Bullitt

I just watched this movie classic earlier this evening. It was like stepping into a time capsule. Not in terms of direction or scriptwriting, but in the view of a pre-hippie San Francisco. The movie was made in 1967 and '68, just before the Summer of Love explosion that brought real and psuedo hippies from all across the country to the city. Hippiedom was there, of course; Bullitt's apartment has a wall covered in posters for various concerts and shows of the time, though it's hard to imagine any Steve McQueen character liking that kind of music.

Almost all the men wear some version of the classic black suit, white shirt, skinny black tie outfit. Most of the cops' hair is cut high'n'tight; almost no one has hair touching or below the top of the ears. It's like a convention of NASA engineers. There are only a couple of men with long hair, sideburns or "mod" styled clothes.

The street, business and airport scenes teem with normal looking people. Dowdy matrons are everywhere and few Swingin' Sixties "chicks." In the final airport scenes, the place is crawling with military men, but they are just passengers. Few airport security are visible. In fact, from a post-9/11 viewpoint that whole section of the movie is quaint and slightly disturbing.

Bullitt is also notable for McQueen's wardrobe. He spends a good part of the movie in a burgundy cardigan! To the end, he sports grey-black, plain front, narrow trousers; a purplish, thick turtleneck; brown sports coat and bright brown brothel-creepers. Stylin', bro.

The cops and detectives are a strange lot, by modern (and modern cinema) lights. Lightly armed, slow to pull their weapons. Respectful of others, even superiors! Bullitt himself is very careful in how he deals with the poltics of his situation. After seeing so many of today's dysfunctional, renegade, insolent, hyperviolent cops, it's almost refreshing, even charming.

It's been easily twenty years since I've seen Bullitt. Watching the classic car chase through the streets of San Francisco was still nail-biting. The simplicity and directness of the whole sequence was pretty stark compared to similar scenes in today's movies. The cars, as revealed in a contemporary making-of featurette, were actually travelling up to and beyond 110 mph on the real city streets! The only soundtrack was the throaty roar of the Mustang's and the Charger's engines and the squeal of tires. I didn't even realise how much I'd missed the unmistakeable sound of classic street muscle cars. Today's vehicles are such wimps. Makes me miss my old Cutlass and Dart, it does.

Another great part of the movie is the minimal soundtrack. By that I mean that most of the movie has no music behind it, just the normal ambient sounds of street, lobby, hotel, hospital, airport, etc. It helps to flatten the movie's affect, which is part of the theme that Bullitt holds it all in, but it forces the plot to carry things along (which it does quite well) and to create its own tensions (which it usually does).

Another part of the time capsule experience is the roster of actors. Familiar faces, even if we don't know the names, are Simon Oakland and Don Gordon, later to become television staples. Even Normal Fell gets a substantive part in his hard-ass mode. I didn't really pay attention to the credits, so when I learned that Bullitt's architect girlfriend was a honey-brunette Jacqueline Bisset, I was floored! She's so young, and so beautiful. There's a bed scene in the early going where Bisset is lit from behind; she has a golden glow that makes her achingly gorgeous. Wow.

It was also fun to watch the mano-a-mano between tight-lipped, manly cool McQueen and oily, slick, threatening Robert Vaughn. No raised voices, except at the climax, no theatrics, no arm-waving, no unbelievable stunts. Just two determined men at cross purposes, one struggling to retain control and the other trying to figure out what's really going on. Almost every entrance by Vaughn is preceded by the click-click-click of his heels, like a military tattoo or a warning.

Anyway, even for a 36 year old film, it still kicks a lot of ass. Highly recommended as a film, but doubly recommended as a time capsule from a more innocent time.