No, I am not finished. 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. Next time, it's gonna be me goin' to Florida.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I won't run overlong here, because I want to save my ramblings for a more worthwhile post, but, goddamn, is that a well written movie. It's got everything going for it. It's well acted, it's got one of the best heists I've ever seen, and it's got that 1970's charm that films just don't have any more. It's a messy, unrefined film and not in a way that a lot of bad movies are messy and ugly, this movie is planned that way. Crime isn't cute, it isn't well produced, it's a slog.
Nowadays everything is so clean and cut and perfect. A heist isn't worth a damn unless it's technically perfect. That's fine. What makes this movie great isn't anything obvious, it's in the characters, it's in the scenes.Crime is tough and the movie is tough in a way that only 1970's film techniques and Robert Mitchum can get across.
Anyways, it was worth blowing my costume shop wad on the Criterion DVD. Well worth it.
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