Bullitt

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Bullitt
Reproduction of a movie poster. To the right, there's an image of a man's torso that is reminiscent of the black and white photographs in newspapers. The man is leaning towards the viewer with his left arm. He's wearing a black shirt and a holster on his left shoulder; there's a large pistol in the holster. Printed lettering runs down the left of the poster. It reads (from top to bottom) "Steve McQueen" (prominent), "Bullitt" (prominent), and then with less and less prominence, "Robert Vaughn", "Jacqueline Bisset", "Don Gordon", "Robert Duvall", "Simon Oakland", "Norman Fell", and "Technicolor". Along the bottom of the poster, and beneath the torso image and the lettering, there's an artist's sketch in black and white of two cars, one chasing the other. The artist has superimposed several drawings of each car on top of each other to indicate the high speeds of the cars. Additional lettering runs along the very bottom of the poster, but is illegibly small in this reproduction.
Film poster by Michel Landi
Directed by Peter Yates
Produced by Philip D'Antoni
Robert E. Relyea
Written by Alan Trustman
Harry Kleiner
Based on Mute Witness by
Robert L. Fish
Starring Steve McQueen
Robert Vaughn
Jacqueline Bisset
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography William A. Fraker
Editing by Frank P. Keller
Distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release date(s) October 17, 1968 (1968-10-17)
Running time 113 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5.5 million
Box office $42,300,873[1]

Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish, a pseudonym for Robert L. Pike. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score, arranged for brass and percussion. Robert Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who provides information to McQueen.

Released on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box office smash, later winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Best Sound. Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Bullitt is notable for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history.[2][3][4][5]

In 2007, Bullitt was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[6] In 2008, the Ford Motor Company produced the Mustang Bullitt model for the 40th anniversary of the film. The Bullitt nameplate on the steering wheel honored the movie that made the Mustang one of the most popular cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The green color was also brought back for the anniversary edition.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on organized crime in America. To improve his political standing, Chalmers hopes to bring down Chicago mobster Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the aid of key witness Johnny Ross (Pat Renella), Pete's brother. Bullitt takes place the weekend before the hearing, from Friday night (during the opening credits) to Sunday night.

Following his theft of $2,000,000 in mob money and subsequent escape from Chicago to San Francisco, Johnny is placed in the San Francisco Police Department's protective custody for the weekend. Chalmers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt's (Steve McQueen) unit to guard him.

Bullitt, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Detective Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel), give Ross around-the-clock protection at the Hotel Daniels, a cheap flophouse near the Embarcadero Freeway. Late Saturday night, inexplicably Ross carefully unchains the hotel room door (doing it in a way that Stanton does not see); and seconds later, a pair of hitmen (Paul Genge and stunt driver Bill Hickman), burst into the room and shoot both Detective Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding them both.

Bullitt wants to investigate who shot the pair and find the Mafia boss who ordered the hit. Upset, Chalmers attempts to shift blame on to Bullitt and the San Francisco Police Department. Ross subsequently dies of his wounds. Bullitt suppresses news of the death, asking Doctor Willard (Georg Stanford Brown) to "misplace" the chart and have the body placed in the morgue under a John Doe identity.

Chalmers arrives at the hospital on Sunday morning and is angered that Ross has disappeared. He is further incensed when he and his police minion Captain Baker (Norman Fell) receive no help from Bullitt. Chalmers places pressure on Bullitt to produce Ross, to no effect. After picking up his Ford Mustang, Bullitt is tailed by the two hitmen, resulting in a famous car chase that ultimately kills the hitmen. Back at the police station, Bullitt is interrogated, and is given until Monday morning to follow his remaining lead.

Bullitt reconstructs Ross's movements, finding the cab driver who brought him to the hotel. He is told by the cabbie that Ross had made a long distance call and a local call from a pay phone before he came to the hotel. The local call was to a different hotel. Bullitt finds his way to that hotel, where he finds a woman registered under the name Dorothy Simmons (Brandy Carroll), who has been murdered as well. It might have appeared that the Chicago mob had merely killed an accomplice while hunting down Ross. However, in examining her luggage (which had been sent ahead to the airport), Bullitt gets his breakthrough in the case.

