Bullitt

Composite Score: 84.57

Starring: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon, Robert Duvall, Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, Georg Stanford Brown, Carl Reindel, Pat Renella, Paul Genge, and Bill Hickman

Director: Peter Yates

Writers: Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner

Genres: Action, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

MPAA Rating: M/PG

Box Office: $511,422 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Bullitt is the 1968 film adaptation of Robert L. Fish’s novel Mute Witness about a police lieutenant tasked with protecting a state’s witness and the increasingly complex layers that he uncovers after that witness is attacked by hitmen while under protection. The film stars Steve McQueen as the titular police officer, tasked by Robert Vaughn’s ambitious politician Walter Chalmers to guard Johnny Ross. After Ross is attacked, Bullitt goes on his own unsanctioned investigation into Ross, looking to track down just who the mobster had angered by turning state’s witness. The film has become most noted for its 10-minute car chase through San Francisco around the halfway mark that utilized real cars and real locations, forever altering Hollywood chase scenes, but is also noteworthy as a study of the desensitization that police work enacts on officers of the law.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                There’s a critique of Bullitt out there that dismisses the film for being incredibly boring outside of the ten-minute car chase in the middle, but I don’t think that quite gets to the heart of the film’s issue. The film is an incredible example of realist filmmaking, shooting as much as possible on location and at full speed, relying heavily on actual procedural practice to inform the decisions of its characters, meaning that it does feel rather mundane, and having a massive car chase right in the middle of it all just serves to highlight that fact. For action fans, Bullitt’s car chase might be the only real moment of excitement in the film, but in actuality, the car chase really serves more as a ten-minute digression from the actual story and themes of the film – exploring the character of Frank Bullitt and the way that police work is slowly but steadily stripping him of his humanity. The chase’s ending brings those themes back home, but because of how distracting that action sequence actually is against the slow plod of the rest of the film, it’s hard to say for certain that it adds more to the film than it takes away.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                While I can knock the choice to include the car chase in Bullitt, I certainly can’t knock the filmmaking and stuntwork that went into making the extended sequence one of the most iconic in film history. The cars flying around the hills of San Francisco (both in the city and outside of it) make for a truly thrilling action sequence that inspired so many down the line. The film editing of this single ten-minute period probably won the film its Oscar in the category single-handedly, turning what I can only assume are many days of shoots and many reels of footage into a single, cohesive chase that played out in reality and on screen. There’s no denying the impact and thrill of the chase once you get into it.

                The other aspect that bolsters Bullitt’s all-time great status is its exploration of the theme of desensitized cops through the character of Bullitt and his interactions with his girlfriend, Jacqueline Bisset’s Cathy. The wanton violence and death that Bullitt experiences on a daily basis, particularly over the span of the weekend encompassed in this film should be enough to drive a normal human with healthy levels of empathy and sympathy to a breaking point, but McQueen’s stoic detective meets it all with the same steely, jaded gaze, even partaking in a killing of his own by the time it’s all said and done. The devolution of his character marks the true story arc of the film and makes it an excellent critique of the policing system and the amount of faith that “society” places in police.

                As a critique of the American policing system and as a vehicle for one of the greatest car chases ever brought to film, Bullitt secures a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time – even though those two highlights end up more in conflict than in tandem as the film unfolds. It is currently streaming on Max for anyone looking to watch it in the coming days.