Classic S.F. flick ‘Bullitt’ back on big screen
Fifty years ago this month, the greatest car chase in movie history hit theaters, and Bay Area moviegoers had an inkling of what was coming. After all, it was in May 1968 that many residents watched — and heard — Steve McQueen and a team of stunt drivers flying over the hills of San Francisco, forever changing the action genre.
Fathom Events is presenting the 50th anniversary of “Bullitt” — a movie entirely filmed in the Bay Area except for one shot (more on that later) — with a national release, including 20 Bay Area multiplexes, on Sunday, Oct. 7, and Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Recommendation: Sit close to the screen, and fasten your seat belt.
The screenings include bonus material from the Ford Motor Company, maker of McQueen’s highland green 1968 Mustang Fastback powered by a 390/4V big-block engine, and memories from McQueen’s family.
McQueen plays San Francisco Police Department Lt. Frank Bullitt, a cop who does things his way. When a star witness in a case against the mob is killed while under his custody, he begins unraveling the conspiracy at the heart of the case. In a subplot, the violent world Bullitt inhabits begins to wear on his relationship with his girlfriend, Cathy ( Jacqueline Bisset).
The film, directed by Peter Yates (”Breaking Away”), is suspenseful on its own during its slow build to the climactic car chase, with several nice touches — a date over dinner at a jazz club between Bullitt and Cathy is impressionistic and wordless, yet says all that needs to be said. The movie also introduced a new level of toughness and violence to the detective genre that paved the way for the San Francisco classic “Dirty Harry” starring Clint Eastwood and William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning “The French Connection” set in New York City three years later.
Friedkin told me in a 2013 Chronicle interview, " ‘Bullitt’ is the best cop film I’ve ever seen. I probably watch it five times a year.”
Friedkin was obsessed by the car chase and was determined to take it to the next level.
"What they did was clear the streets and send the cars over the hills. No people in danger,” Freidkin said in The Chronicle interview. “But I knew I had to top ‘Bullitt’ when I made ‘The French Connection.' I felt that the way to do that was to put citizens in danger — people in the streets.”
Friedkin later directed two more great car chases, in “To Live in Die in L.A.” (1985) and back on the streets of San Francisco in “Jade” (1995).
But with respect to “The French Connection,” it’s the nine minutes and 42 seconds in “Bullitt” that changed the landscape — and in these modern days when every car chase is aided by computer effects, a la the “Fast and the Furious” series, it will never be topped. The duel between Bullitt’s Ford Mustang and the 1968 Dodge Charger R/T driven by the villains, in which the hunted (Bullitt) becomes the hunter, took three weeks to film. An Aeroflex 2C, a portable movie camera that had been used by the military during World War II, was mounted by suction cups across the back seat to give moviegoers the driver’s perspective.
"It took people off the streets and brought them into the cars,” cinematographer William Fraker told The Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub in 2003, in a breakdown of the car chase for the film’s 35th anniversary.
Yes, San Franciscans will note the wild geographic inconsistencies in the chase. But it works beautifully, thanks to the Oscar-winning efforts of editor Frank P. Keller.
Make no mistake, “Bullitt” is McQueen’s baby. His Solar Productions produced it, with McQueen pitching it to Warner Bros. brass as “doing authority differently.” He was obsessed with cars, having spent some of his formative years near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and often raced in professional events. (Two years after “Bullitt,” McQueen finished second to Mario Andretti in the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring).
McQueen handpicked Yates, who was British, after seeing his 1967 heist film “Robbery,” which featured an extended car chase. And, of course, he handpicked the Ford Mustang as his muscle car of choice. He did as many of the driving stunts as he could.
McQueen also insisted that every scene be shot in San Francisco, and for those who know the city, it’s not only an exciting cop film, but also a nostalgic trip back into the city of 1968.
But then there was that one shot that wasn’t filmed in San Francisco. When Yates and Keller were editing the film, they felt something was missing in the chase. Finally, they came up with an answer: Just as the chase revs into high gear, one of the villains fastens his seat belt. Yates and Fraker filmed it in a studio in Los Angeles. It lasts all of two seconds.
"There’s a ‘click,' and then you know something big is about to happen,” Fraker told Hartlaub in 2003. “Then you know you’re in for a ride.”