User reviews

What a change of pace this movie is as compared with its genre today. I'm no old fogey but would that modern directors become smart enough take several pages from its book.

The Bullit character is a precursor of Dirty Harry but a bit more cerebral. Stylistically, the director sets the stage beautifully for McQueen's Bullit. The movie has a European feel (director Peter Yates is a Brit) and achieves its dark mood through quiet understatement. The musical score for instance. Today, music is overly used, overly loud and manipulative. (i.e. in case you are not moved by this scene, here are a division of amplified violins to remind you to weep). In 'Bullit' the music is sparingly used and doesn't intrude at all. It complements the directorial style without setting the agenda.

The feeling of reserved naturalism is achieved through editing and dialogue. There really aren't very many lines in the movie and when characters do speak they are very succinct. Notice the last 15-20 minutes of the movie, most of which takes place at the airport. Hardly a line in it. There is none of the chattiness so prevalent today (especially post "Pulp Fiction") which is so tedious (unless the script is tip-top, which is rare).

Editing is, perhaps, its greatest strong point. The many long edits deserve equal credit with the dialogue in setting the low-key mood. The cinema verite dialogue of the airport scenes (and, say, the scene where McQueen and Don Gordon search the trunk) combined with the long cuts add greatly to understated feel while adding realism.

And the performances are top notch. The spare script helps McQueen shine since the taciturn moodiness fits his persona to a tee. There are very fine performances from all of the supporting cast, from Don Gordon to Bisset to Fell to Duvall to Oakland. This is a great movie for watching faces. Note the expressions of the hit men during the chase scene (just another example of this movie letting the little touches speak volumes).

The chase scene certainly deserves its billing as one of the best in movie history. Recently, 'The Transporter' was lauded for its opening chase sequence. The one in 'Bullit' is a marvel compared. In 'The Transporter' sequence I'm not sure there is a cut that lasts more than three seconds. In 'Bullit' it is again the editing which sets it apart here. The long edits give you the feel of acceleration and deceleration, of tire smoke and gears, of wind and the roller coaster San Francisco streets. You are given the time to place yourself in the frame. In short, 'Bullit' uses real craftsmanship. Films like 'The Transporter' use hundreds of quick edits to mimic the danger and immediacy of 'Bullit' but it comes across as hot air, confusion instead of clarity. The two scenes are perfect set pieces of easy (and hollow) Mtv-style flash versus real directorial substance.

Despite having aged somewhat, Bullitt remains a tough, gritty, and altogether realistic portrait of police life in late sixties San Francisco. The film is of course most renowned for the spectacular (even by today's standards) car chase in which star Steve McQueen famously did his own stunt driving (I wonder what the insurance policy was like?!) Although McQueen didn't really have to stretch beyond his already established screen persona, he is perfect in the role. He is Bullitt like Connery is Bond. Maybe the role was tailored specifically for him. He also has Jacqueline Bisset (Cathy), who can more than hold her own with any Bond girl, to come home to! She adds a welcome domestic quality and the audience feels relieved that despite the unforgiving profession Bullitt works in, at least he has a good woman at his side. The location photography in beautiful San Francisco, the to-the-letter accurate procedural dialogue, the political infighting with the smarmy D.A. Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) and the brutally violent action scenes all complement the fine performances to create an entirely engrossing authentic crime drama. Watch for the great Robert Duvall in a minor role as the cabbie.

The late 1960s saw two classic, hard-boiled thrillers set in San Fransico; John Boorman's stylised 'Point Blank', and Peter Yates' 'Bullitt'. Calling your hero Bullitt might seem an unsubtle way to emphasise his macho qualities, but in fact Steve MacQueen plays him as a quiet man, not some wise-talking maverick: he does what he has to do, but takes no pleasure in his actions; and survives the roughness of his work not by becoming a monster, but simply by becoming a little less human. It's a believable portrait, and the film as a whole has a procedural feel: there are action scenes, but these are kept in their place in the overall design.

