The Friends of Eddie Coyle

[jmiami 4]

If you dig 70's gangster flicks, and if you like hockey, I would like to highly recommend a film just finally available on dvd called THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, from 1973.

This stars a weathered Robert Mitchum at his best. He is a life-long criminal in Boston who is facing new jail time, and realizes he doesn't want to go in again, and so tries to help the cops try to get a bigger fish in exchange for a break. But of course, everybody is playing everybody so it gets fun.

But the reason I recommend it here, is that late into it, the Mitchum character, Eddie Coyle, is taken to a Boston Bruins vs. Chicago Blackhawks game at the old Boston Garden. The footage is amazing, almost surreal to watch. The production bought-out a large block of seats during an actual game and placed the actors therein, with extras around them. They also covered the game itself with a bunch of hand-held 35 mm cameras at ice-level. It was so cool to watch close-up footage of an actual NHL game from 1972 in crystal-clear 35 mm.

This flick is directed by Peter Yates, who also directed Steve McQueen in BULLIT in 1968. And if you know that flick, then you know what this director can do with gangster scripts. But be advised there in no car-chase here, the film is more a character piece. If anything, the Bruins game replaces a car-chase. And quite well at that.

Available on Netflix, Amazon, etc...check it out! It is one one of the great under-the-radar gangster flicks from the '70's. And there's a hockey game in it!

[Law Goalie 147]

That's really, really cool - I'd never heard of that movie before, but I'll be sure to get my hands on it.