Too cool for school: Bullitt

I went into Bullitt with a relatively clean slate, knowing only that it contained two elements of badassery that make the film really special: Steve McQueen, and one one of the longest and most daring car chases ever set to film.

Lt. Frank Bullitt (McQueen) is assigned to protect a star witness in a mafia trial with his two cohorts, Delgetti and Stanton, only to have the witness and Stanton shot by two hit men on the first shift of the watch. Bullitt investigates the attacks with no help from hot shot politician Walter Chalmers, who does everything he can to be a thorn in Bullitt's side, thinking of nothing but his own political gain. 

For as talked up as Bullitt was, I walked away from it not being all that impressed. In fact, the first time I started it I fell asleep about a half an hour into it because of how slowly it was paced.

Bullitt himself was just about the least emotional person  I've ever seen investigate a case that he seemed to take so personally. Steve McQueen plays him a little too coolly for his own good, never convincing me that he actually gave a shit about the case and wasn't just working a 9-5 on the streets of San Francisco. A little more expression would have gone a looooong way here.

I found myself lost a couple times and maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention, or maybe it's just a product of being made in 1968, but most likely certain key points weren't explained quite clearly enough for the audience to get to the right conclusion. Not that every little thing should have been spelled out, but how did Bullitt know who Ross (the key witness) called from that pay phone? I couldn't figure that out, or who the Simmons woman was who he somehow finds dead in her hotel room until I read a full synopsis after the fact which cleared everything up. Having read that I said "Oh ok, I see now," but even knowing what was going on I still think the scenes deserved a better set up.

Quickly I want to mention a dreadful scene where a room full of cops stare patiently at a "Tele-copy" while is takes an agonizingly long time to print out a rap sheet on the true identity of their so-called witness. Nothing happens in the scene, they just stare at the machine. If you could define 'boring' with one scene from film history, it would be that one.

The movie does have some pluses though. The cinematographer William Fraker does some great things with the use of reflections to fill space or simply to make a shot just look cool, which he accomplishes without seeming like he's trying too hard. There's also a lot of great angles that you don't see too much out of early cinema that was used to great effect in Bullitt, specifically low angle shots adding some much needed drama to the scenes.

And how could I not talk about the car chase. Of course if you stand it up side-by-side with Michael Bay's Hummer vs. Ferrari San Francisco car chase, Bullitt's 9-minute ride doesn't compare. But in 1968 the scene was heart stopping, and in some ways it still is. There's no more thrilling city to film a car chase scene in than San Fran. With all it's mountainous hills, it provides a perfect backdrop for the scene with the angle of the streets injecting every shot with as much adrenaline as you can take. The driving is impressive on the grandest scale. Watching the Charger and Mustang come barrelling off hills makes you wonder just how these drivers are able to pull all of this shit off. With all that and some really amazing sound design, the scene adds oomph to a film that up until that point had almost run out of it. The perfect scene to get a weary viewer through to the end.

Bullitt turned out to be a decent movie despite its flaws but unfortunately some good camera work and one great scene weren't enough to make me love the film. Great car chase, decent camera, astoundingly flat excluding for the chase.

3 stars