"Mr. Cool." "The King of Cool." "The Coolest Man in Hollywood."
It surprised me a little that Warner Bros. issued "Bullitt" on a high definition HD-DVD. I kept thinking back to the studio's first DVD treatment of it years ago--a somewhat soft and pale image, with indifferent sound. Then I recalled what they had done with it more recently in their two-disc Special Edition, with an improved bit rate and stereo sound. There is no question they had a good print to work with and created a decent master from it. Unfortunately, it's still not as good as I'd have liked, but more on that in a moment.
In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).
By 1970 he was among the biggest stars in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit. And by the early 1970's there were more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."
Then, by the end of the decade, he had all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.
He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.
For many admirers, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.
"Bullitt" is controlled, composed, and laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a clinically accurate police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special and the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. McQueen plays San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, a character based in part on real-life San Francisco Police Detective Dave Toschi (who would shortly thereafter become famous as one of the investigators of the Zodiac killings). Bullitt is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force.
In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so much concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political aspirations.
Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns beneath their trench coats. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.
Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.
Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" is no Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry," Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," or Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with as much realism as possible.
In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. The location shooting lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you are acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the old Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.
Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" are among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. Moreover, the entire sequence was done in real time, with no speeded-up footage, and McQueen did most of his own driving.
OK, so why if I like this film so much am I not giving it a 10/10? Well, I have to admit that beyond McQueen's definitive antihero cop, the superb location shots, and the great car chase, the rest can be rather humdrum. The plot is more than a bit convoluted and needs a second viewing to get the details straight; the dialogue is probably too terse to be as entertaining as it could be; the Bullitt character is reasonably complex, but beyond him the other folks are rather clichéd; and the narrative may be a tad too reserved, too sterile, to satisfy every taste.
Still and all, "Bullitt" holds up as one of the best of its breed. Credit not only McQueen but director Peter Yates, producer Philip D'Antoni, and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner for turning Robert L. Pike's novel "Mute Witness" into a movie classic. Its ultracool hero; its dispassionate, semidocumentary style; its jazz-inflected musical score; and its mother-of-all modern car chases make it the archetypal forerunner of almost everything else we've gotten in the cops-and-robbers genre for the past four decades. It's hard to argue with success.
Incidentally, if anyone were to make another Bullitt, who would play the character today? OK, you're going to be surprised, but I would choose Daniel Craig. After seeing him as Bond, I think Craig possesses the same cool intensity as McQueen as well as bearing a slight physical resemblance to the man. Who knows; stranger things have happened.
It surprised me a little that Warner Bros. issued "Bullitt" on a high definition HD-DVD. I kept thinking back to the studio's first DVD treatment of it years ago--a somewhat soft and pale image, with indifferent sound. Then I recalled what they had done with it more recently in their two-disc Special Edition, with an improved bit rate and stereo sound. There is no question they had a good print to work with and created a decent master from it. Unfortunately, it's still not as good as I'd have liked, but more on that in a moment.
In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).
By 1970 he was among the biggest stars in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit. And by the early 1970's there were more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."
Then, by the end of the decade, he had all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.
He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.
For many admirers, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.
"Bullitt" is controlled, composed, and laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a clinically accurate police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special and the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. McQueen plays San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, a character based in part on real-life San Francisco Police Detective Dave Toschi (who would shortly thereafter become famous as one of the investigators of the Zodiac killings). Bullitt is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force.
In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so much concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political aspirations.
Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns beneath their trench coats. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.
Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.
Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" is no Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry," Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," or Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with as much realism as possible.
In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. The location shooting lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you are acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the old Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.
Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" are among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. Moreover, the entire sequence was done in real time, with no speeded-up footage, and McQueen did most of his own driving.
OK, so why if I like this film so much am I not giving it a 10/10? Well, I have to admit that beyond McQueen's definitive antihero cop, the superb location shots, and the great car chase, the rest can be rather humdrum. The plot is more than a bit convoluted and needs a second viewing to get the details straight; the dialogue is probably too terse to be as entertaining as it could be; the Bullitt character is reasonably complex, but beyond him the other folks are rather clichéd; and the narrative may be a tad too reserved, too sterile, to satisfy every taste.
Still and all, "Bullitt" holds up as one of the best of its breed. Credit not only McQueen but director Peter Yates, producer Philip D'Antoni, and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner for turning Robert L. Pike's novel "Mute Witness" into a movie classic. Its ultracool hero; its dispassionate, semidocumentary style; its jazz-inflected musical score; and its mother-of-all modern car chases make it the archetypal forerunner of almost everything else we've gotten in the cops-and-robbers genre for the past four decades. It's hard to argue with success.
Incidentally, if anyone were to make another Bullitt, who would play the character today? OK, you're going to be surprised, but I would choose Daniel Craig. After seeing him as Bond, I think Craig possesses the same cool intensity as McQueen as well as bearing a slight physical resemblance to the man. Who knows; stranger things have happened.
