Rating: 
Summary: Bullitt confuses and captivates.
Review: "Bullitt" in its oft overlooked camera work is a film worthy of highest praise. People I know usually focus on the car chase as this film's "raison d'etre," and they are right at one level. This film was the first to stage so complex and so dangerous a car chase, the grandaddy of all the cheap hollywood action today that attempts and fails to replicate Bullitt's authenticity. Ignore the car chase, and focus instead on the clever camera work and photography conceived by Yates. The opening shot reflected from a lamp shade, the deceptive image of "Ross" in the glass of the hotel's revolving door, Duvall and his communication with McQueen via rearview mirror in the cab, Bisset's and McQueen's kinetic figures reflected in the mirror of their dresser, McQueen's suprize appearance in the villians' rearview mirror, and finally, McQueen's self-appraisal in the bathroom mirror at the close of the film. This picture is replete with imagery and visual motifs usually reserved for complicated prose. Watch this movie without sound and you will notice and appreciate the images Yates creates, and their importance in the development of the Bullit character. If you miss all of this highbrow stuff, whatever. The chase is worth the price of admission. Turn up the volume and give yourself the chills listening to that mustang go!
Rating:
Summary: Film Noir in Color
Review: "Bullitt" is considered by many to be Steve McQueen's best performance. That by itself says a lot about the movie. However, "Bullitt" is not a movie that everyone will enjoy. My first impression in seeing it as a teenager was that this movie was too complicated to really enjoy. Over the years, I given it an occassional look and have begun to appreciate it a lot more. It fits into that class of movies popular in the 1940's and 50's called Film Noir in which we see the darker and seedier sides of life. The heroes are often not too far removed from the bad guys and there doesn't ever seem to be a happy ending. It's hard to come away from one of those movies feeling good about anything. Just because you can call a movie part of the "Film Noir" genre doesn't automatically make it a good movie. However, it also doesn't automatically make it a bad movie either.
There is much to appreciate in "Bullitt". The acting is terrific and I'm not just talking about McQueen. The character played by Robert Vaughn is disgusting but it isn't until later that it hits you that it's Vaughn's performance that creates the character's impact on you. Of course, there's the car chase. I don't know about you but I think I may have heard too much about it to really enjoy it the first time I saw it. However, I have come to realize that this really is the definitive car chase. Its' successors have generally overdone their chase scenes by focussing on the collateral damage rather than the chase itself.
"Bullitt" is not a work of art but it is a great movie. It may be hard to tell who the good guys are, it may be hard to understand WHY everything that happened had to happen, and it may be unclear as to just what the ending means. However, if you watch it without expectations, it is sure to exceed them.
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, and the pretty
Review: "Bullitt" is highly regarded by many for either "the chase", or the drama.The good and the bad: True, there is a high-speed car chase in part through the hilly streets of San Francisco. Is it "the best ever" chase? Depends on how you look at it. Plus - It was very high speed. Plus - It had a cool-looking Mustang fastback vs a big GTO. Negative - They pass the same VW 4 times, and another car 2 times (why? if not intentional, then very poor continuity) Negative - double-shifting or not, there are about 97 too many gear changes, and some of those are at top speed on the flat stretch near the end. Neg - the bad guys lose too many hubcaps. Still, it's fairly exciting. However, though not car vs car, I think the chase in "The French Connection" is as good if not better. As for the drama, some of it seemed a bit drawn out. Lt. Frank Bullitt is supposed to protect the state's witness "Ross" against the Chicago "Organization". Ross and one cop are shot, and Ross is later killed in the hospital, where Bullitt is hanging out. Bullitt does not want the prosecutor who gave him the assignment (Robert Vaughan) to know Ross died, so he will have time to find the killers. Turns out Ross may not be who the cops think he is, and this leads to a good foot-chase across the airport runways and the airport itself. Some of the police procedure as portrayed in the movie is rather shoddy - such as handling a lot of evidence, then asking for it to be fingerprinted, etc. The pretty: Bullitt has a girlfriend played by Jaqueline Bisset, who gives him grief for his callous attitude. This sets up the final scene of the movie where Bullitt ambiguously questions his existence. Otherwise, her appearance in the movie is useless. Good acting by McQueen and Vaughan. Look for Robert Duval, Georg Sanford Brown, Norman fell, Simon Oakland and a few other names. The jazzy score by Lalo Schifrin sounds like a bad TV movie. Wide-screen movie has decent picture and sound quality. DVD extras include a short behind the scenes documentary, text-based cast/crew/location info, list of awards, and a trailer. In short - Not the best cop movie, not the best McQueen movie, and not the best chase. Watchable but not a stand out.
