The Friends of Eddie Coyle

It’s not a high-strung gangster film, it doesn’t have a lot of overt excitement in it, and it doesn’t go in for much violence. He gives us a man, invites our sympathy for him, and then watches almost sadly as his time runs out.

...restored some juice to Mitchum's career by putting his famously subdued manner in the service of grittier New Hollywood fare and proving that he could play a defeated small man while retaining his compulsive watchability and gravity.

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is a tough look at the world of petty crooks and the sleazy side of the underworld.

...while it’s true that the heists run too long, they do serve a thematic and dramatic purpose, in that they show how carefully laid plans can go awry and explode into fatal violence.

...one of the best crime films of the '70s...