Bullitt (1968)

Director: Peter Yates

Starring: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn

An all-guts, no-glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.

With the film’s high acclaim and still holding the accolade for best car chase scene, I was needless to say very excited to watch ‘Bullitt’. Well, let’s just say if it wasn’t for that car chase sequence, it would have been a forgettable crime movie. (Uhm, wait, it still is forgettable…)

Steve McQueen stars as the titular Detective Frank Bullitt. Under orders from Walter Charmers (Robert Vaughn), Bullitt and his team must protect mobster Johnny Ross, who is a witness. To me it was never clear what he was a witness off, and some of his actions were questionable – considering he was (supposed to be) the victim here.

After an assassination attempt on Ross, the film then revolves around Bullitt trying to find the culprits…at a very slow pace… Yawn, already, yawn! Ok, let me just get it off my chest. ‘Bullitt’ is incredibly boring and bland. The lighting is bad (the interior shots are way too dark), and I can’t really say much for the photography either. The lack of a score also made the film even less interesting. It just felt bland on every level.

Cathy (portrayed by Jacqueline Bissett) was an uninteresting character who hardly served any purpose whatsoever – apart maybe as an attempt at a romantic interest. Had she not been in the movie, it would have made no difference. She only caused the film to drag even more than it already did.

I also couldn’t place Chalmers. There was obviously more to this character than meets the eye, but I found him underdeveloped. The film also showed too much information irrelevant to the story, making it all the more boring.

The film’s highlight and most memorable moment, undoubtedly was the car chase, which lasted over 10 minutes. I wonder if the film would have received the same high praise had it not been for that scene? Prior to the James Bond films, there weren’t really all that spectacular car chases in films – none that comes to mind anyway. The Bond films kept pushing stunts and car chases to the limits, and by the time ‘Bullitt’ was made, there had already been five Bond films. I suppose they creators of ‘Bullitt’ wanted to add something special to their otherwise bland premise, and the result was the car chase…

Even so, ‘Bullitt’ is still a slow-paced film that did nothing for my senses. In short, I was bored to death!

Would I watch it again? No.