Today, the film is most famous for its celebrated car chase, which makes excellent use, as indeed does the movie as a whole, of the bay area locations, but is not actually shot that excitingly: the conclusion at the airport is more original, though it roots the film in the time when it was permissible to take a loaded gun onto a plane. But overall this is still a classy film, dry, exciting and bleak, and among the very best films of its day. William Friedkin's brilliant 'The French Connection', made a short while afterwards, would appear to owe it a debt.

Steve McQueen's career peaked in 1968 with "Bullitt" and "The Thomas Crown Affair," both ideal vehicles for his cool persona. Although superior to its recent remake, "Crown" has not aged gracefully, while "Bullitt" has held up fairly well.

Cool though he may be, Frank Bullitt is a totally committed detective, perhaps even more so than Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle or Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry Callahan. Bullitt is a complete professional who never takes his eye off the objective, no matter how much interference he encounters from his superiors or from Robert Vaughan's scheming politician, Walter Chalmers. And Bullitt, unlike Doyle or Callahan, operates without the histrionics. No one-liners, no yelling and screaming tantrums from this officer. You may not like him very much, but you have to respect his dedication to duty and you'll quickly share his absolute contempt for Chalmers.

"Bullitt" is best remembered for its spectacular car chase in which McQueen reportedly did most of his own driving. But this is not primarily an action film. Aside from the chase and the final shootout at SFO, there's not a lot of violence. Most of the attention is on Bullitt's maneuvering to unravel the mystery and to keep Chalmers off his back.

Recommended if you like McQueen or policiers in general. The pace may be a little slow for people under 30 who are used to a more slam-bang, less cerebral approach to this sort of thing, but "Bullitt" is still worth your time. Just don't expect "Lethal Weapon."

...it's a historical document. Society ladies showing off their trophy furs. Defunct airlines (Pan Am) and collapsed freeways (the Embarcadero). Cops without cell phones, or two way radios. Billboards showing how little has changed ("Need Money for Taxes ?", "Mothers Day Brunch May 11, make your reservations now") and how much ("ENCO" gasoline). Backstreet USA in all its slovenly glory. Moribund corner stores with fading signs. And of course an airport where you walk in and out, neat as you please, past the luggage left standing unattended at the curb.

Before Bullitt only the Europeans produced cinema that actually photographed society instead of re-creating it in a studio. With a few exceptions (The Conversation, The French Connection) Hollywood didn't exactly pick up the ball and run with it. Hollywood makes money, not historical documents. No matter. Watch this movie for its action and its background - and ask yourself if your time is better than Bullitt's.

With the possibly exception of Casablanca, I think this must be the film I've watched on TCM more than any other. I mean, I feel like I must catch it every time it airs, not intentionally, but I turn on my TV, and there it is. It's gotten where not only do I know how every scene unfolds in order, but I also almost feel like I could write down the action shot by shot without looking. And even so, I'm still not sure I understand the plot after all these viewings! The mobsters and informants are almost meaningless. They're just there to give Steve McQueen someone to chase and shoot.

The real conflict of the movie is between McQueen's Bulitt and Robert Vaughn's Chalmers (is Superintendent Chalmers, or "Super Nintendo Chalmers" as Ralph Wiggum once called him, named after this character?). The whole movie appears to be a set-up for the one moment McQueen can say BS to Vaughn when he suggests compromise is sometimes okay. Anyway, I love the '60s vibe. I love Jacqueline Bissette wearing only pajama tops and apparently sleeping nude. I love the view of the street from her breakfast nook (looks just like the view from the apartment Benjamin rents in The Graduate). I love the flute-led jazz combo at the restaurant (they're probably somebody real and famous, at least within jazz circles, but I've never learned who).

A great example of the sordid, violent, 60's detective film, and a prime influence on every t.v. detective series from the 1970's onward. Grittily realistic with San Francisco making an excellent back drop for one of Steve McQueen's best roles. As detective Frank Bullit, assigned to guard a chief witness in a senate investigation, McQueen is a perfect combination of stoicism and jaded cool. Robert Vaughn makes an excellent corrupt politician attempting to gain publicity with a mob investigation, and Jacquline Bisset is beautiful as McQueen's girlfriend and voice of normalcy. The stylish medium shot direction of Peter Yates ( his best film) makes for a fast past action /suspense/ police thriller. And of course there's the justifiably famous car chase.

