Bullitt (1968)

That car. I keep coming back to that car. The Highland Green Mustang 390 GT that tears through the streets of San Francisco isn't just a prop in Bullitt, it's a presence. It has weight, personality, menace. When it swings out from a side street or crests one of those famous hills with all four wheels leaving the tarmac, you feel it in your chest. Peter Yates understood that the machine needed to be treated like a co-star, and that instinct is a big part of why this film has lasted as long as it has.

Steve McQueen is the other reason, of course. He plays Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco cop tasked with protecting a mob witness, with that trademark economy of his. Barely a wasted word. Barely a wasted expression. It's the kind of performance that looks effortless until you try to imagine someone else doing it and realise it would fall apart entirely. McQueen reportedly did a lot of his own driving, and you believe it. There's a connectedness between the man and the machine that no amount of cutting could fake.

Now, fair warning: if you go into Bullitt expecting wall-to-wall action, the pacing is going to test you a bit. This is very much a product of late sixties Hollywood, where atmosphere and procedure were given room to breathe in a way that modern studio films wouldn't allow. Some sequences move slowly. There are stretches that prioritise mood over momentum. That's not necessarily a flaw, but it's worth knowing going in, because it makes the film feel like two different beasts sharing the same body. The investigative, almost laconic first half, and then the absolutely electric finale.

And what a finale. The airport runway chase that closes the film is stunning even now, all hard cuts and practical tension with no score to nudge you towards how to feel. The editing throughout the whole film is genuinely remarkable, and I believe it won an Academy Award for it. You can see why. The famous car chase through the city streets was edited in a way that was genuinely new at the time, all momentum and geography, cutting on movement rather than dialogue. It set a template that action cinema has been working from ever since.

There's a cool, almost detached quality to the whole production that I find really appealing. Bullitt isn't a morality play. It doesn't lecture you. It trusts the audience to keep up and doesn't wrap everything in a tidy bow. San Francisco itself is photographed with real love, the hills and the fog and the urban grit all contributing to a sense of place that few films of any era manage. If you enjoy this kind of unhurried, atmosphere-first storytelling with proper craft behind it, you'd probably get a lot out of The Getaway (1972), which shares some of that same stripped-back, McQueen-cool DNA.

My only real gripe, beyond the pacing, is that some of the supporting characters don't get enough to do. There are interesting threads that feel slightly undercooked. But then the film snaps back into gear, literally, and you forgive it fairly quickly.

Bullitt is the kind of film that reminds you what old-school craft looks like. No CGI to paper over the cracks. No safety net. Just skilled filmmakers, a magnetic star, and one very, very good car. Three and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1968  | Watched: 2025-05-11

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Peter Yates: Murphy's War (1971)
More with Steve McQueen: The Magnificent Seven (1960) · The Getaway (1972)
More from the 1960s: Viy (1967) · Persona (1966) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · Daisies (1966)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)