Bullitt
Short description
Bullitt follows San Francisco police lieutenant Frank Bullitt, who is assigned to protect Johnny Ross, a gangster preparing to testify against organized crime. The task comes from ambitious politician Walter Chalmers, who wants the witness kept safe until he can be used to bring down a mob boss. When gunmen get to the witness despite the precautions, Bullitt comes under pressure from his superiors and from Chalmers, who is more concerned with his own position than with what went wrong. Bullitt's investigation leads him into a tangle of deception that goes well beyond a single shooting.
The film was directed by Peter Yates, the second of the thirteen features he made, following Summer Holiday and preceding Koroshi. Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner wrote the screenplay, and Philip D'Antoni produced. Steve McQueen plays Bullitt, with Robert Vaughn as Chalmers, Jacqueline Bisset as Cathy, Don Gordon as Lieutenant Delgetti, Robert Duvall as Weissberg and Simon Oakland as Captain Bennett. Around twenty cast members and forty-six crew are credited.
Made for about six million dollars and released in October 1968, Bullitt took roughly forty-two million dollars worldwide, a strong return for its time. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 7.9 from forty-six reviews, while on TMDB its audience rating is 7.2 from more than thirteen hundred votes, so critics and viewers alike responded positively to the crime thriller.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of the famous chase scene, the director urged the drivers to maintain a speed of around 120-130 km/h, but ultimately the cars (including those with cameras) reached speeds exceeding 175 km/h on the straight sections of the streets.
- The famous chase scene utilized two Mustangs and two Dodges. Both Mustangs belonged to Ford and were rented by Warner Bros. for the production. The cars were modified for high-speed racing by experienced racer Max Balchowsky. Cary Loftin served as the stunt coordinator. After filming, both Dodges and one Mustang were scrapped. The second Mustang was purchased by someone at Warner Bros., and several years later, the car resurfaced in New Jersey. Steve McQueen, the film's lead actor, attempted to buy it, but the owner refused to part with it. Since then, the Mustang left the shed where it had been kept only once—in 2018, when Ford advertised the 'Bullitt Mustang' at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
- At first, Steve McQueen categorically refused to act in this film. He did not want to play a police officer because he had many problems with the police in his youth and had disliked them ever since. He was eventually persuaded to appear in the film by his then-wife, Neile Adams.
- According to history, Lightning McQueen’s Mustangs belonged to Ford and were heavily modified to keep up on the steep slopes and climbs of San Francisco. The Charger was purchased from a local dealership and remained in its factory configuration.
- It is widely believed that Steve McQueen performed all the car stunts himself, but this is not entirely true. Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin had at his disposal the famous auto and motorcycle racer Bud Ekins, who performed the most dangerous stunts on the "Mustang." Sometimes you can glimpse him in the Mustang's rearview mirror. When it's up, you see McQueen; when it's down and no one is visible – Ekins is at the wheel. Bill Hickman drives the black Dodge Charger, and he also plays one of the killers, as well as participated in staging the scene.
- According to director Peter Yates, during the filming of the chase scene, Steve McQueen purposefully kept his head close to the open car window so that viewers could see that he, and not a stunt double, was behind the wheel.
- In 2007, the film was included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.
- The film is based on Robert L. Fish's novel "Mute Witness" (1963). The credits list the pseudonym used by the author – Robert L. Pike.
- A scene lasting 9 minutes and 42 seconds took three weeks to film.
- Robert Vaughn (who played the politician) did not like the script. Steve McQueen pleaded with him to appear in the film, but Vaughn resisted until the studio finally offered him a fee that he simply could not refuse.
- The film company received a refusal to their request to film on the "Golden Gate Bridge." During the chase scene, cars pass by the same green Volkswagen "Beetle" four times. This is the result of the fact that a very small area of the city was allocated for filming, and several cameras had to be installed on the cars, filming from different angles. During editing, these episodes were arranged to create the impression that the heroes traveled across a much larger area.
- The device used to send the Rennick family's photographs over telephone lines was one of the original facsimile machines. This is where the word "fax" originated.
- In the late 1960s, San Francisco had not yet become a 'Mecca' for filmmakers, although the city's mayor, Joseph L. Alioto, did not lose hope of making it one. This is precisely why the filmmakers enjoyed a level of freedom in San Francisco that modern film crews can only dream of. For instance, the creators of 'Bullitt' were once provided with an entire wing of a hospital for filming; numerous city streets were closed for three weeks to film the chase scene, and they were permitted to film inside the airport building.
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