In Focus... Bullitt (2)
In Focus is a new collection of articles focussing on an important film appearing on Sky Movies Classics that month. In-depth, analytical and revealing, In Focus aims to shed new light on old films. To get a seat at the table, all we ask is the film be one of the finest examples of its genre.Focus No.3 casts an appreciative eye on Steve McQueen's superstar making vehicle, Bullitt (1968).
Bullitt was also to be about cars, McQueen's lifelong love. The star chose British director Peter Yates solely on the basis of a first rate high speed pursuit in the now forgotten Robbery (1967).
Therefore, while Bullitt is much more than its chase, it wouldn't be the classic it is without it.
But what makes the chase brilliant, its for the time near documentary realism, Yates also brought to the rest of the film, making extensive use of the lightweight Arriflex camera, originally designed for news and war photography. Despite no shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, this is a San Francisco movie, shot on location to capture the flavour of its vertiginous streets, sleepy brownstones and desert outskirts.
Even sets capture this same authenticity - the flophouse Ross is stashed in is a grimy hole with too many bad nights dripping off the walls, and the hospital where he and the wounded detective are taken has a genuine feel similar to the newsrooms of All the President's Men (1976).
The actors also fit their characters' clothes perfectly, from McQueen himself, making roll neck sweaters and cardigans the height of cool, to Robert Duvall in an early role as a cabby, to the two hitmen - seasoned pros with receding hairlines and prescription glasses.
While boasting several tense sequences, the raid on Ross' hotel room, a foot chase through a hospital, the car chase and a cat and mouse climax at the airport, Bullitt is a procedural movie, with the lieutenant and his partner pounding the beat interviewing witnesses, searching through luggage for clues, and piecing together murders at crime scenes.
Realism also extends to the violence, which made sparring but effective use of squibs (Ross takes a still shocking shotgun blast to the face and shoulder) and remains surprisingly bloody. So the blood retained its vividness Yates ensured nothing else red featured in the film, a trick Steven Spielberg also used for Jaws (1975).
Adding to the authentic feeling is McQueen himself in one of the most unshowiest superstar making performances in history. First seen in his pyjamas after a late night, McQueen was careful to humanize the improbably named Bullitt, playing up his vulnerability and solid but understated morality.
Whether scratching his head at girlfriend Jacqueline Bisset's complicated art installation or craftily nicking a newspaper from a paper box, McQueen's Bullitt is likeable, charming and a guy you can trust to do the right thing and do it well.
All this makes the chase even more electrifying, giving it a human element of danger absent from more spectacular, but hollow smash-em-ups (Bad Boys II (2003), The Fast and the Furious (2000)).