"Mr. Cool." "The King of Cool." "The Coolest Man in Hollywood."
It surprised me a little that Warner Bros. issued "Bullitt" on a high definition HD-DVD. I kept thinking back to the studio's first DVD treatment of it years ago--a somewhat soft and pale image, with indifferent sound. Then I recalled what they had done with it more recently in their two-disc Special Edition, with an improved bit rate and stereo sound. There is no question they had a good print to work with and created a decent master from it. Unfortunately, it's still not as good as I'd have liked, but more on that in a moment.
In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).
By 1970 he was among the biggest stars in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit. And by the early 1970's there were more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."
Then, by the end of the decade, he had all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.
He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.
For many admirers, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.
"Bullitt" is controlled, composed, and laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a clinically accurate police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special and the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. McQueen plays San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, a character based in part on real-life San Francisco Police Detective Dave Toschi (who would shortly thereafter become famous as one of the investigators of the Zodiac killings). Bullitt is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force.
In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so much concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political aspirations.
Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns beneath their trench coats. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.
Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.
Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" is no Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry," Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," or Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with as much realism as possible.
In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. The location shooting lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you are acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the old Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.
Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" are among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. Moreover, the entire sequence was done in real time, with no speeded-up footage, and McQueen did most of his own driving.
OK, so why if I like this film so much am I not giving it a 10/10? Well, I have to admit that beyond McQueen's definitive antihero cop, the superb location shots, and the great car chase, the rest can be rather humdrum. The plot is more than a bit convoluted and needs a second viewing to get the details straight; the dialogue is probably too terse to be as entertaining as it could be; the Bullitt character is reasonably complex, but beyond him the other folks are rather clichéd; and the narrative may be a tad too reserved, too sterile, to satisfy every taste.
Still and all, "Bullitt" holds up as one of the best of its breed. Credit not only McQueen but director Peter Yates, producer Philip D'Antoni, and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner for turning Robert L. Pike's novel "Mute Witness" into a movie classic. Its ultracool hero; its dispassionate, semidocumentary style; its jazz-inflected musical score; and its mother-of-all modern car chases make it the archetypal forerunner of almost everything else we've gotten in the cops-and-robbers genre for the past four decades. It's hard to argue with success.
Incidentally, if anyone were to make another Bullitt, who would play the character today? OK, you're going to be surprised, but I would choose Daniel Craig. After seeing him as Bond, I think Craig possesses the same cool intensity as McQueen as well as bearing a slight physical resemblance to the man. Who knows; stranger things have happened.
It surprised me a little that Warner Bros. issued "Bullitt" on a high definition HD-DVD. I kept thinking back to the studio's first DVD treatment of it years ago--a somewhat soft and pale image, with indifferent sound. Then I recalled what they had done with it more recently in their two-disc Special Edition, with an improved bit rate and stereo sound. There is no question they had a good print to work with and created a decent master from it. Unfortunately, it's still not as good as I'd have liked, but more on that in a moment.
In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).
By 1970 he was among the biggest stars in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit. And by the early 1970's there were more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."
Then, by the end of the decade, he had all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.
He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.
For many admirers, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.
"Bullitt" is controlled, composed, and laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a clinically accurate police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special and the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. McQueen plays San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, a character based in part on real-life San Francisco Police Detective Dave Toschi (who would shortly thereafter become famous as one of the investigators of the Zodiac killings). Bullitt is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force.
In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so much concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political aspirations.
Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns beneath their trench coats. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.
Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.
Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" is no Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry," Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," or Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with as much realism as possible.
In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. The location shooting lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you are acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the old Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.
Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" are among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. Moreover, the entire sequence was done in real time, with no speeded-up footage, and McQueen did most of his own driving.
OK, so why if I like this film so much am I not giving it a 10/10? Well, I have to admit that beyond McQueen's definitive antihero cop, the superb location shots, and the great car chase, the rest can be rather humdrum. The plot is more than a bit convoluted and needs a second viewing to get the details straight; the dialogue is probably too terse to be as entertaining as it could be; the Bullitt character is reasonably complex, but beyond him the other folks are rather clichéd; and the narrative may be a tad too reserved, too sterile, to satisfy every taste.
Still and all, "Bullitt" holds up as one of the best of its breed. Credit not only McQueen but director Peter Yates, producer Philip D'Antoni, and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner for turning Robert L. Pike's novel "Mute Witness" into a movie classic. Its ultracool hero; its dispassionate, semidocumentary style; its jazz-inflected musical score; and its mother-of-all modern car chases make it the archetypal forerunner of almost everything else we've gotten in the cops-and-robbers genre for the past four decades. It's hard to argue with success.
Incidentally, if anyone were to make another Bullitt, who would play the character today? OK, you're going to be surprised, but I would choose Daniel Craig. After seeing him as Bond, I think Craig possesses the same cool intensity as McQueen as well as bearing a slight physical resemblance to the man. Who knows; stranger things have happened.
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