The first lone-wolf cop story plays by the rules of the genre it spawned, featuring a charismatic, outsider type who carries a badge and an attitude directed just as much against the egos and hubris of his superiors as against the criminal element.

Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is a detective lieutenant on the San Francisco police force who gets handed a "babysitting job" looking after a would-be Mob informant by ambitious politico Chalmers (Robert Vaughn). Things go wrong with an attempted hit that leaves the informant and his guard in intensive care and Bullitt on the wrong side of Chalmers, not to mention a pair of killer hoods who tool around in a Dodge Charger and have no respect either for stop signs or Mustangs.

"Bullitt" the movie is best-known for an automotive duel between the assassin duo and Bullitt, still championed by some as the greatest car chase in movie history. I think it's been lapped myself, though I admire the long sections of real-time churn-and-burn since it flies in the face of MTV-style fast cutting we know today. The hoods Bullitt chase look like insurance salesmen, but of course they were really stunt men, and with McQueen doing a good deal of his own stunt driving as well, there's a validity to the sequence that makes up for some slackness in the composition.

"Bullitt" is a better film for the things that occur around the car chase, not so much with the central mystery of Johnny Ross as with the scenes of Bullitt in his element, like making coffee, talking with his superiors, eating a sandwich. McQueen's acting was showcased better in films like "The Sand Pebbles," "The Cincinnati Kid," and even his final film "The Hunter," but his star power was never more in evidence than it was here, especially in the scenes he shares with Vaughn, who plays the role of a preppy hardass to perfection and gives both McQueen and the viewer a foil more evil than the real crooks in this picture.

Seeing Bullitt handle Chalmers' baiting is a real lesson in how less is more. There's a scene where a fingerprint check gives Bullitt the opportunity to let Chalmers have it, but instead of rounding on the jerk, he simply tells Chalmers the score as he makes for the door in one of the great underplayed lines ever filmed.

Verisimilitude is everything in "Bullitt," as director Peter Yates and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner present it. Long scenes are shot in operating rooms, morgues, and hotel-room crime scenes as a way of presenting what we are seeing as real in a way no other film did then and few have done since. Every shot, as Yates explains on his DVD commentary, was shot on a real location, and you feel like he got it all down exactly right, getting the right mix of style and drab reality. A shot cop moans while blood pulses through his wound, while a strangled woman is seen in such gory detail we understand another character's need to throw up over it. Throughout there's Bullitt as only McQueen could play him, saying the right line the right way, jumping in an ambulance to fix a problem, telling his gorgeous girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) "It's not for you, baby" in a way that comes off utterly cool rather than gratingly sexist.

I couldn't figure out what was going on with the crooks – "the Organization" as they are dubbed since calling them the Mafia was seen as demeaning to a particular ethnic group not yet known for creating films like "The Godfather" or "GoodFellas" – not until I watched "Bullitt" a second time, at which point I realized that wasn't so important. "Bullitt" has an annoying subtext of police work as dehumanizing, something Bullitt understands implicitly makes him a tool for the wrong sort of people. That was the year that was 1968, Chicago and all that, but the au currant anti-establishment notes do rankle.

But McQueen was a cinematic great, one who doesn't get as much attention today but proves here why his image is so enduring. Yates credits the clothes McQueen wears, but Yates himself, along with his writers, Vaughn, Bissett, and a terrific supporting cast led by Simon Oakland as Bullitt's tough-but-fair captain, create one of the great platforms for a movie tough guy ever built, a platform McQueen fills very, very well.

