Review of Bullitt (1968) by Sarfaraz A — 01 Mar 2012

Bullitt was directed by Peter Yates, and it stars legendary Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt. I wanted to see, why John Woo regarded this influential film that he wanted Chow Yun-fat to be like, in his cop-movie Hard-Boiled? Although this movie is short of giving us actions like Inspector Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) in Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (a role which was also rumored to be played by Steve, but he declined to not to do cop-movie no more). It is noted to be panic-building, slow in lifting plot, but it is worth it. You have Robert Vaughn playing a politician, here (Steve and Robert also worked on The Magnificent Seven), you wish that Steve should break the teeth out of him, but he doesn't, and wait until he does at the very end.

This movie introduces car-chase scene, and I am pretty much thrilled to see Steve McQueen doing some of the real stunts (as he was avid fan of Car-racing). I maybe less enthusiastic about chase-scene, however I would appreciate here the cinematography work, which was giving realistic experience to us (audience) as if we are sitting behind Steve, (camera is not steady which is good as it makes ue believe realistic experience). We have many magnificent shots of San Francisco during chase-scene, showing spectacular neighborhood allies. I have scene chase-scene in William Friedkin's The French Connection, but if it is matter of citing this scene to be grand, I would definitely agree here, because Steve did drive stunt, in reality, while chasing bad guys.