, and every character in this bleak picture understands that, painfully well.

COYLE is unique in that it dosen't try to dazzle the viewer with action or scenes that ring with symbolism. We get a real bread-and-butter look at the lives of criminals and those assigned to nail them. We follow a gun runner as he explains his trade to colleagues and clients. We hang with a Traesury agent as he makes deals with all manner of hoods. Eddie is caught in the morass, hanging on to the vaguest of hopes, but somehow aware of his fate. When it comes, it's as random as anything else in his 10 cent life.

However, the real crime here is why this gem is unavailable, not just on DVD, but even VHS! This 1973 classic has never been released on homevideo. Unfathomable. Shame on you, Paramount! Multiple shame! A pox on your house for putting out all manner of Full Moon nonsense, but leaving worthy titles like this and LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (don't even get me started) in mothballs!

I had to catch EDDIE on iTunes. That is the only place a mere mortal can see this. Perhaps there are screenings in L.A., N.Y.C., and hopefully, Boston. I know, "I don't want to watch a movie on my computer!" Trust me. It's worth it. You'll never forget it.

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