Bullitt

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Undetermined Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Bullitt Similar Undetermined Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Bullitt is a 1968 American Drama film|dramatic thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni . It starred Steve McQueen , Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset . The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner was based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish , a pseudonym for Robert L. Pike. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz -inspired film score|score , arranged for brass instrument|brass and percussion instrument|percussion . Robert Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who provides information to McQueen.

Released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box office smash, later winning the Academy Awards|Academy Award for Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Academy Award for Sound|Best Sound . Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners|Best Motion Picture Screenplay . Bullitt is notable for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, California|San Francisco , regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history.

In 2007, Bullitt was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2008, the Ford Motor Company produced the Ford Mustang|Mustang Bullitt model for the 40th anniversary of the film. The Bullitt nameplate on the steering wheel honored the movie that made the Mustang one of the most popular cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The green color was also brought back for the anniversary edition.

Plot

Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers ( Robert Vaughn ) is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on organized crime in United States|America . To improve his political standing, Chalmers hopes to bring down Chicago mobster Pete Ross ( Vic Tayback ) with the aid of key witness Johnny Ross ( Pat Renella ), Pete's brother. Bullitt takes place the weekend before the hearing, from Friday night (during the opening credits) to Sunday night.

Following his theft of $2,000,000 in mob money and subsequent escape from Chicago to San Francisco , Johnny is placed in the San Francisco Police Department 's protective custody for the weekend. Chalmers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt's ( Steve McQueen ) unit to guard him.

Bullitt, Sergeant Delgetti ( Don Gordon (actor)|Don Gordon ) and Detective Carl Stanton ( Carl Reindel ), give Ross around-the-clock protection at the Hotel Daniels, a cheap flophouse near the Embarcadero Freeway . Late Saturday night, inexplicably Ross carefully unchains the hotel room door (doing it in a way that Stanton does not see); seconds later a pair of hitmen ( Paul Genge and stunt driver Bill Hickman ), burst into the room and shoot Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding them both.

Bullitt wants to investigate the shooting, while Chalmers, upset, attempts to shift blame on to Bullitt and the department. After Bullitt thwarts another assassination attempt, Ross dies of his wounds. Bullitt suppresses news of the death, asking Doctor Willard ( Georg Stanford Brown ) to "misplace" the chart and have the body placed in the morgue under a John Doe identity.

Chalmers arrives at the hospital on Sunday morning and is angered that Ross has disappeared. He is further incensed when he and his police minion Captain Baker ( Norman Fell ) receive no help from Bullitt. Chalmers places pressure on Bullitt to produce Ross, to no effect.

Bullitt reconstructs Ross's movements, finding the cab driver who brought him to the hotel. He is told by the cabbie that Ross had made a long distance call and a local call from a pay phone before he came to the hotel. The local call was to a different hotel. After picking up his Ford Mustang , Bullitt is tailed by the two hitmen, resulting in a famous car chase that ultimately kills the hitmen. Back at the police station, Bullitt is given until Monday morning to follow his remaining lead.

With the help of his girlfriend Cathy ( Jacqueline Bisset ), Bullitt heads to the hotel Ross called, where he finds a woman registered under the name Dorothy Simmons (Brandy Carroll), also murdered. Cathy, who sees the body, is disturbed, and later expresses her fear to Bullitt that he is becoming as cold and unfeeling as the criminals he chases.

While inspecting the dead woman’s luggage, Bullitt and Delgetti find two sets of passport and airline ticket folders (both empty), two brochures from a Chicago based international travel agency (advertising one of their Rome vacation packages), and, hidden in the pockets of the two sets of clothing, two sets of completed travelers checks for nearly $100,000 each. One set was signed by Mrs. Dorothy Rennick, the other by her husband, Mr. Albert Rennick. Bullitt tells Delgetti to contact Immigration Service in Chicago and obtain the passport photos of Mr. & Mrs. Albert Rennick.

Chalmers arrives at the morgue, demanding from Bullitt a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt demurs, and when the faxed copy of the Rennicks' passport photos arrives, Chalmers is shown to have sent the police to protect the wrong man. The Ross brothers (Johnny and Peter) set Albert Rennick up in order to be killed as "Johnny Ross" so the real Ross could escape the mob. Johnny then killed Dorothy Rennick to silence her.

At the airport, the search of the Rome flight reveals no Ross or Rennick. Bullitt guesses that Ross has booked a reservation on another international flight leaving about the same time. He discovers the real Johnny Ross on another flight (a non-stop to London) booked at the last minute; with a Rome ticket exchanged to pay for the flight. Chalmers makes one last attempt to use Ross for his own ends, which Bullitt angrily rejects before going after Ross. A chase across the working runways of San Francisco Airport ensues, with Bullitt eventually shooting and killing Ross after chasing him back into the terminal.

Bullitt returns home, to find Cathy waiting for him, asleep. While going into the bathroom and starting to wash his hands, he looks up at the mirror and stares at his reflection, wondering if he has become what Cathy fears him to be.