Yes, a great car chase scene, but the sloppy, illogical police work in keeping a witness safe in the least secure location made no sense. I blame the writers in the late 1960's. Too many movies were made this way, useless, never ending closeups of faces reacting to scenes, other completely useless filler scenes that had nothing to do with the story. Too many movies were made this way. Lazy, sloppy writing, directors that only seemed interested in making a movie that ran a certain time limit, editors that must have been trying to please actors egos. Who cared if the audience left the theater wondering what the hell they just watched,

There were so many great things about this film. You've got to love late 1960s cinematography. Contrary to being even a "typical" cop film of its day, many of the scenes here were shot in such a way as to convey a message to the viewer which goes beyond the plotline itself. The is an "urban" film--numerous scenes reflect the city and the mood of 1968 by occasionally commenting on racial issues of the day (the black doctor who is asked to be replaced), and conspicuous shots of blacks, other minorities (after Ross is shot at the hotel) and hippies, porn shops on the corner, etc. I found the airport tarmac chase scene even better than the car chase, the dwarfing of the characters and deafening din by the jumbo Pan American 747s completely pulls the viewer in as if he or she is right there. There were some other great scenes which could almost stand alone, such as one in a restaurant where a jazz quartet (with flute-nice 1960s touch) is playing. It fades into the next scene in which Steve McQueen is laying in bed the next morning, reminiscing about the mood in that restaurant.

Many people complain about the slowness of the film, and it is slow, and the use of such "pointless" scenes as the one in the restaurant, but I find this is one of the things that makes it so great. It conveys the complexity and mundaneness of everyday life. This is a refreshing contrast to hollywood films which are always action-packed and one-dimensional. This film is a pleasure to watch. You come away from it feeling like you have experienced many things, and you're not sure what all they are.

Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) goes after the "Organization" that killed a witness under his protection. A slimy politician, Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is breathing down his neck and making things very difficult for him. Will he have him thrown off the force before he finds the killers?

I've been hearing for years that this is a great movie. Seeing it, I can't see why people think that. Plotwise this is nothing new and the movie is slow and needlessly convoluted. By the end I was totally bored. Scenes come out of nowhere--at one point there's a little fight that Bullitt has with his girlfriend (a stunningly beautiful Jacqueline Bissett) where she complains to him about his acceptance of violence...but there's absolutely no lead up to this scene and the resolution is handled badly. It seems to come from different movie!

There are some good things here--it's well-directed by Peter Yates who makes beautiful use of San Francisco locations; the now-famous car chase is still exciting and well-directed and edited; McQueen isn't as bad as he usually is (his face actually changes expression once or twice); Bissett is badly used--but at least she's there; Simon Oakland gives a good performance as a police chief and Vaughn is excellent. It's also fun to see Robert Duvall (with hair as a cab driver), Norman Fell (another police chief) and Georg Stanford Brown (as a doctor) in small roles.

I'm giving this a 6 and that's mostly for Vaughn, direction and the car chase. Seriously...without the chase this movie would have been forgotten.

...from from rogue cops who make their own rules, to... rogue cops who seriously know how to put the pedal to the medal. Only Bogie and John Wayne were cinematic tough guys before Frank Bullitt came along, and it was Bullitt that inspired Dirty Harry and every rogue cop movie as a result. If you were looking for the first modern cop thriller, well here it is. Accept no substitutes. In today's over-blown and effects laden (for better of for worse) era, people often forget that all those films began with movies like this one.

The story has Lieutenant Frank Bullitt receiving an assignment to protect a star witness in a high profile case that could bring down a powerful crime organization. Bullitt and his men take turns guarding the witness, but before long there is a hit and the witness is mortally wounded, and Bullitt takes the case into his own hands. The resulting mystery is both Grade-A Hollywood entertainment (rare these days) and a believable character portrait of a man engulfed by his work in a cruel world.

Of course one cannot talk about his movie without mentioning the legendary car chase, which is one of the best out there, but is not the main part of the movie as many make it out to be. If you see this movie just for some pedal to the medal action you will be let down. The focus of the movie is on Bullitt and the car chase, while very exciting and fun to watch, is one of the many scenes that show Bullitt's near obsession to work. Unlike today's crap action movies there is no 37 car pile up, no cars flipping over simply because the bad guys are driving them.

Also the finale of the film, a foot chase at an airport, has our hero firing two shots from his pistol and that is the only time he uses it in the movie. This film demonstrates that action is best when the result of a character's emotions and not a director's ambition to blow stuff up. Bullitt wants to get the bottom of the case, he wants to find out who's been following him around town and that is the result of the action scenes. In the end the film is a true classic and Frank Bullitt is a character to remember. 10/10

Rated PG: violence (though if it were released today, it probably would get a PG-13)

The car chase scene is fine, but the whole movie is pretty pointless. The plot must have been the boilerplate for subsequent Quinn Martin TV productions in the 70s, and in fact the movie could have been 50 minutes long and been just as good.

