Bullitt

Bullitt
File:B70-10404.jpg Film poster by Michel Landi
Directed by	Peter Yates
Written by	Alan Trustman Harry Kleiner Robert L. Fish (novel)
Produced by	Philip D'Antoni Robert E. Relyea
Starring	Steve McQueen Robert Vaughn Jacqueline Bisset James Hagan
Cinematography	William A. Fraker
Edited by	Frank P. Keller
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Distributed by	Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release date	October 17, 1968 (1968-10-17)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5.5 million

Bullitt is a 1968 American thriller film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the novel titled Mute Witness (1963) by Robert L. Fish (aka Robert L. Pike). Lalo Schifrin wrote the original music score, a mix of jazz, brass and percussion.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and was nominated for Best Sound. Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

Bullitt is probably best-remembered for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history. The scene had Bullitt in a dark "Highland Green" 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 CID Fastback, chasing two hit-men in a "Tuxedo Black" 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum.

In 2007, Bullitt was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on Organized Crime in America. To improve his political standing, Chalmers hopes to bring down mobster Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the aid of key witness Johnny Ross, Pete's brother. Bullitt takes place the weekend before the hearing, from Friday night (during the opening credits) to Sunday night.

Following the theft of $2,000,000, and his escape to San Francisco, Johnny (Felice Orlandi) is placed in the San Francisco Police Department's protective custody for the weekend. Chalmers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt's (Steve McQueen) unit to guard him.

Bullitt, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Detective Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel), give Ross around-the-clock protection at the Hotel Daniels, a cheap flophouse near the Embarcadero Freeway. Late Saturday night, a pair of hitmen (Paul Genge and stunt driver Bill Hickman), burst into the room and shoot both Inspector Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding them both.

Bullitt wants to investigate who shot the pair and find the Mafia boss who ordered the hit. Chalmers attempts to shift blame on to Bullitt and the San Francisco Police Department.

Ross subsequently dies of his wounds. Bullitt suppresses news of the death, asking Doctor Willard (Georg Stanford Brown) to misplace the chart and have the body placed in the morgue under a John Doe identity. Chalmers arrives at the hospital on Sunday morning and is angered that Ross has disappeared. He is further incensed when he and his police minder Captain Baker (Norman Fell) receive no help from Bullitt. Chalmers places pressure on Bullitt to produce Ross, to no effect.

Bullitt reconstructs Ross's movements, finding his way to a hotel where he finds a woman registered under the name Dorothy Simmons (Brandy Carroll). With the hearing the next day, Bullitt suspects the dead mobster may not be who he seems. After picking up his Ford Mustang, Bullitt is tailed by the two hit-men, resulting in a famous car chase that ultimately kills the hit-men.

Back at the police station, Bullitt is interrogated, and is given until Monday morning to follow his remaining lead. He begins to investigate Simmons, but discovers that she has been murdered. Later, Bullitt and Delgetti learn that the Simmons' true identity was Dorothy Rennick, and that the murdered man that they knew as Ross may in fact be her husband, Albert. Bullitt asks immigration for a copy of Mr. Rennick's passport, hoping to prove this theory.

Chalmers arrives at the morgue, demanding, from Bullitt, a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt refuses, producing a copy of the Rennicks' passport photos. Chalmers realizes his mistake upon seeing the couple's true identity: the murdered man was not Johnny Ross, but Albert Rennick. The real Ross set Rennick up in order to escape, then killed Rennick's wife to silence her.

Based on clues in the Rennicks' luggage, Bullitt follows Ross to the airport, where he discovers the real Johnny Ross (Pat Renella) and pursues him. A stand-off ensues, with Bullitt eventually shooting and killing Ross.

A minor subplot also exists, concerning the relationship between Bullitt and his girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), and her struggles with the raw nature of his police work.

Car chase

Detective Bullitt spins his tires for the chase.

At the time of the film's release, the car chase scene generated a great amount of excitement.

