Steve McQueen giving the iconic Ford Mustang GT The Beans in Bullitt, 1968
It was back in 1962 that a young Peter Yates worked on the Cliff Richard film 'Summer Holiday,' he progresses through other film projects to a mid 60's film starring the great Stanley Baker called 'Robbery.'
In that film, there was a memorable real action car chase through London in glorious technicolour and it was from that section of the film, that he was asked to work on the film Bullitt, with Steve McQueen.
The Bullitt film may be most famous for one of the greatest motion picture car chases in film history, but that is but one part of it. There is no doubt that it is a fast paced and pacy action film. The Labi Siffre theme music is punchy and almost machine gun staccato like on one version of the theme tune I heard.
Indeed, the British TV Series The Sweeney borrows from this setup by having a hard and dramatic headline theme and a softer theme to tail out the film, much like Bullitt does at the end with the Porsche 356 on the Freeway.
The film is loaded with tension, from the almost surly Steve McQueen as Lt Frank Bullitt, the oily Chalmers played superbly by Robert Vaughn and a supporting cast of good players, including Bill Hickman who would later star in the French Connection. For those viewers in the UK, the antics of Frank Bullitt must have seemed a world away from Dixon of Dock Green.
The film, based on the adaption of a novel called Mute Witness by Robert L. Pyke is interesting on many levels. Those of us who have been in the Police, know what it is like from that level, the Chalmers figure seems multi-dimensional, who is he really and who is he working for? is he actually trying to protect his witness Johnny Ross or does he actually want him rubbed out perhaps to cover over something to absolve himself?
Whatever it is, Chalmers is ruthless and doesn't care who he treads on to get where he's going. WIn or lose, Chalmers gets the kudos of exposing organised crime and with the death of Johnny Ross, he knows where to point the finger and it isn't athimself.
You can watch this film a dozen times and see different things in it. It is an interesting real-time capture of life in 1968 San Francisco, Steve McQueen plays the part brilliantly, perhaps his finest performance even if it is understated all the way, he manages to play out the tension all down the line, this is what irritates Chalmers, he can't get at or to Bullitt, Bullitt does not play along or dance to the tune Chalmers is playing.
Frank Bullitt's girlfriend played by Jacqueline Blisset is repulsed at what Frank Bullitt has to deal with when she, with Frank Bullitt attend a Motel room murder scene. She finds Frank cold and detached, she cannot understand why he is not emotionally involved, he can't be, not as a Cop, he has to be objective, Frank Bulliitt just deals with it Frank Bullitt's way, calmly and slowly, working it all out.
As an Architect, she is from a different professional world. She may understand flow rates in water pipes and stress loading of reinforced concrete but that is a different world away from crime and policing it. Its just the way it is.
Even though I have watched the film many times, I do not tire of it, it is just an iconic piece of cinema set in a fairly modern timeframe and as such doesn't really seem to age.
If you haven't seen it, do so.
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