MovieChat Forums > The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Discussion > Best Boston movie EVER?

Best Boston movie EVER?

posted 19 years ago by the_fop
24 replies | jump to latest

...when I say best, I mean best Boston flicks: set in Boston, filmed in Boston (and I mean boston area in general), and about local characters...

Not too many people know of this flick, but those that know, know. I mentioned on another thread and will repeat here, that when I once worked at Boston City Hall, everyone usta call me Eddie (I have the same last name).

This film needs to be remastered and put on DVD, NOW, it WOULD sell so well...

That being said, I invite folks to disagree with me, but I get the feeling I'm preaching to the choir, since the only folks be visting this forum are probably eddie c fans, lol...

[–] shzzaam737 19 years ago

I agree. This is a classic Boston movie. Though it was made before I was born, it depicts the Boston I remember as a young kid and from stories my father and his buddies told me. I've been looking for a copy forever and finally found one on ebay for $15. Besides the Brinks Job and the Boston Strangler, are there any other good flicks about Boston's grimy days? Now Beantown is so sterile with all the Saab driving newcomers driving the property values way out of any blue-collar's price range.

[–] jaygill-1 19 years ago

You are so right dude. It really does capture Boston's pre-BigDig character that I remember back from when i was a kid.

It is a real surprise and treat to turn on the tv and find this movie on!! Gritty seventies movies (especially crime dramas- i.e. French Connection, Taking of Pelham 123) have a place as a premier genre in Hollywood's many offerings...from the rough, grimy locales like New York and Boston, to the big 8 cylinder boats your parents chauffered you around in with bench seats and seatbelts you never used. I owned a huge 4-door 78 LTD myself.

While watching the movie, I get a kick out of the seeing the Boston skyline from the Cambridge side of the Charles River and noticing that the building I used to work in (500 Boylston) wasn't there at the time.

Great wise guy movie and oh yes... need I mention the Boston Garden and the Bruins (shot live) and the now foreverchanged south station tunnels! Awesome Boston Movie!!

[–] christieg2 19 years ago

Wasn't Mystic River filmed on location in a part of Boston? That was a good film too, OMO.

[–] jaygill-1 19 years ago

Mystic River was filmed in Boston and captured very well the neighborhood thug types you can find there (at least back 20 years ago). I grew up and lived in East Boston most of my life. There were definitely characters like the Savage Brothers and Jimmy, etc. The neighborhood Dave lived in and where he was kidnapped was on Condor street in Eastie - Right near where the Mystic River inlets to the Chelsea Creek.

There was something about Eddie Coyle though that really adopted the city and rail stations as an important backdrop to the story. That's what makes it a good Boston Movie. Good Will Hunting was another very good Boston Movie...i.e. captured the Boston city and culture to a "T"...right down to the Dunkin Donuts cups and the neighborhood scenes and attitudes of Southie, The Redline and Cambridge, etc.

[–] crookedmouth2003 19 years ago

i think every neighborhood in boston had their own savage brothers. we had a couple sets in JP, before all locals were priced out in the 90's.

Good Will hunting and Mystic River are probably two of the best boston movies ever made. but Eddie Coyle really nailed the grit and atmosphere better than any other film. plus those priceless scenes at the garden and the wild B's games in the '70s, the insane gallery gods. and mitchum is brilliant.

that film is a time capsule in a way. DVD-me please.

