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Bullitt
The 1968 classic is a crackerjack action thriller that is best known for featuring the best car chase ever featured in a film, but it has so much more going for it than that.
The film stars the personification of 1960's movie cool Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco police detective who is approached by a politician named Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to guard a small time wiseguy named Johnny Ross, who has been put up in a cheap hotel because he has agreed to turn state's evidence against the mob. Less than 24 hours after taking the assignment, Bullitt finds himself in hot water when Ross and one of Bullitt's partners both end up in the hospital suffering from gun shot wounds.
To reveal anymore of what happens here would be wrong, but let me say that this film is a triumph for director Peter Yates, his fourth film as a director. Yates creates an atmospheric crime thriller that actually begins during the opening credits and forces complete attention from the viewer because the screenplay, based on a novel by Robert L. Fish, is an effective combination of dialogue and action that requires complete attention from the viewer as a lot of what is going on here is never really explained to the viewer but keeps the viewer interested in exactly what Bullitt has gotten himself into and how widespread the alleged conspiracy goes. There's a whole lot of characters on both sides of the law involved in what's going on here and the viewer is never really sure exactly who the black hats are here, which is a lot of the reason why this film is so much fun.
There were a couple of minor plot holes revolving around the shooting that I didn't really understand. The primary one being when Johnny Ross and Bullitt's partner are shot early on in the film, the assassin definitely wants Ross dead but, for some reason, only shoots Bullitt's partner in the leg. If this was intentional, didn't really understand why the guy would want to leave a witness. I was initially confused as to why Ross left the chain off the door before the shooting, but that gets clarified for the viewer paying attention.
As for that car chase, it definitely did not disappoint. The camerawork actually made me dizzy and I'm pretty sure that this chase was the only reason the film was set in San Francisco, whose hills made a perfect canvas for this awesome car chase, which started with the bad guys chasing Bullitt, but that was quickly reversed. Also loved the fact that the car chase featured minimal collateral damages...hardly any property damage and only one injury of a guy on a motorcycle. The most surprising thing was it didn't take place at the end of the film. The finale at a crowded airport didn't disappoint either.
McQueen never breaks a sweat as the title character and Robert Vaughn is appropriately slimy as Chalmers. Jacqueline Bisset received third billing for her role as McQueen's girlfriend, even though she has less than ten minutes screen time. Some other familiar faces pop up along the way including Simon Oakland, Georg Stanford Brown, Norman Fell, Ed Peck, Vic Tayback and Robert Duvall, but this film is all about the McQueen cool and the masterful direction by Peter Yates, who really put himself on the map here.
The 1968 classic is a crackerjack action thriller that is best known for featuring the best car chase ever featured in a film, but it has so much more going for it than that.
The film stars the personification of 1960's movie cool Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco police detective who is approached by a politician named Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to guard a small time wiseguy named Johnny Ross, who has been put up in a cheap hotel because he has agreed to turn state's evidence against the mob. Less than 24 hours after taking the assignment, Bullitt finds himself in hot water when Ross and one of Bullitt's partners both end up in the hospital suffering from gun shot wounds.
To reveal anymore of what happens here would be wrong, but let me say that this film is a triumph for director Peter Yates, his fourth film as a director. Yates creates an atmospheric crime thriller that actually begins during the opening credits and forces complete attention from the viewer because the screenplay, based on a novel by Robert L. Fish, is an effective combination of dialogue and action that requires complete attention from the viewer as a lot of what is going on here is never really explained to the viewer but keeps the viewer interested in exactly what Bullitt has gotten himself into and how widespread the alleged conspiracy goes. There's a whole lot of characters on both sides of the law involved in what's going on here and the viewer is never really sure exactly who the black hats are here, which is a lot of the reason why this film is so much fun.
There were a couple of minor plot holes revolving around the shooting that I didn't really understand. The primary one being when Johnny Ross and Bullitt's partner are shot early on in the film, the assassin definitely wants Ross dead but, for some reason, only shoots Bullitt's partner in the leg. If this was intentional, didn't really understand why the guy would want to leave a witness. I was initially confused as to why Ross left the chain off the door before the shooting, but that gets clarified for the viewer paying attention.
As for that car chase, it definitely did not disappoint. The camerawork actually made me dizzy and I'm pretty sure that this chase was the only reason the film was set in San Francisco, whose hills made a perfect canvas for this awesome car chase, which started with the bad guys chasing Bullitt, but that was quickly reversed. Also loved the fact that the car chase featured minimal collateral damages...hardly any property damage and only one injury of a guy on a motorcycle. The most surprising thing was it didn't take place at the end of the film. The finale at a crowded airport didn't disappoint either.
McQueen never breaks a sweat as the title character and Robert Vaughn is appropriately slimy as Chalmers. Jacqueline Bisset received third billing for her role as McQueen's girlfriend, even though she has less than ten minutes screen time. Some other familiar faces pop up along the way including Simon Oakland, Georg Stanford Brown, Norman Fell, Ed Peck, Vic Tayback and Robert Duvall, but this film is all about the McQueen cool and the masterful direction by Peter Yates, who really put himself on the map here.