The best thing about the movie is seeing San Francisco in 1968. The weirdest thing about the movie is that it takes place in San Francisco in 1968, and there is no sense that anything different was happening, in San Francisco or anywhere else in the world, in 1968. Dirty Harry in 1971 was clearly of its time and place, a response to what had happened in 1968 and the rest of the 60s. Bullitt, which takes place in that time and place, could have been filmed ten years earlier or ten years later. There is no larger sense of politics ... the district attorney is ambitious, but that pales against what was actually happening in San Francisco, and Paris, and Chicago, doesn't it? It was only a year after the Summer of Love, but there's not a hippie in sight. If it wasn't for the hills and the landmarks, you'd think the movie was made in Omaha in 1974.

Steve McQueen is Frank Bullitt! Frank Bullitt is slick! 'Bullitt' is thrilling! The stylish mystery thriller that created a basis for all future police procedurals to follow! With fantastic direction from Peter Yates and immaculate attention to detail on the stunning cinematography, 'Bullitt' is an attention-demanding and action-packed adventure supported by a jazz-fuelled score. When reviewing this crime flick, who could overlook the unforgettable Mustang v Charger chase through the streets of San Francisco which is arguably the greatest and most influential car chase ever filmed. 'Bullitt' is a dark and suspenseful masterpiece from Peter Yates.

Quite simply this film resembles what most films of the sixties did. Simple, but effective! There are no special effects, no stunt actors, no pyrotechnics. Its simple technology and simple acting and it works brilliantly! McQueen's performance is like any other McQueen performance; Mono-tone but exciting. His failure to over-act his scenes works well and the coolness during the car chase scene is legendary! Bullit may not immediatly grab peoples attention as a thriller but this is because too many people are comparing it with modern day thrillers. Bullit is a quiet thriller. It does not need expensive special effects, explosions and rampant sex scenes to make you pay attention to the plot of the film. McQueens presence draws your attention, and his style of acting makes you pay attention and the Mustang makes it a must see for any throttle head! Anybody who can claim this film to be boring and lackluster should not be allowed to review films. A sixties icon!

McQueen was really the King of Cool. I have read many comments here about this film, and some say it is slow, some say it is an action thriller. Thrilling it is! Steve did not have to jabber in every scene to dominate this film. The car chase is unequaled to this day. How can anything on the road in later years compare to the "muscle cars" of the late 60s? But Steve was the star, make no mistake, and even though the dialogue was minimal, it was enough. Steve McQueen had that power on the screen. He remains one of Hollywood's best, even though he passed away over twenty years ago. We will not see the likes of him for many more years. Women loved him, men loved him too. If you have not seen many of his films, watch any you can. Watch him in Tom Horn (1980), and Papillon (1973). Try The Getaway (1972), Junior Bonner (1972)and the humorous The Reivers (1969). Of course, The Sand Pebbles (1966) , The Great Escape (1963), and the ever classic The Magnificent Seven(1960) are among his most popular films. You never go wrong with any of these.

Oh my, what a difference in taste fifty years will do. Boring, scenes that overstayed their welcome, too much Steve McQueen face scenes doing or saying nothing. Then again, there's the ten minute car chase scene with the primo green Mustang.

A super, super stylish slab of police detective action, starring Steve McQueen, right at the height of his status as the coolest man in all of Hollywood. It certainly looks great. Bullitt's picture quality and directorial choices are astounding for a fifty-year-old film, with a heavy, lasting influence on modern action cornerstones. An ambitious opening credits sequence sets that tone early, creative and experimental and ahead of its time, while McQueen's essential wardrobe choices remain fashionable throughout.

Perhaps the film's most memorable, and oft-referenced, legacy is its climactic, screeching, white-knuckled muscle car chase through the streets of San Francisco. That scene alone is almost worth the price of admission, a ten-minute thrill ride with tangible mass, unpolished mistakes, curved steel and grim consequences. It almost, almost, polishes over the extra-slow pace, occasional stereotypes and confusing plot turns.

