Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Bullitt (1968) - Yates and McQueen's iconic urban cop thriller

12/06/2013

Bullitt (1968) - Yates and McQueen's iconic urban cop thriller

♥♥♥♥

A gun and turtleneck wearing star Steve McQueen oversees some speeding car action on this ultra-cool poster for Peter Yates' Bullitt

When the mob witness, who San Francisco detective Frank Bullitt is assigned to protect, gets killed, Bullitt is pressured from above. But soon he finds out that the deceased witness wasn't who he appeared to be.

Bullitt is written by Harry Kleiner (Cry Tough (1959)) and Alan Trustman (Lady Ice (1973)), adapting Mute Witness (1963) by Robert L. Fish (Always Kill a Stranger (1967)), and directed by Peter Yates (Summer Holiday (1963)).

It is a subtle cop thriller/car movie, mostly because Steve McQueen (The Great Escape (1963)) says very little in the title role.
Argentinian Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible (1996)) made a characteristic, jazzy score, and the film has a car chase scene through San Francisco that is deservedly remembered and hailed as one of the best (and first long, city-spanning car chase scenes) in film history. Bullitt is chased and then chases the bad guys around in his '68 Ford Mustang GT.

There's lots of the highly cinematic Bay area in the film, which ends in the San Francisco Airport. Bullitt encompasses the bright, happening San Francisco that was, not the city that is decaying in human travesty today.
Some scenes of Bullitt appear almost hypnotizing, being so downplayed, - perhaps something to do with Yates' British heritage, - but for my money, I think the film was topped by Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel with the very similar Dirty Harry (1971) just three years later, which somehow feels a lot more like an American movie to me.

Peter Yates: Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office; 42.3 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned at least 10.57 times its cost)

[Bullitt was released 17 October (North America) and runs 113 minutes. McQueen was paid 1 mil. for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from February - May 1968 in California, including in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in Chicago, Illinois. The film grossed 19 mil. $ in 1968, becoming the year's 4th highest grossing, with a reported 42.5 mil. $ domestic total gross. It is impossible to guess its total world gross, but it may well have crossed 60 mil. $. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars, winning for Best Editing. It lost Best Sound to Oliver!. It was also nominated for 5 BAFTAs. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Yates returned with Koroshi (1968, TV movie) and theatrically with Jack and Mary (1969). McQueen returned with The Reivers (1969). Bullitt is certified fresh at 98 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bullitt?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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12/06/2013

Bullitt (1968) - Yates and McQueen's iconic urban cop thriller

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