{"id":15490,"date":"2011-01-13T14:16:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T21:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15490"},"modified":"2023-09-13T22:05:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T05:05:56","slug":"bullitt-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15490","title":{"rendered":"Bullitt (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You work your side of the street, and I&#8217;ll work mine.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster-206x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-59177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster-206x300.png 206w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster-704x1024.png 704w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster-88x128.png 88w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster-186x270.png 186w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Poster.png 761w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA police detective (Steve McQueen) hired to protect a mafia informant (Pat Renella) investigates his ward&#8217;s brutal assassination.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr\n\n\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Criminal Investigation<\/li>\n<li>Detectives and Private Eyes<\/li>\n<li>Jacqueline Bissett Films<\/li>\n<li>Peter Yates Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Duvall Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Vaughn Films<\/li>\n<li>Steve McQueen Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary accurately labels this iconic crime drama as &#8220;top-notch&#8221;, pointing out Peter Yates&#8217; &#8220;extremely impressive&#8221; direction and &#8220;great use of San Francisco locations&#8221;. He notes that the &#8220;film has [an] authentic feel to it&#8221;, with the &#8220;street and crowd scenes&#8230; particularly believable&#8221;, and calls out the &#8220;several very exciting action sequences, including the influential, dizzying car chase&#8230; up and down the steep San Francisco streets&#8221;. He argues that &#8220;even more memorable&#8221;, however, &#8220;are all the bits of business that give us insight into Bullitt&#8217;s character&#8221;, including the brief yet revealing scene showing that his &#8220;shopping consists of buying six TV dinners without bothering to see what they are&#8221;. <em>Bullitt<\/em> did arguably afford Steve McQueen his &#8220;best role&#8221;, and I&#8217;ll agree with Peary that it&#8217;s &#8220;too bad there weren&#8217;t more films about Bullitt&#8221; (though I disagree with his assertion that they should &#8220;counter <em>Dirty Harry<\/em>&#8221; &#8212; I&#8217;m a fan of that series!). <\/p>\n<p>Peary notes that this film &#8220;has never been given its due&#8221; &#8212; an interesting statement, since it&#8217;s most definitely remembered and revered by many as a cult hit. (In fact, just the other day on an L.A. freeway I was driving behind a Ford Mustang GT with &#8220;Bullitt&#8221; as its vanity plate, and &#8220;Steve McQueen&#8221; written on the plate frame). But perhaps that&#8217;s exactly Peary&#8217;s point: this film is so closely associated with McQueen&#8217;s car (and the justifiably lauded car chase it&#8217;s involved in) that it&#8217;s easy to overlook how enjoyable the film is as a police procedural and character study. The investigation is remarkably well-written, with the unexpected &#8220;plot twist&#8221; that occurs fairly early on (as McQueen&#8217;s ward is murdered) leaving us wondering what will come next. Indeed, the screenplay &#8212; which uncovers a &#8220;bizarre plot involving lookalike criminals&#8221; &#8212; almost never disappoints, with just one exception: the rather thankless role of Bullitt&#8217;s girlfriend (Jacqueline Bissett); Bissett tries her best but is saddled with such a god-awful speech at one point that it actually grinds things to a halt &#8212; temporarily. Despite this minor hiccup, however, <em>Bullitt<\/em> remains a must-see classic of the genre, one which merits multiple enjoyable viewings. <\/p>\n<p>An interesting bit of trivia: according to TCM, <em>Bullitt<\/em> was &#8220;the first film shot entirely on location with an all-Hollywood crew&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Addendum (1\/14\/11):<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/01\/11\/movies\/11yates.html?_r=1&#038;nl=movies&#038;emc=mua5\">RIP, Peter Yates.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt (Peary votes him Best Actor of the year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em> book, though he wasn&#8217;t even nominated by the Academy at the time)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-McQueen.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-McQueen.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-McQueen.png 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-McQueen-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-McQueen-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The exciting car chase (and other action sequences)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Car-Chase.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Car-Chase.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Car-Chase.png 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Car-Chase-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Car-Chase-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A smart, taut script<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Screenplay.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Screenplay.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Screenplay.png 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Screenplay-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Bullitt-Screenplay-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as an iconic classic of the genre.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine Classic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0062765\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1968\/10\/18\/archives\/the-screen-steve-mcqueen-in-bullitt-detective-movie-opens-at-the.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/bullitt-1968\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/bullitt.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qwipster.net\/bullitt.htm\">Qwipster Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/21345\/bullitt#articles-reviews?articleId=87925\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/68601\/bullitt.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You work your side of the street, and I&#8217;ll work mine.&#8221; Synopsis: A police detective (Steve McQueen) hired to protect a mafia informant (Pat Renella) investigates his ward&#8217;s brutal assassination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91572,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15490\/revisions\/91572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}