Bullitt (1968 Film) [Extra tracks, Soundtrack]

Lalo Schifrin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: October 17, 1968
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Soundtrack
• Label: Aleph Records
• ASIN: B00004TTCR
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,383 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #73 in Music > Indie Music > Soundtracks > Movie Soundtracks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Original 1968 Version, August 5, 2003

By 

Peter N. Risser (Medina, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullitt (1968 Film) (Audio CD)

This is not the original recording released in 1968. This is a re-recording, which is sometimes successful, sometimes not.

It does include new recordings of the 'original' original themes, as heard in the movie. Apparently some were 'cleaned up' and re-scored as lighter jazzier numbers for the LP release.

Otherwise, the recording group is talented, but the recordings are fairly lackluster, missing the zing and spark from the 1968 release, which I'd gladly rate 5 stars.

Better than nothing, but I'd rather have the 'original'.
Peter

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The same problems facing every other Bullitt recording., May 13, 2005

By 

The Critic (Claremont, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bullitt (1968 Film) (Audio CD)

Did Lalo Schifrin incinerate the original score to Bullitt? Because that's the only way I can explain the lack of a true to the film version of this soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, both this CD and the 12-track Warner Bros. release are exciting jazzy arrangements, but they are no closer to being the original Bullitt score than a high school marching band.

If you're looking for another pleasant arrangement of the classic score, purchase this. If you (like many other disappointed fans) are hoping to hear the menacing, thumping bass of the original "Main Title" as the camera pans across a darkened San Francisco, buy a copy of the film, because it's probably the only way you'll get to hear it in its original glory.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music to remember McQueen by., June 3, 2005

By 

J. N. Marks (Near. . . Manicougan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullitt (1968 Film) (Audio CD)

Yes, this is the theme music you will be thinking of everytime you see McQueen up on the silver screen. Even when he is kissing Natalie Wood in "Love With A Proper Stranger" you'll be asking yourself when he will pull out his pistol or ride off in his 1968 Ford Mustang.

The heart of this album is "Shifting Gears" because it leads into the famous streets of Frisco car chase scene that made this movie so famous. But you cannot forget the theme music that opens the film. There is a cool nonchalance about it that boils over into moments of heat but then, without much effort, drifts right back into a ruminating cool that was/is the perfect compliment to Steve McQueen's on screen persona.

Frankly, this is late 1960's acid jazz at its peak and somehow, after all of these years, it does not veer off into absurdity (or cliche) the way many of its contemporaries did. Who knows what will remain stylish several decades after its debut? Apparently Schifrin had good instincts. . . And while the movie's staying power has certainly helped the soundtrack one could argue rather persuasively that the music enhanced the film's reputation as well.

If you like greasy horns, clomping bongos, rolling maracca lines and lots of high hat stings accentuating the measures, this is your kind of music. It will make you wish you had your own cop drama where you had the time and money to become your own stunt driver.

Five stars. It's sinful pleasure.