Cast

Steve McQueen as Bullitt

Robert Vaughn as Chalmers

Jacqueline Bisset as Cathy

Don Gordon (actor)|Don Gordon as Delgetti

Simon Oakland as Captain Bennet

Norman Fell as Baker

Robert Duvall as Weissberg (taxi driver)

Georg Stanford Brown as Dr. Willard

Justin Tarr as Eddy

Carl Reindel as Carl Stanton

Felice Orlandi as Renick

Vic Tayback as Pete Ross

Robert Lipton as 1st Aide

Ed Peck as Westcott

Pat Renella as John Ross

Paul Genge as Mike

John Aprea as Killer

Al Checco as Desk Clerk

Bill Hickman as Phil

Car chase

At the time of the film's release, the car chase scene generated a great amount of excitement. Leonard Maltin has called it a "now-classic car chase, one of the screen's all-time best." Emanuel Levy wrote in 2003 that, " Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood's standards." In his obituary for Peter Yates, Bruce Weber wrote "Mr. Yates’ reputation probably rests most securely on “Bullitt” (1968), his first American film — and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic." The editing of this scene likely won editor Frank P. Keller the Academy Award for Best Editing .

Later, producer Philip D'Antoni filmed two more car chases for The French Connection (film)|The French Connection and The Seven-Ups , both set and filmed in New York City.

Filming

The total time of the scene is 10 minutes and 53 seconds, and it began in the Fisherman's Wharf area (at Columbus and Chestnut), followed by Midtown shooting on Hyde Street and Laguna Street, with shots of Coit Tower and locations around and on Filbert and University Streets. The scene ends at the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway in Brisbane, California|Brisbane , out of the city.Brebner, Anne; Morrison, John (February 23, 2011). . Blip.tv. Retrieved 2011-07-15.

Two 1968 390 V8 Ford Mustang fastback s (325& nbsp;hp) with four-speed manual transmission were used for the chase scene, both owned by Ford Motor Company and part of a promotional loan agreement with Warner Bros. The Mustangs' engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase by veteran car racer Max Balchowsky. Ford Motor Company had also originally loaned two Ford Galaxie sedans that were intended to be used in the chase scenes, but the producers found the cars entirely too heavy to put through jumps over the hills of San Francisco without the cars' suspensions being severely damaged. The Galaxie sedans were replaced with two 1968 375& nbsp;hp 440 Magnum V8-powered Dodge Charger s that were bought outright from Glendale Dodge in Glendale, California . The engines in both Chargers were left largely unmodified, but the suspension was mildly upgraded to cope with the demands of the stunt work.

The director called for speeds of about , but the cars (including the ones containing the cameras) reached speeds of over on surface streets. Driver's point-of-view angles were used to give the audience the "feel" of the ride as the cars jumped the hills. Filming the chase scene took three weeks, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of film. During this film sequence, the Charger loses five wheel covers and has different ones missing in different shots. As a result of shooting from multiple angles simultaneously, and some angles' footage used at different times to give the illusion of different streets, the speeding cars can be seen passing the same green Volkswagen Beetle four different times, and the same blue Chevelle Malibu SS396 with a black vinyl top three times. The Charger also crashes into the camera in one scene and the damaged front fender is noticeable in later scenes. After the Charger hits a parked car, it disappears for a split second from the screen before the scene is changed. The San Francisco authorities did not let the filmmakers film the car chase on the Golden Gate Bridge, but they did permit the passage to be filmed in Midtown locations including the Mission District , and in neighboring Brisbane, on the city's outskirts.

McQueen, an accomplished driver, drove in the close-up scenes, about 10% of the chase in the film. The stunt coordinator, Carey Loftin , hired stunt double|stuntman and motorcycle racer Bud Ekins , and McQueen's usual stunt driver Loren Janes, to do the dangerous stunts in the Mustang. Ekins is also the stunt man who lays down his bike in front of a skidding truck during the chase (Ekins also doubled for McQueen in the sequence of The Great Escape (film)|The Great Escape in which McQueen's character jumps over a barbed wire fence on a motorcycle). The Mustang’s interior rear view mirror goes up and down depending on who is driving; when the mirror is up (visible) McQueen is behind the wheel, and when it is down (not visible) Ekins is driving. The black Dodge Charger was driven by Bill Hickman , who also played one of the hitmen and helped with the choreography of the chase scene. The other hitman was played by Paul Genge who had played another character who rode a Dodge off the road to his death in an episode of Perry Mason (TV series)|Perry Mason - "The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise" two years earlier. In a magazine article many years later, one of drivers involved in the chase sequence remarked that the stock Dodge 440s were so much faster than the Mustang that the drivers had to keep backing off the accelerator to prevent the Dodge from easily pulling away from the Mustang.

