Review of Bullitt (1968) by Mike C — 15 Aug 2012

I can't call this an exceptional film. Even for its time, it must have been slow-moving. Not that slow is always bad, but this one really drags on. Except the car chase. Even by today's standards, that is a pretty exceptional chase.

I don't normally get off on car chases - now or then - and when I read the back of the netflix package about the chase, I thought oh well. I was actually impressed with the dashboard view and the roar of the cars.

That gimmick doesn't work anywhere but on the hills of San Fran, and today's cars just aren't as cool as those old muscle cars. McQueen is solid enough, but where is the range? It's a pretty flat character throughout.

Bisset is damn gorgeous as his love interest, but the poor sound mixing with most of her scenes is distracting. Robert Duvall in an early performance, just six years after his first feature (Mockingbird).

Anyway, a pretty dry film. Slow works when you have a good story. The story here was nothing exceptional so the slow pace killed it even more.