[–] westhamu 19 years ago

Mystic River was brilliant (far better than Eastwood's over-hyped Hilary Swank boxing movie) but Eddie Coyle is it. I saw this movie in 1974 through the projectionist's window sitting next to my Dad who was working an illegal second job as a projectionist at the time (he was a NSW copper)at the old Cronulla Picture Theatre south of Sydney; ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ ably directed by Peter Yates of ‘Bullitt’ fame and featuring a very good and aging Robert Mitchum. What a film! You still can’t get it on video or DVD in Australia and believe me I've tried; I don’t know why, it isn't ever even on TV late at night. But is it one of the best gangster movies ever made? Eddie Coyle, after loyally and faithfully serving his overlords is ceremoniously and perfunctorily screwed by both the Mafia (Peter Boyle especially) and the coppers. A very big eye opener (re. moral ambiguity) for me at the age of thirteen. I’d seen the ‘Godfather’ a year earlier at the age of twelve but the plight of the Eddie Coyles of this world worried me for months. Eddie Coyle was no Vito Corleone and the Vito Corleones of this world the Eddie Coyles can’t fight. The first really great 'loser' film I saw.

[–] westhamu 19 years ago

This is my point. In nearly three weeks no-one has come near Eddie Coyle. No wonder it's not on DVD.

[–] beatnick68-1 16 years ago

I agree totally. I remember as a kid in the 80's how grimy downtown Boston was..industrial in places, sleazy in others. I miss that. It gave a sense of "danger" to a kid taking the Red Line in to go to the arcades and electronics stores. Makes me laugh now that a kid from Dorchester had to go downtown for that kind of "danger." Total reversal now.

The neighborhoods too are well represented in this flick. In fact, the final scene of the movie (in the parking lot of the bowling alley complex) takes place very, very near to where my family was living in '74.

Re: huge cars....my first car after I got my license...a 1974 Delta Olds 88. The thing was so huge that when you took a corner, you had to pull over to wait for the back end of the car to catch up. The back seat was roughly the size of a futon.

In this movie, and a few others, I love checking out the old skyline. I also worked at the 500 Boylston/222 Berkely office complex for about 7 years and it's so weird not seeing that Victrola Radio shaped building looming over the river. I can remember when that was under construction in the late 80's...I'd walk past it when taking my high school girlfriend to the movies at Copley Place.

Ahhh...memory lane.

[–] yatzo376 10 years ago

Great post and yes, a great movie.

I lived on boyston ,across from th Pru in the early 80s while attending Berklee.

They were just finishing up on Copley plaza, where I saw Scarface in 83.

[–] Studman_Productions 18 years ago

And The Departed!

[–] jaygill-1 17 years ago

Just saw another one tonight on Retroplex. "Fuzz" (1972) with Tom Skerritt, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch and Yul Brenner. I can't believe I never heard of it before! Pretty funny comedy/drama about Boston detectives trying to solve several cases. It reminded me how much Boston has changed since I was a little kid. There were a ton of buildings missing from the landscape I have grown accustomed to over the years.

[–] Colasante384 17 years ago

What's Retroplex? Sounds interesting. "FOEC" is great unknown classic. Very hard to find on TV and I'm not a big DVD renter.

[–] joonas1038 16 years ago

I have seen it and I like It.

[–] joonas1038 16 years ago

GREAT FILM..

[–] jockey-1 15 years ago

Like this thread, this movie is a great find and I am so happy I saw it.

Nobody has mentioned the soundtrack, though: they don't make music like that any more -- sweet 70s atmosphunk.

[–] tween_us 15 years ago

Not sure how accurate it is, but here's a link to a list of films set in Boston:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films,_operas,_and_plays_set_in_B oston#Film

[–] spedmunki1 15 years ago

"The Last Detail" shows how seedy the Chinatown area was pre-Big Dig. "Gone Baby Gone" is also an excellent Boston film.

[–] SteamshipBooth 15 years ago

I would like to nominate THE VERDICT as the greatest of Boston movies.

[–] eThink 15 years ago

In FEB 2005, the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine had this excellent article on the "Best" AND "Worst" Boston Movies.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/02/27/reel_bos ton/

I think that they got it right!

[–] sbere 11 years ago

Eddie Coyle is my favorite Boston movie. Altered States had some nice set-ups in Beacon Hill.

--I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

[–] dep1353 11 years ago

John Sturges' 1950 "Mystery Street" is a good noirish (John Alton) murder-mystery shot on location in Boston and Cambridge.