Of the two Mustangs, one was scrapped after filming due to liability concerns and the surviving backup car was sold to an employee of Warner Brothers' editing department. The car changed hands several times, and Steve McQueen at one point made an unsuccessful attempt to buy it. The Mustang is rumored to have been kept in a barn in the Ohio River Valley by an unknown owner. from bradbarnett.net

Editing

The editing of the car chase by Frank P. Keller likely won Keller the editing Oscar for 1968, and has been included in lists of the "Best Editing Sequences of All-Time". Paul Monaco has written, "The most compelling street footage of 1968, however, appeared in an entirely contrived sequence, with nary a hint of documentary feel about it -- the car chase through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt , created from footage shot over nearly five weeks. Billy Fraker, the cinematographer for the film, attributed the success of the chase sequence primarily to the work of the editor, Frank P. Keller. At the time, Keller was credited with cutting the piece in such a superb manner that he made the city of San Francisco a "character" in the film." The editing of the scene was not without difficulties; Ralph Rosenblum wrote in 1979 that "those who care about such things may know that during the filming of the climactic chase scene in Bullitt , an out-of-control car filled with dummies tripped a wire which prematurely sent a costly set up in flames, and that editor Frank Keller salvaged the near-catastrophe with a clever and unusual juxtaposition of images that made the explosion appear to go off on time." This chase scene has also been cited by critics as groundbreaking in its realism and originality.

Soundtrack

The Film score|original score was composed by Lalo Schifrin .

Release

Box office performance

The film has garnered both critical acclaim and box office success. Produced on a $5.5 million budget, it grossed over $42.3 million in the United States, making it the 1968 in film|5th highest grossing film of 1968 .

Critical reception

Bullitt was well received by critics and is considered by some as one of the best films of 1968. Renata Adler made the film a NYT Critics Pick, saying its a "terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen& mdash;fast, well acted, written the way people talk"; accord to Adler, "the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet (series)|Dragnet to Albert Camus|Camus ."

In 2004, The New York Times placed the film on its list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made . In 2011, Time magazine listed it among the "The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time", describing it as "the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list", and saying " Bullitt ‘s car chase is a reminder that every great such scene is a triumph of editing as much as it is stunt work. Naturally, it won that year's Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Academy Award for Best Editing ". Among 21st century critics, it holds a 97% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes , representing positive reviews from 32 of 33 critics as of October 2011.

Awards and honors

The film was nominated and won several critical awards. Frank P. Keller won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing . The film was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound . Bullitt was also nominated for several British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA Film Awards , including BAFTA Award for Best Direction|Best Director for Peter Yates, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role|Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography for William A. Fraker , BAFTA Award for Best Editing|Best Film Editing for Frank P. Keller, and BAFTA Award for Best Sound|Best Sound Track . Keller also won the American Cinema Editors#Eddie Awards|American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film. The film was awarded the National Society of Film Critics|National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker) and the Motion Picture Sound Editors|Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Feature Film. The film was also successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards . It won 2nd place Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). In 2000, the Society of Operating Cameramen|Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh. Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner won that year's Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay.

Legacy

The Ford Mustang name has been closely associated with the film. In 2001, the Ford Motor Company released the Bullitt edition Ford Mustang (fourth generation)#Special editions|Ford Mustang GT . Another version of the Ford Mustang (fifth generation)#2008–2009 Bullitt|Ford Mustang Bullitt , which is closer to resembling the original film Mustang, was released in 2008. from Motor Trend

Steve McQueen's likeness as Frank Bullitt was used in two Ford commercials. The first was for the Europe-only 2001 Ford Puma , which featured McQueen driving the car around San Francisco before parking it in a studio apartment garage beside the film Mustang and the motorcycle from The Great Escape (film)|The Great Escape . In a 2004 commercial for the Ford Mustang (fifth generation)|2005 Mustang , McQueen appears and drives the new Mustang after a man receives a Field of Dreams -style epiphany and constructs a racetrack in the middle of a cornfield. The infamous chase scene was also recreated and implemented into the 2011 video game Driver: San Francisco . from autoblog.com

During the season finale of Fox’s 2012 TV series Alcatraz (TV series)|Alcatraz , Det. Rebecca Madsen ( Sarah Jones ) in a 2013 Ford Mustang GT gave chase to a black LX Dodge Charger driven by series antagonist Thomas "Tommy" Madsen (David Hoflin). The chase sequence mirrored portions of the one featured in Bullitt , right down to a scene of Tommy Madsen buckling his seatbelt in his Charger before the start of the chase and two passes by a green Volkswagen beetle.

Basis for Frank Bullitt

McQueen based his Frank Bullitt character on San Francisco Inspector Dave Toschi , with whom he worked prior to filming.Steve McQueen - The Making Of Bullitt Graysmith, Robert. (1986). Zodiac, p. 96. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-89895-9 McQueen even copied Toschi's famous "fast draw" shoulder holster. Toschi later became famous, along with Inspector Bill Armstrong, as the lead San Francisco investigators of the Zodiac Killer murders that began shortly after the release of Bullitt . Toschi is played by Mark Ruffalo in the film Zodiac_(film)|Zodiac , in which Paul Avery ( Robert Downey, Jr. ) mentions that "McQueen got the idea for the holster from Toschi".IMDB The ZodiacGraysmith, Robert. (1986). Zodiac, p. 96. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-89895-9

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Bullitt


1. Howard Roberts 2. Lalo Schiffrin 3. Lalo Schifrin 4. Pure Reason Revolution

Undetermined Music Artists