- One of the most conspicuously cool movies ever made, Peter Yates' Bullitt is certainly best known for its spectacular car chase, in which Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) propels his iconic Mustang GT through the innumerable hills of San Francisco in pursuit of two hitmen (Paul Genge, Bill Hickman). For almost any other film, I would intend it as a criticism to say that the car chase was the best part of the movie, but for Bullitt I absolutely mean that as a compliment. The wordless ten-minute stretch of white-knuckled driving, complete with point-of-view shots taken from the cars themselves, is just plain brilliant.
- In fact, the car chase is so good that I sometimes forget that the rest of Bullitt is pretty great, too. It's a strange mixture of French New Wave stylings, American police procedurals, modern jazz, and the San Francisco sound that somehow all hangs together. Part of the film's appeal, I think, is that its straightforward plot never interferes with its style. Fundamentally, Bullitt and his team (Don Gordon, Carl Reindel) try and fail to protect a mob witness (Pat Renella) who intended to testify against "The Organization" at the behest of a headline-grabbing senator (Robert Vaughn). It's the sort of story that would fit neatly into a one-hour TV drama and even includes stereotypical police story accessories like the concerned girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) and the intimidating captain (Simon Oakland).
- What I found most interesting in this recent rewatching of Bullitt was how the procedural parts of the film are presented in an exceedingly naturalistic and unembellished manner. The film's excitement is limited primarily to a brief shootout, the famous car chase, and Bullitt's final pursuit of a man named Renick (Felice Orlandi) across an airport tarmac. Otherwise, there are multiple scenes in which Bullitt fields phone calls, watches a doctor (Georg Stanford Brown) operate on his patients, or interviews potential witnesses (Robert Duvall, Al Checco), all with a minimum of dialogue. One inadvertently funny scene lingers on Bullitt and his crew standing around waiting for a teletype machine to slowly spit out a person's image. It's an index of this film's coolness that even its slow scenes prove captivating enough (and the fast ones really knock your socks off).
- Also featuring Vic Tayback and Norman Fell...and apparently uncredited appearances by Joanna Cassidy, Julie Christy, and Suzanne Somers.
