For being such a Boston guy you think he would have been curious enough to view the greatest gritty Boston crime drama ever produced....
'He's this high in the food chain, but he gets around more than any man I've ever seen, like he was a stray dog or something"
The 70's saw an explosion of gritty 70's crime film, free to examine the social context of crime, and its true grimy exterior. This could be from a unique combination of realism and spirtualistic expressionism (Mean Streets); the documentary style non judgmentalism of The French Connection; the cathartic mix of fantasy and surface realism of Dirty Harry; and the genre bending street theater of Dog Day Afternoon. Unique among these is the minimalism, and severe bleakness of The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
On the surface, Eddie Coyle might seem like small fish in this pond: there's no showy performances a la Pacino's tour de force, and Yates never indulges in the cinematic flourishes of a young Scorsese. In fact his style can sometimes seem positively televisual, or the extreme violence that often characterizes this genre. Yet, Coyle somehow stands head to head with this crew, and not despite, but because of characteristics.
Eddie Coyle is a series of clandestine meetings in coffee shops, where sad, tired men try to BS their way through conversations where one of them might end up with a death sentence should a wrong word be spoken. Which brings up Coyle's most prominent virtue: it's dialogue. This is a very talky film, but that talk is explosive. It's not the barrage of profanity or posturing you might expect, but a kind of accidental street poetry; not exactly realistic, but not as stylized as Tarantino (Rififi might be a better reference point). One critic descibed it as having the aesthetic of a wire tap, and we get the banality and neccesary ellipses of these criminal's conversations. The dialogue also reveals social station. Look how Eddie Coyle himself changes his speech patterns depending on whether he talks to jackie Brown (played sensationally by Steven Keats), or the smug cop Dan Foley (Richard Jordan). All of these are fantastically played by the actors, including a world weary Robert Mitchum at his best.
The minimal visual style is therefore appropriate - these are sad men, staying up at late at night for no reward, and little excitement (the key moment in this movie is when Foley tells his chief that his informant is Eddie Coyle, and they shake their heads as if dealing with a troublesome student rather than a criminal). It stops being flat, and becomes almost like Jean - Pierre Melville in its simplicity. But even Melvi
... keep reading on reddit ➡If you like movies about conversations. Just people talking. Then this is the double feature for you.
Both adaptations of George V. Higgins novels. Peter Boyle plays Dillon in TFOEC, Sam Shepard plays Dillon in KTS.
Completely separate and different stories but stories of the gangster underwold. Not many movies deal with this side of bureaucracy associated with the criminal life. But these stories do. And both are great adaptations of either story. So many great actors and great performances. Robert Mitchum is amazing and pathetic as Eddie Coyle. Killing Them Softly is an underappreciated movie.
I highly recommend this double feature.
Hello everyone, my name is Jason Coyle, and I'm fortunate to serve as CEO of Stadium, a cable-quality sports network that is available to cord cutters for free on many platforms, including digital antenna in 2/3 of the country, social platforms, our website (watchstadium.com - the network is streaming for free in the upper right corner), the Roku Channel, and Pluto/Xumo, among many others. We're also available in a variety of digital bundles such as Sony Vue and Fubo, and we have some great additions coming on that front in the next couple of weeks. Coming off of CES last week, we're more excited than ever about our programming lineup and our value to cord cutters. We built the company to become the go-to sports network for this community, so I'm excited about the opportunity to get to chat with everyone at /r/cordcutters.
Thanks very much in advance for your questions!
Proof: https://twitter.com/WatchStadium/status/1085911945025409024
Opening up this post now for your questions and I’ll be back at 1pm CT to chat.
Update 1: I'm here and ready to answer questions. Let's go!
Update 2: Everyone, thank you very much for your time and interest - and thanks, sincerely, for watching. Any ideas / questions / criticisms, please email us at info@watchstadium.com - have a great day, everyone!
All the best,
Jason
AMA!
Would explain his new found enthusiasm for UFO shit. He’s exactly the kind of vacuous fuckface who’d believe in aliens, holographic universe, flat earth and Saturn moon matrix.
Two tickets, two pair of dice.
Note: I looked through my old posts and can't believe only 4 people thought the original version of this was funny. I'm trying again with an edited version.
Donkey Ho-tay!
'He's this high in the food chain, but he gets around more than any man I've ever seen, like he was a stray dog or something"
The 70's saw an explosion of gritty 70's crime film, free to examine the social context of crime, and its true grimy exterior. This could be from a unique combination of realism and spirtualistic expressionism (Mean Streets); the documentary style non judgmentalism of The French Connection; the cathartic mix of fantasy and surface realism of Dirty Harry; and the genre bending street theater of Dog Day Afternoon. Unique among these is the minimalism, and severe bleakness of The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
On the surface, Eddie Coyle might seem like small fish in this pond: there's no showy performances a la Pacino's tour de force, and Yates never indulges in the cinematic flourishes of a young Scorsese, or the extreme violence that often characterizes this genre. In fact his style can sometimes seem positively televisual. Yet, Coyle somehow stands head to head with this crew, and not despite, but because of these characteristics.
Eddie Coyle is a series of clandestine meetings in coffee shops, where sad, tired men try to BS their way through conversations where one of them might end up with a death sentence should a wrong word be spoken. Which brings up Coyle's most prominent virtue: it's dialogue. This is a very talky film, but that talk is explosive. It's not the barrage of profanity or posturing you might expect, but a kind of accidental street poetry; not exactly realistic, but not as stylized as Tarantino (Rififi might be a better reference point). One critic descibed it as having the aesthetic of a wire tap, and we get the banality and neccesary ellipses of these criminal's conversations. The dialogue also reveals social station. Look how Eddie Coyle himself changes his speech patterns depending on whether he talks to jackie Brown (played sensationally by Steven Keats), or the smug cop Dan Foley (Richard Jordan). All of these are fantastically played by the actors, including a world weary Robert Mitchum at his best.
The minimal visual style is therefore appropriate - these are sad men, staying up at late at night for no reward, and little excitement (the key moment in this movie is when Foley tells his chief that his informant is Eddie Coyle, and they shake their heads as if dealing with a troublesome student rather than a criminal). It stops being flat, and becomes almost like Jean - Pierre Melville in its simplicity. But even
... keep reading on reddit ➡