While inspecting the dead woman’s luggage, Bullitt and Delgetti find the clues that lead Bullitt to suspect the dead mobster may not have been who he seemed. Mrs. Dorothy Simmons’ luggage contained two sets of passport and airline ticket folders (both empty), two sets of brand new clothing and toilet articles for a man and a woman, two brochures from a Chicago based international travel agency (advertising one of their Rome vacation packages), and hidden in the pockets of the two sets of clothing, two sets of completed travelers checks, for nearly $100,000 each. One set was signed by Mrs. Dorothy Rennick, the other signed by her husband, Mr. Albert Rennick. Bullitt has just about broken the case. He suspects a substitution and a double-cross switch. He tells Delgetti to contact the Immigration Service in Chicago to obtain the passport applications of Mr. & Mrs. Albert & Dorothy Rennick, with their photos.

Once he has these, Bullitt realizes that the real Johnny Ross hired the Rennicks to prepare a false identity for Albert (as Johnny Ross); while he (Johnny Ross) had also paid for them to flee the country under their legitimate names and identities. Since the Rennicks had no police record, they only knew of Ross from his legitimate business as an accountant in Chicago. Neither Albert nor Dorothy had any idea what Ross had in store for them.

After Chalmers arrived at the morgue, he demanded from Bullitt a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt demurs, and when the faxed copy of the Rennicks' passport photos arrives, Chalmers is shown to have sent the police to protect the wrong man. The Ross brothers (Johnny and Peter), set Albert Rennick up in order to be killed as "Johnny Ross" so the real Johnny Ross could escape the slow motion death sentence of the mob looking for him for the rest of his life. Johnny then killed Dorothy Rennick to silence her.

Albert Rennick parading around San Francisco announcing himself as (“Mr. Johnny Ross"), of Chicago allowed in effect, Johnny Ross to be killed, just as the Chicago mob wanted. Dorothy Rennick an untidy loose end and was dispatched just hours before Rennick’s flight to Rome. Ross had planned it perfectly, since he was going to change Albert Rennick's ticket for a single flight to London as Albert Rennick anyway.

At the airport Bullitt realizes the one final switch that Ross had planned to use. When the search of the Rome flight reveals no Ross or Rennick, Bullitt guesses that Ross has booked a reservation on another international flight leaving about the same time. This guess turns out to be right. Bullitt discovers the real Johnny Ross on another flight (a non-stop to London) booked at the last minute; with a Rome ticket exchanged to pay for the flight. A chase across the working runways of San Francisco Airport ensues, with Bullitt eventually shooting and killing Ross after chasing him back into the terminal.

Chalmers ends up talking to Bullitt about the discovery of Ross' actions and the killings out at the airport, and despite Chalmers' constant efforts to thwart Bullitt from doing his job, ironically Chalmers rides away in a chauffeured limousine, where the camera focuses in on the bumper sticker, which reads "Support Your Local Police."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Car chase

Photograph of a car with a driver looking backwards out of its window. The car's rear tire is smoking because it is spinning against the road.
Detective Bullitt creating significant smoke (amid massive wheel hop) during the climactic chase scene.

At the time of the film's release, the car chase scene generated a great amount of excitement.[2] Leonard Maltin has called it a "now-classic car chase, one of the screen's all-time best."[3] Emanuel Levy wrote in 2003 that, "Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood's standards."[4] In his obituary for Peter Yates, Bruce Weber wrote "Mr. Yates’ reputation probably rests most securely on “Bullitt” (1968), his first American film — and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic."[5] The editing of this scene likely won editor Frank P. Keller the Academy Award for Best Editing.[7]

Later, producer Philip D'Antoni filmed two more car chases for The French Connection and The Seven-Ups, both set and filmed in New York City.