Still an entertaining watch, but often as nothing more than a simple, vivid document of everyday life in SF during the late 60s. There's barely enough substance in the police story to fill a twenty-minute network TV crime drama.

Bullitt is an extraordinary film, memorable, powerful, and absolutely riveting. The plot has twists and turns that are believable and lack any pretense of being forced or artificial. Justly heralded for its tremendous car chase--a tribute to legendary driver Bill Hickman, arguably the finest of all motion picture drivers--the film as well captures the feel of gritty detective work in a form that has been copied frequently since, but rarely, if ever, equaled. The film is a delight as a period piece: the easy-going, already laid-back Bay area culture of the late 1960's and early 1970's, the tension between the cool, vaguely anti-establishment Bullitt and the straight-laced local officials and department heads that he finds himself compelled to work with. The other actors are themselves a superb supporting cast: old-timers like Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, an oily (and vaguely Bobby Kennedy-ish) Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon (as Bullitt's long-suffering but intensely loyal partner). But, as well, there are memorable newcomers: George Sanford Brown as an overworked doctor, Robert Duvall as a sharp taxi driver, and Jacqueline Bisset as Bullitt's trophy architect-girlfriend. Lalo Schifrin contributed a superb, memorable score--just the right mix of jazz and brass and percussion. And, of course, that glorious Mustang. . . .!!! Not to be missed!!!!!

Probably the most beautiful car chase in all of Hollywood cinema. That alone is worth the price of admission to the theater. Apart from that, I came to this movie after the chapter Quentin Tarantino dedicated to it in his recent book. Deservedly so, I would say. The forerunner of tough and pure cops, Bullitt has charisma and charm to spare, thanks in large part to Steve McQueen. The role fits him perfectly. The soundtrack is also one of the most iconic around, Lalo Schifrin knew what he was doing. Thank you Quentin for introducing me to this old film, which I include among the classics of the genre.

I wonder if "Bullitt" has the slowest pace in the history of American cinema. Of course, "Bullitt" is a legendary movie and it was a tremendous hit when released. In my opinion, that was mainly due to Steve McQueen, who right in those years had exploded as a major superstar. I do not deny that the movie was rather innovative for the late 1960s. The cinematography is fine and the locations in the San Francisco area are accurately shot. The whole cast works well, and the stars Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn give remarkable performances. The story is interesting, although not much exciting.

But the pace of the movie is so incredibly slow... All the various scenes and episodes are excruciatingly lengthy, notably those of the surgeries at the hospital. However, the best instance of snail-pace is a scene at the airport in the finale. The airplane arrives at the terminal. The whole maneuver of the aircraft is shown in full details... Then, finally, the passengers slowly start to get off the airplane. Bullitt-McQueen silently stares looking for the bad guy. People slowly get off... Bullitt stares... People get off... Bullitt stares... I say, this single scene lasts longer than the whole Apaches' attack in Ford's "Stagecoach"!

The story is not intricate, but the movie is so slow that one finds it difficult to follow... Bullitt gets off the taxi, taking all the due time; then he calmly walks toward the parking area; he opens the door of a car; after a while, he shuts the door of the car; he broods over something for another long while (there's no hurry!); finally he starts the engine, another long operation... In the meantime, the viewer has forgotten what the heck the guy was doing for the purposes of his investigation.

All along the movie, the behavior of the policeman Bullitt is highly unprofessional. But then, to make a number of idiocies just for the sake of disobeying the authorities, that was considered cool in the late 1960s (and also now, at least in the movies). Actually, Bullitt's deeds at the end of the film are not just unprofessional. In the real life, they would cost him several years in jail. And what is the point of beautiful Jacqueline Bisset? Her character seems stuck to the movie, just to show that Bullitt-McQueen is sexually active. Did anyone doubt it? And who cares, anyway?

Of course, the film contains the over-celebrated car-chase. Certainly innovative for that time, but ultimately disappointing, in my opinion.

I've always thought that the bore of Altman's "Thieves like us" couldn't be surpassed. I was wrong. "Bullitt" is the most boring action-crime movie I have ever seen.