THRILL SCALE 1-10
7.5
HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?
Never
BEST SEQUENCE
The famous car chase is really tremendous. More about that later
BEST LINE
None worth mentioning
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
98%
ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS
"Steve McQueen is cool as ice in this thrilling police procedural that also happens to contain arguably the greatest movie car chase ever."
IMDB SYNOPSIS
"A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection."
DIRECTOR
Peter Yates
MAIN CAST
Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Robert Duvall
THOUGHTS
- Believe it or not, before I started doing these reviews I didn't realize how much I personally appreciate a great car stunt or driving action sequence, especially as someone who doesn't really drive and doesn't care or know anything about cars. A good car stunt, though, has me on the edge of my seat. Bullitt is famous for a roughly 10-minute-long car chase scene, and not only is it exciting and thrilling in its own right, it was also extremely influential as one of the first modern car chases in cinema
- Bullitt is set in San Francisco and the car chase makes incredible use of that city's hilly streets, in a way that really reminded me of the amazing final car chase in One Battle After Another
- It's also very cool that Steve McQueen, an accomplished race car driver in real life, did a lot of his own driving for this sequence
- Outside of the car chase, though, the rest of the movie didn't make much of an impact on me. I was excited to see Steve McQueen in this. He was my favourite part of The Magnificent Seven and he's excellent in The Great Escape, another movie we'll be talking about eventually, but as Frank Bullitt I actually found him to be pretty bland (despite the great character name). Zero personality. Maybe this was on purpose, to emphasize that he's a guy who's always cool-headed in the face of danger, but ultimately it made his character very forgettable
- There's an interesting twist late in the movie, and the climax has some good action, but that's about all I have to say about this one! If it wasn't obvious, the car chase goes a long way towards me giving this as high a score as 7.5/10, so if you're intrigued, I say go ahead and just watch the car chase. Here it is:
- And lastly, if you do watch that video, you'll see Robert Duvall right at the beginning playing a cab driver, fairly early in his career. As of this writing, he passed away just a few weeks ago. Rest in peace, Mr. Duvall, and we'll be seeing you again eventually in a little movie called The Godfather
Up next: Hold on to your butts, everybody, because we're going to Jurassic Park