[edit] Filming

The total time of the scene is 10 minutes and 53 seconds, and it began in the Fisherman's Wharf area (at Columbus and Chestnut), followed by Midtown shooting on Hyde Street and Laguna Street, with shots of Coit Tower and locations around and on Filbert and University Streets. The scene ends at the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway in Brisbane, out of the city.[8]

Two 1968 390 CID V8 Ford Mustangs (325 bhp) with four-speed manual transmission were used for the chase scene, both owned by Ford Motor Company and part of a promotional loan agreement with Warner Bros. The Mustangs' engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase by veteran car racer Max Balchowsky. Ford Motor Company had also originally loaned two Ford Galaxie sedans that were intended to be used in the chase scenes, but the producers found the cars entirely too heavy to put through jumps over the hills of San Francisco without the cars' suspensions being severely damaged. The Galaxie sedans were replaced with two 1968 440 CID/375 bhp Dodge Chargers that were bought outright from Glendale Dodge in Glendale, California.[citation needed] The engines in both Chargers were left largely unmodified, but the suspension was mildly upgraded to cope with the demands of the stunt work.

The director called for speeds of about 75–80 miles per hour (121–130 km/h), but the cars (including the ones containing the cameras) reached speeds of over 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) on surface streets. Driver's point-of-view angles were used to give the audience the "feel" of the ride as the cars jumped the hills. Filming the chase scene took three weeks, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of film. During this film sequence, the Charger loses five wheel covers and has different ones missing in different shots. As a result of shooting from multiple angles simultaneously, and some angles' footage used at different times to give the illusion of different streets, the speeding cars can be seen passing the same green Volkswagen Beetle four different times, and the same blue Chevelle Malibu S.S.396 with a black vinyl top three times. The Charger also crashes into the camera in one scene and the damaged front fender is noticeable in later scenes. After the Charger hits a parked car, it disappears for a split second from the screen before the scene is changed. The San Francisco authorities did not let the filmmakers film the car chase on the Golden Gate Bridge, but they did permit the passage to be filmed in Midtown locations including the Mission District, and in neighboring Brisbane, on the city's outskirts.

McQueen, an accomplished driver, drove in the close-up scenes, about 10% of the chase in the film. The stunt coordinator, Carey Loftin, hired stuntman and motorcycle racer Bud Ekins, and McQueen's usual stunt driver Loren Janes, to do the dangerous stunts in the Mustang.[9] Ekins is also the stunt man who lays down his bike in front of a skidding truck during the chase (Ekins also doubled for McQueen in the sequence of The Great Escape in which McQueen's character jumps over a barbed wire fence on a motorcycle). The Mustang’s interior rear view mirror goes up and down depending on who is driving; when the mirror is up (visible) McQueen is behind the wheel, and when it is down (not visible) Ekins is driving. The black Dodge Charger was driven by Bill Hickman, who also played one of the hitmen and helped with the choreography of the chase scene. The other hitman was played by Paul Genge who had played another character who rode a Dodge off the road to his death in an episode of Perry Mason - "The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise" two years earlier.

Of the two Mustangs, one was scrapped after filming due to liability concerns and the surviving backup car was sold to an employee of Warner Brothers' editing department.[citation needed] The car changed hands several times, and Steve McQueen at one point made an unsuccessful attempt to buy it. The Mustang is rumored to have been kept in a barn in the Ohio River Valley by an unknown owner.[10]

[edit] Editing

The editing of the car chase by Frank P. Keller likely won Keller the editing Oscar for 1968,[7] and has been included in lists of the "Best Editing Sequences of All-Time".[11] Paul Monaco has written, "The most compelling street footage of 1968, however, appeared in an entirely contrived sequence, with nary a hint of documentary feel about it -- the car chase through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt, created from footage shot over nearly five weeks. Billy Fraker, the cinematographer for the film, attributed the success of the chase sequence primarily to the work of the editor, Frank P. Keller. At the time, Keller was credited with cutting the piece in such a superb manner that he made the city of San Francisco a "character" in the film."[12] The editing of the scene was not without difficulties; Ralph Rosenblum wrote in 1979 that "those who care about such things may know that during the filming of the climactic chase scene in Bullitt, an out-of-control car filled with dummies tripped a wire which prematurely sent a costly set up in flames, and that editor Frank Keller salvaged the near-catastrophe with a clever and unusual juxtaposition of images that made the explosion appear to go off on time."[13] This chase scene has also been cited by critics as groundbreaking in its realism and originality.[14]