Two 1968 390 CID V8 Ford Mustangs (325 bhp) were used for the chase scene, both owned by Ford Motor Company and part of a promotional loan agreement with Warner Bros. The Mustangs' engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase by veteran car racer Max Balchowsky. Ford Motor Company had also originally loaned two Ford Galaxie sedans that were intended to be used in the chase scenes, but the producers found the cars entirely too heavy to put through jumps over the hills of San Francisco without the suspensions of the cars being severely damaged. The Galaxie sedans were replaced with two 1968 440 CID/375 bhp Dodge Chargers that were bought outright from Glendale Dodge in Glendale, California. The engines in both Chargers were left largely unmodified, but the suspensions were upgraded to cope with the demands of the stunt work.

The director called for speeds of about 75–80 mph (120–130 km/h), but the cars (including the ones containing the cameras) reached speeds of over 110 mph (175 km/h) on surface streets. Driver's point-of-view angles were used to give the audience the "feel" of the ride as the cars jumped the hills. Filming the chase scene took three weeks, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of film. During this film sequence, the Charger loses six hubcaps and has different ones missing in different shots. As a result of shooting from multiple angles simultaneously, and some angles' footage used at different times to give the illusion of different streets, the speeding cars can be seen passing the same green VW bug four different times, and the same blue sedan with black top three times. The Charger also crashes into the camera in one scene and the damaged front fender is noticeable in later scenes. After the Charger hits a parked car, it disappears for a split second from the screen before the scene is changed.

Steve McQueen was an accomplished driver and managed to perform the bulk of the driving stunt work. The stunt coordinator, Carey Loftin, hired famed stuntman and motorcycle racer Bud Ekins to do the risky stunts in the Mustang. He is also the stunt man who lays down his bike in front of a skidding truck during the chase (Ekins also doubled for McQueen in the sequence of The Great Escape in which McQueen's character jumps over a barbed wire fence on a motorcycle). The Mustang’s interior rear view mirror goes up and down depending on who is driving: when the mirror is up (visible) McQueen is behind the wheel, and when it is down (not visible) Ekins is driving. The black Dodge Charger was driven by Bill Hickman, who also played one of the hit-men and helped with the choreography of the chase scene. The other hitman was played by Paul Genge who also rode another Dodge off the road to his death in an episode of Perry Mason - "The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise" 2 years earlier.

Of the two Mustangs, one was scrapped after filming due to liability concerns and the surviving backup car was sold to an employee of Warner Brothers' editing department. The car changed hands several times, and Steve McQueen at one point made an unsuccessful attempt to buy it. Currently in non-working condition, the Mustang is rumored to have been kept in a barn in the Ohio River Valley by an anonymous owner.

Reaction

Critical Reception

Bullitt was well received by critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1968. It currently holds a 97% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. In 2004, The New York Times placed the film on its list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made.

Awards and Nominations

The film was nominated and won several critical awards. It won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, it was also nominated for Best Sound. Bullitt was also nominated for several BAFTA Film Awards, including Best Director for Peter Yates, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Track. It also won the American Cinema Editors annual award for Best Edited Feature Film. The film was awarded the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker) and the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Feature Film. The film was also successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards. It won 2nd place Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). In 2000, the Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh.

Comparisons

The movie is also considered highly influential in many other ways within its genre. The use of a rebellious and borderline-insubordinate police officer as a protagonist operating despite interference from higher-ups was followed in many later movies, notably Coogan's Bluff in 1968 and Dirty Harry and The French Connection, both released in 1971. The idea of making the officer fairly young and cool, and equipped with a sports car, was subsequently used by Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice.

The movie as a whole, including the car chase, makes extensive use of the San Francisco Bay area. However, San Francisco's most famous landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge, was not a part of the chase scene because the city's film commission refused to allow the filmmakers to close the bridge and film there. (The bridge is only briefly visible in the background during the part of the chase scene along Marina Boulevard.)

The real-life San Francisco homicide investigator, David Toschi (played by Mark Ruffalo in the 2007 film Zodiac) is said to be the model for McQueen's character Bullitt, including the use of a specially designed quick-draw shoulder holster for his weapon.

External links

• Bullitt at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Bullitt at the Internet Movie Cars Database