Bullitt

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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From Peter Yates, here is the classic “Bullitt” starring Steve McQueen. The film is remarkable for including life as it unfolds, from a metropolitan airport to a sweltering emergency room. It is one of the first films to be shot almost entirely on-location in San Francisco including iconic landmarks, from The Mark Hopkins Hotel to Nob Hill. Better yet, the suspense is nail biting and first rate.

Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is a Lieutenant with the San Francisco Police Department. He is hired to guard a mob boss witness. When the witness is suddenly killed, hit men go after Bullitt who endures one of the most legendary car chases in all of cinema history, second only to “The French Connection.”

McQueen is excellent as the laconic and emotionally unavailable lieutenant. A vivacious Jacqueline Bisset appears as the frustrated love interest. Woe to any woman who gets involved with the romantically reticent Frank Bullitt. Robert Vaughn in one of his best roles is a slimy smooth politician and Robert Duvall is a cab driver in a bit part.

Like “Serpico” and the aforementioned “The French Connection,” this film distilled the soiled and gritty side of police life, where all is harsh and confining, with fluorescent light, anemic and strange. All through the late 1960s, nothing was as it seemed and you were disgusted to look in a mirror. This film is as much a time capsule as it is a study in apprehension.

With swift rhythmic editing that won an Oscar, percussive images and a nostalgic, kitschy Jazz score from Lalo Schrifren, “Bullitt” is a beacon for the cinema, having something for everyone.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com