Final scene
I just read the book, then watched TFOEC for the second time. I don't remember getting this impression from the book, but I might go back and retread Dillon's last conversation with Foley. But did anyone else get the distinct impression from the last scene in the movie that Foley knows that Dillon killed Coyle? He says "I know you don't want to talk about" Eddie, and he gives a little smile.
If that was the case I guess in the film they wanted to underscore the fact that Foley was just as big a scumbag as Dillon or anyone else. That there are no good guys in this tale. Because it's a terrifying thought - a certainly would have been probably even more so in the relatively naive and innocent late sixties- early seventies - that a cop is ignoring murder in order to keep an effective rat (Dillon).
On a side note, the prescience in light of what we now know went on with Whiyey Bulger is mind blowing.