Review of Bullitt (1968) by Brad Z — 12 Jan 2010

Bullitt is a cliche setter, which usually means one of two things. Either its plot and subject matter have been done so much and the archetypes are such cliches that a modern day audience would basically have already seen this movie, or it possesses some quality that makes it more than worthy of the imitators. I said usually a movie is one of two, but I lied. Bullitt is a little of both.

Steve McQueen plays a San Francisco cop named Bullitt who is assigned to guard a man set to testify against organized crime (never really goes into the specifics of that too deeply). But while one of Bullitt's partners is guarding the snitch, hitmen come in and light the place up, killing his partner and wounding the witness. Apparently pissed off by this (although continuity in character development isnt this movies high point), Bullitt sets out to get to the bottom of this case and bring the men responsible to justice.

Realism is what this movie really tries to sell, but that's really hard with a plot that borders on illogical. Although I have now real way of knowing and I'm only going on the word of people I know in the business, the policework, medical procedures, and all the little details like that seem very real. The dialogue seems real, but not in a great way. If you really think about it, most every day dialogue is kinda boring, especially dialogue amongst colleagues and superiors and inferiors who are not trying to upset each other. Characters and character development are not the strong point of this film. While you have a few good characters, you also have a few that are just completely unnecessary, including a main character who it seems was only put in there to have a visible villian since we only really see the true bad guy towards the end.

This movie is the original renegade cop action flick and I feel it should be given credit for that. Although we have seen so many "good cop who doesnt play by the rules and always gets his man" movies, this may stand up because of the fact that the other movies in this genre dont sport the realism this one does. The action scenes really electrify this film. Yes, you have seen cooler, but these you can actually believe. The chase scene, although it starts out a little dull, turns out being just fantastic. The direction is almost destylized, which works suprisingly well with the action sequences, giving them a very tight, realistic feel, but in most other scenes, its a little boring.

Bullitt is kinda like an ok Oliver Stone screenplay: its very smart and concise with the details, but possibly too smart for its aim. The best thing about Bullitt is that most anyone can enjoy it. It's not a great action movie and it's not a great drama, but its not a mindless action movie, and its not a boring drama. It at worst works on both levels.

7.6/10.