[edit] Release

[edit] Box office performance

The film has garnered both critical acclaim and box office success. Produced on a $5.5 million budget, it grossed over $42.3 million in the United States,[1] making it the 5th highest grossing film of 1968.

[edit] Critical reception

Bullitt was well received by critics and is considered by some as one of the best films of 1968.[15][16][17] Renata Adler made the film a NYT Critics Pick, saying its a "terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen—fast, well acted, written the way people talk"; accord to Adler, "the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet to Camus."[18]

Among 21st century critics, it holds a 97% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, representing positive reviews from 32 of 33 critics as of October 2011.[19] In 2004, The New York Times placed the film on its list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made.[14] In 2011, Time magazine listed it among the "The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time", describing it as "the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list", and saying "Bullitt‘s car chase is a reminder that every great such scene is a triumph of editing as much as it is stunt work. Naturally, it won that year's Academy Award for Best Editing".[20]

[edit] Awards and honors

The film was nominated and won several critical awards.[21] Frank P. Keller won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. The film was also nominated for Best Sound.[22] Bullitt was also nominated for several BAFTA Film Awards, including Best Director for Peter Yates, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, Best Cinematography for William A. Fraker, Best Film Editing for Frank P. Keller, and Best Sound Track. Keller also won the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film. The film was awarded the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker) and the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Feature Film. The film was also successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards. It won 2nd place Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). In 2000, the Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh. Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner won that year's Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay.

[edit] Legacy

The Ford Mustang name has been closely associated with the film. In 2001, the Ford Motor Company released the Bullitt edition Ford Mustang GT.[23] Another version of the Ford Mustang Bullitt, which is closer to resembling the original film Mustang, was released in 2008.[24]

Steve McQueen's likeness as Frank Bullitt was used in two Ford commercials. The first was for the Europe-only 2001 Ford Puma, which featured McQueen driving the car around San Francisco before parking it in a studio apartment garage beside the film Mustang and the motorcycle from The Great Escape.[25] In a 2004 commercial for the 2005 Mustang, McQueen appears and drives the new Mustang after a man receives a Field of Dreams-style epiphany and constructs a racetrack in the middle of a cornfield. The infamous chase scene was also recreated and implemented into the 2011 video game Driver: San Francisco.[26]

American Film Institute lists

[edit] Basis for Frank Bullitt

McQueen based his Frank Bullitt character on San Francisco Inspector Dave Toschi, with whom he worked prior to filming.[27][28] McQueen even copied Toschi's famous "fast draw" shoulder holster. Toschi later became famous, along with Inspector Bill Armstrong, as the lead San Francisco investigators of the Zodiac Killer murders that began shortly after the release of Bullitt. Toschi is played by Mark Ruffalo in the film Zodiac, in which Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) mentions that "McQueen got the idea for the holster from Toschi".[29][30]

