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Amazon.co.uk Review
San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.co.uk Review
San Francisco has been the setting of many exciting movie car chases over the years but the one in Bullitt is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the city's steep hills. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing but the rest of the movie is pretty good too. This 1968 police thriller is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in a major trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film demonstrates to contemporary Hollywood just how to make a superb thriller without having an explosion every 5 minutes. You know its a classic from the opening shot. Lalo Schifrin's insistent theme kicks in over the credits and the rollercoaster ride starts.
McQueen is marvellous as a Frank Bullitt a no-nonsense, and somewhat rebellious detective who is having no truck with authority. Robert Vaughn, who I've always liked, but never really rated as an actor, is excellent here as Walter Charmers (who is anything but charming!). The scenes between him and McQueen are riveting. Theres the famous car chase of course, which is great, but watching it again recently, the thing that struck me was the completely realistic Hospital scenes. Its all very clinical if you'll excuse the pun.
On disc 1:
There is a commentary by the directory Peter Hyams and a trailer.
On Disc 2:
Documentary 1 'The Cutting Edge: The Magic Of Movie Editing' narrated by Kathy Bates
Documentary 2 'Steve McQueen: The Essence Of Cool' a film about McQueen.
3 'Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment To Reality'.
Of the extras the commentary is probably the best bit, but the film itself is reason alone to buy these discs.
McQueen is marvellous as a Frank Bullitt a no-nonsense, and somewhat rebellious detective who is having no truck with authority. Robert Vaughn, who I've always liked, but never really rated as an actor, is excellent here as Walter Charmers (who is anything but charming!). The scenes between him and McQueen are riveting. Theres the famous car chase of course, which is great, but watching it again recently, the thing that struck me was the completely realistic Hospital scenes. Its all very clinical if you'll excuse the pun.
On disc 1:
There is a commentary by the directory Peter Hyams and a trailer.
On Disc 2:
Documentary 1 'The Cutting Edge: The Magic Of Movie Editing' narrated by Kathy Bates
Documentary 2 'Steve McQueen: The Essence Of Cool' a film about McQueen.
3 'Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment To Reality'.
Of the extras the commentary is probably the best bit, but the film itself is reason alone to buy these discs.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
We all see films that stick in your mind for various reasons, the photography, acting, storyline, atmosphere, direction....Bullit has it all, I remember seeing when it was released in the late sixties and have never tired of it...it still evokes the atmosphere of the time and represented a new landmark in crime movies...the director was not afraid enhance the action of film with relaxed breathing spaces...the scene in the restaurant ( shot at a real restaurant from outside looking in) the jazz music the wondeful serene morning when Bullit parks his car and goes and buys his weeks precooked meals at the chinese grocers opposite his girlfriends apartment If only my shopping trips were so simple!!!! Mqueen superb in this roll as a laid back supercop apparently turned down the part as Dirty Harry...would that have suited him? There is, as in any good film, an excellent supporting cast especially Robert Vaughan who oozes just the right amount of sleaze, Don Gordon his sidekick and Norman Fell his boss. With the magnificent backdrop of San Francisco a stunning car-chase and the airport shoot out (copied in Heat) this film is almost perfect.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A beautifully constructed star vehicle for Steve McQueen at his best, Bullitt is pretty much the prototype for every Hollywood cop movie that followed. True, the car chase may seem a bit less impressive than it once did because filmmakers have been trying to top it for the best part of four decades. More of a cat-and-mouse game than a demolition derby - the whole point is to avoid hitting the other cars - it's overshadowed by the film's other action setpieces: a murder in a safe house, a tense chase in a hospital and a great airport finale that Michael Mann ripped off wholesale in Heat. Yet despite the familiarity of the elements, the film still feels remarkably fresh today, with much of its impact undiluted.
If it still seems so much better today than most of its successors, that's down to old-fashioned star quality. McQueen doesn't have to act cool: McQueen IS cool, even in his pajamas. But in some ways the film is a critique of the whole cool antihero ethos - sometimes being cool means being cold and unfeeling. Bullitt is an impassive, impersonal figure throughout the film, his feelings so buried that he is unable to relate properly with his girlfriend or be anything other than calmly professional with a shot colleague. He is not a bad man, more one who has buried his feelings so deep to enable himself to get through his job that he cannot exhume them when he clocks off.