Rating:
Summary: Bullitt Hits The Mark
Review: 1968's Bullitt is best known for its classic car chase scene that is still considered by many to the best of all time. The movie is worth watching for that scene alone as Steve McQueen's fastback Mustang chases down a Dodge Charger for a tense ten minutes through the streets of San Francisco. Even without that memorable scene, Bullitt is a classic 60's film. Mr. McQueen's performance as steely police detective Frank Bullitt is one of his best and the forerunner of the anti-heroes that would dominate films of the 70's. The plot revolves around a seemingly routine job for Bullitt and his men to protect a mob informant (Pat Renella) who is set to testify before a Senate subcommittee. When two hitmen break into the safe house and fatally wound the informant and injury another detective, Bullitt begins to have questions and takes up investigating the case on his own with the help of fellow detective Delgetti (Don Gordon). Fighting them at every turn is ruthless and ambitious senator Chalmers played with unctuous smarm by Robert Vaughan. Jacqueline Bissett co-stars in one of her first roles as Bullitt's girlfriend and Robert Duvall has a bit part as a cabbie. Director Peter Yates crafts a gritty look to the film and editor Frank Keller won the Academy Award for his superb work.
Rating: 
Summary: Steve McQueen scorches the streets of San Francisco
Review: Arguably the best crime film of 1968, and certainly one of the most influential films of the genre...."Bullitt" established new directions in the mood and style of crime thrillers, and firmly established McQueen as one of the key anti-hero stars of the 60's. Based on the gritty novel "Mute Witness" by Robert L. Pike, this was the first, and only, time McQueen portrayed a police officer (albeit a maverick one) in his movie career. In 1968 Steve was then riding high on the success of his previous crime film, "The Thomas Crown Affair", and "Bullitt" just propelled his star even higher into the heavens ! The plot is tight, economical and well crafted....taciturn, moody Detective Frank Bullitt (McQueen) is charged with the protection of a key witness vital to an upcoming trial involving Mafia connections. Whilst hidden away in a supposed secure location, the witness and his police guard are brutally gunned down by unknown assailants. The heat is turned up on Bullitt by his tough Captain (Simon Oakland) and the manipulative, opportunistic politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to come up with the right answers fast ! Between the draining investigation, Bullitt struggles to maintain his relationship with his cultured, sensitive girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset) Primarily coming from a TV series background, Englishman Peter Yates (directing his fourth movie) did a commendable job as director on "Bullitt"...producing a complex, intense crime thriller with a unique style that would ultimately influence many other films. Yates would later to go onto direct Robert Mitchum in the excellent "sleeper" crime film "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" ! And of course "Bullitt" is reknowned for it's now legendary car chase between Frank Bullitt's 390 GT Mustang and the two hitmen in their black, Dodge Charger 440 Magnum barrelling through the city streets and highways of San Francisco....just don't pay too much attention to how many times they pass that slow-moving, green VW Beetle !! The DVD transfer is excellent in both sound and picture quality, and the Limited Edition Set with the extra goodies (Single sheet poster, shooting draft, lobby cards etc.) is a real bonus for keen film fans !! One of my favourite cop thrillers....McQueen sizzles on screen !!
Rating:
Summary: Classic, Hard-boiled Steve McQueen-a must see.
Review: Bullitt is one of Steve McQueen's best movies ever. McQueen plays a San Francisco police officer assigned to protect a mob informer prior to testimony. When the man is killed while in police custody, He smells a major league rat. When he further learns the man they were guarding wasn't even the right guy to begin with, it really hits the fan. The film features a first rate suspense story. It also features two of the most famous "chase" scenes in film history, a car chase through the streets of San Francisco and a one-on-one chase at San Francisco international airport. The supporting cast is absolutely terrific. The acting is excellent. Although there is very little actual violence, what's there has tremendous impact. This is a movie that grabs your imagination while simultaneously kicking you in the gut. There is one major flaw-the love interest between McQueen and Jacqueline Bisset is truly pathetic. It sticks out like a toilet bowl in a field of wildflowers and adds not one darn thing to the plot. There is no chemistry between the two whatsoever. Fortunately, it is a very minor part of the film and is easily overlooked. This is classic McQueen, and any fan of the suspense genre cannot afford to miss this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the most over rated titles of all time
Review: Ignore the paisley pajamas, Steve McQueen was an icon of cool and BULLITT is the proof. Peter Yates has a smart thinking man's cop drama, bolstered by (yes) the best chase scene on film. Great locations in San Francisco. Superior acting by McQueen, Robert Vaughn as a sinister U.S. Senator and Don Gordon, as McQueen's partner. Why didn't Don Gordon become a bigger star?