[edit] References

Notes
  1. ^ a b "Bullitt". The Numbers. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (December 23, 1968). "Bullitt". Chicago Sun Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19681223/REVIEWS/812230301/1023. Retrieved 2010-01-18. ""Bullitt," as everybody has heard by now, also includes a brilliant chase scene. McQueen (doing his own driving) is chased by, and chases, a couple of gangsters up and down San Francisco's hills. They slam into intersections, bounce halfway down the next hill, scrape by half a dozen near-misses, sideswipe each other, and leave your stomach somewhere in the basement for about 11 minutes." 
  3. ^ a b Maltin, Leonard, ed. (2004). Leonard Maltin's 2004 Movie and Video Guide. Penguin Group. p. 195. "Taut action-film makes great use of San Francisco locations, especially in now-classic car chase, one of the screen's all-time best; Oscar-winning editing by Frank Keller." 
  4. ^ a b Levy, Emanuel (2008). "Bullitt". emanuellevy.com. http://www.emanuellevy.com/search/details.cfm?id=4610. Retrieved 2010-11-06. 
  5. ^ a b Weber, Bruce (January 11, 2011). "Peter Yates, Filmmaker, Is Dead at 81". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/movies/11yates.html. 
  6. ^ "National Film Registry 2007". loc.gov. http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/08012/registry.html. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  7. ^ a b Hartl, John. "Top 10 car chase movies". msnbc.com. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091432. Retrieved 2010-11-07. "Bullitt (1968). Philip D’Antoni, who went on to produce The French Connection, warmed up for it with this Steve McQueen crime drama, set in San Francisco, where the steep hills seem to yearn for cars to go sailing over them. The director, Peter Yates, makes the most of the locations, especially during a gravity-defying chase sequence that earned an Oscar for its editor, Frank P. Keller." 
  8. ^ Brebner, Anne; Morrison, John (February 23, 2011). "Aspect Ratio - February 2011". Blip.tv. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
  9. ^ Myers, Marc (2011-01-26). "Chasing the Ghosts of 'Bullitt'". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104001598265530.html. Retrieved 2011-01-26. 
  10. ^ TheMustangSource.com | Mustangs in Movies: Bullitt from bradbarnett.net
  11. ^ Dirks, Tim. "Best Film Editing Sequences of All-Time, From the Silents to the Present: Part 5". filmsite.org. AMC Corp.. http://www.filmsite.org/bestfilmediting5.html. 
  12. ^ Monaco, Paul (2003). Harpole, Charles. ed. The Sixties. History of the American Cinema. 8. University of California Press. p. 99. ISBN 0520238044. http://books.google.com/books?id=WG97toYUqagC&pg=PA99. 
  13. ^ Rosenblum, Ralph; Karen, Robert (1979). When the Shooting Stops ... The Cutting Begins. Viking Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-67075991-0. 
  14. ^ a b "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made - Reviews - Movies - New York Times". Nytimes.com. 2003-04-29. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/movies/1000best.html. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  15. ^ "Greatest Films of 1968". Filmsite.org. http://www.filmsite.org/1968.html. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  16. ^ "The Best Movies of 1968 by Rank". Films101.com. http://www.films101.com/y1968r.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  17. ^ "Most Popular Feature Films Released in 1968". IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/year/1968. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
  18. ^ Adler, Renata (October 18, 1968). "Bullitt (1968)". NYT Critics' Pick. The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173AEE61BC4052DFB6678383679EDE. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 
  19. ^ "Bullitt Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bullitt/. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  20. ^ Cruz, Gilbert (May 5, 2011). "The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time". Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2011/05/05/the-15-greatest-movie-car-chases-of-all-time/slide/bullitt-1968/. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 
  21. ^ "Bullitt Awards and Nominations". IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/awards. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  22. ^ "The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/41st-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-08-25. 
  23. ^ The Auto Channel - Ford Mustang Bullitt (2001)
  24. ^ 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt - First Test from Motor Trend
  25. ^ "A Word from Our Sponsors... Steve McQueen Drives a Puma". TheCathodeRayChoob.com. WordPress. March 4, 2009. http://thecathoderaychoob.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/a-word-from-our-sponsors-steve-mcqueen-drives-a-puma/. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 
  26. ^ AutoBlog - Ford Mustang Steve McQueen Ad Revealed from autoblog.com
  27. ^ Steve McQueen - The Making Of Bullitt
  28. ^ Graysmith, Robert. (1986). Zodiac, p. 96. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-89895-9
  29. ^ IMDB The Zodiac
  30. ^ Graysmith, Robert. (1986). Zodiac, p. 96. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-89895-9

[edit] External links

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