It helps that director Peter Yates resisted studio pressure to film on the backlot with regular crowd casting, opting instead to shoot on the streets filled with real people, keeping the film fairly grounded. He may have been hired on the strength of the Stanley Baker thriller Robbery, loosely based around the Great Train Robbery and opening with a cracking car chase around the streets of London, but he had the sense to realise that the only way to successfully update what's at heart a 60s spin on the classic Warner Bros.' crime films of the Thirties was to give it a low-key approach that makes the highpoints seems a lot more effective than they should. The film also benefits from good casting (Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Simon Oakland, Robert Duvall) and better characterisation than the norm, while the plot's not bad either, with Lalo Schifrin contributing a cool score that does not so much follow the action as create an environment for it and Pablo Ferra throwing in a terrific main title sequence that sets the plot in motion.
The 2-disc set certainly boasts an improved transfer over the original single-disc release, but aside from Yates audio commentary, a vintage making of featurette and the trailer, the extras aren't that film specific - a good feature-length documentary on film editing and another on McQueen.
If it still seems so much better today than most of its successors, that's down to old-fashioned star quality. McQueen doesn't have to act cool: McQueen IS cool, even in his pajamas. But in some ways the film is a critique of the whole cool antihero ethos - sometimes being cool means being cold and unfeeling. Bullitt is an impassive, impersonal figure throughout the film, his feelings so buried that he is unable to relate properly with his girlfriend or be anything other than calmly professional with a shot colleague. He is not a bad man, more one who has buried his feelings so deep to enable himself to get through his job that he cannot exhume them when he clocks off.
It helps that director Peter Yates resisted studio pressure to film on the backlot with regular crowd casting, opting instead to shoot on the streets filled with real people, keeping the film fairly grounded. He may have been hired on the strength of the Stanley Baker thriller Robbery, loosely based around the Great Train Robbery and opening with a cracking car chase around the streets of London, but he had the sense to realise that the only way to successfully update what's at heart a 60s spin on the classic Warner Bros.' crime films of the Thirties was to give it a low-key approach that makes the highpoints seems a lot more effective than they should. The film also benefits from good casting (Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Simon Oakland, Robert Duvall) and better characterisation than the norm, while the plot's not bad either, with Lalo Schifrin contributing a cool score that does not so much follow the action as create an environment for it and Pablo Ferra throwing in a terrific main title sequence that sets the plot in motion.
The 2-disc set certainly boasts an improved transfer over the original single-disc release, but aside from Yates audio commentary, a vintage making of featurette and the trailer, the extras aren't that film specific - a good feature-length documentary on film editing and another on McQueen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bullitt
Bought as a replacement this is one of my favourite all time movies. The famous car chase, the great soundtrack and the sheer glamour of Steve McQueen and Jacqueline Bissett make... Read more
Published 1 month ago by JPL
Bullit - Incomparably cool cop thriller
The late sixties saw a new type of film come out, films that were ultra cool and in tune with the times. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Victor
A classic
Arguably one of McQueen's best films, and it could be said his career peaked in 1968 with "Bullitt" and "The Thomas Crown Affair," both ideal vehicles for his ultra cool acting... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Huggermugger
awesome
good film seen it now quite a number of times plenty of action also a very good price cant fault it
Published 8 months ago by joe
the ultimate car chase film
Steve did his own stunt work driving in the chase sequences, and there is no doubt that nearly thirty years after I first saw the film at a movie house, it still carries true... Read more
Published 12 months ago by C. A. Z. Pierides
BULLIT
This was purchased for the special fe3ature "The Cutting Edge:The Magic of Movie Editing" wich is excelent for training students wanting to see the basics of feature editing.
Published 12 months ago by sprocket
Stuff of legend
Bullitt's car chase is legendary, so I figured I would give it a watch.
every month, I organise one night where I invite friends around to watch a movie that people... Read more
every month, I organise one night where I invite friends around to watch a movie that people... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Stephen
McQueen + SF= pretty cool
I mean, McQueen is just very cool, isn't he? I agree with some reviewers that aspects of the film have dated somewhat, but mostly I was struck by how up-to-date it seemed. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Philippa Leah
Great item
This is a great film and bought at at bargain price. Many thanks to the seller who posted it quickly to me.
Published 19 months ago by Sharon
The Classic of all classics
McQueen is Bullitt,the no-nonsense ultra-cool detective,laconic icon of cool.He makes you realize how the big stars acted with their eyes,their body language,creating a myth and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by technoguy
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