Rating:
Summary: Cool star,the first and best elaborate car chase,good story
Review: Steve Mcqueen hit the bullseye with this movie. A character that he was seemingly born to play, a tough withdrawn,taciturn cop. The plot stems from a witness protection job gone awry. Nothing from then is as it seems. Robert Vaughn playing a slick oily politician is brilliant,the doctors and ancillary cops are actually doctors and cops[what a concept!],so they lend a feel of authenticity. The car chase, driven by the actors through the streets of san francisco is classic, and unfortunately spanwned a generation of lame imitators. A good buy, an excellent police procedural and Mcqueen at his best.
Rating: 
Summary: Soporific
Review: Steve McQueen is a cop called Frank Bullitt who is assigned to guard Johnny Ross, a key witness against the mob, but the baddies get to him and he's quickly out of the picture. So off goes Bullitt to figure out how they got to him. Robert Vaughn as crooked politician is not being very helpful wandering round the place demanding that Bullitt's superiors crucify him...
By 1970, the genre of film noir was more or less over. Some films of the early 70s - `Dirty Harry;' `Chinatown' - made interesting attempts at re-invention while Altman's `Long Goodbye' was an elegy for a genre that had largely lost its relevance. `Bullitt' from 1968 is the genre visibly on its last legs. McQueen, the Kevin Costner of the 1960s, may have seemed cool for his day but, my word, he's no Bogart and Yates is no Hawks or Dmytryk. It's often categorized as a classic but it's not. Yates' direction seems to be informed by the idea that tension is best sustained by letting things move forward very very slowly, McQueen's performance by the idea that to appear really cool and really tough the trick is to be laconic almost to the point of catatonia. Both these ideas perhaps have had relatively effective implementations in other movies. Here their outcome is just tedium. It's a thoroughly boring movie with utterly wooden performances across the board and already far too long at a little under two hours for its slender plot to bear. The climax, a pursuit scene at an airport is intended to be exciting, but is just lame in an intensely, `Oh for heaven's sake, get on with it' kind of way. I was glad when it ended.
Rating:
Summary: McQueen's best role in one of the best crime films ever
Review: Steve McQueen, though he's been gone for more than twenty years, strikes me as the kind of actor that Hollywood doesn't seem to have anymore: cool, low-key, professional, almost business-like. And the best example of this is in BULLITT, one of Hollywood's best police dramas ever. McQueen is a San Francisco cop assigned by a rather ruthless politico (Robert Vaughn) to guard a mob witness for the weekend at a hotel near the Embarcadero. But when two hitmen break in and shoot the witness (who later dies) and one of McQueen's partners, it is his duty to find the shooters and keep Vaughn off his back. Driving around in his Dodge Charger, McQueen spots the two hitmen, resulting in what remains perhaps the single most hair-raising car chase in cinematic history. Although the killers bite the dust at the end of the chase, McQueen learns that the man who was shot at the hotel was actually a decoy, NOT the real witness. Even more, the decoy's wife has been killed in San Mateo by that witness. McQueen and his partner (Don Gordon) learn that the witness plans to skip town, but they corner the man at San Francisco International Airport in a taut, action and suspense-laden finale. Though it may seem old-fashioned, released as it was in 1968, BULLITT is superb entertainment, incisively helmed by British director Peter Yates and excellently photographed on location by master cinematographer William Fraker. Lalo Schifrin's classic jazz score gives this film the perfect atmosphere, and Frank Keller justly won an Oscar for his film editing--including, of course, the 11-minute, 115 mile-per-hour car chase. McQueen is, of course, so cool under fire, and Vaughn is ruthlessness personified. Not too terribly violent (the mature 'PG' rating is in effect here), BULLITT remains a benchmark action movie. Fans of classic action films should not miss this.
|
