Customer Reviews

Bullitt [HD DVD]

5 star:		(175)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Arguably the best crime film of 1968, and certainly one of the most influential films of the genre...."Bullitt" established new directions in the mood and style of crime thrillers, and firmly established McQueen as one of the key anti-hero stars of the 60's. Based on the gritty novel "Mute Witness" by Robert L. Pike, this was the first, and only, time McQueen portrayed a police officer (albeit a maverick one) in his movie career. In 1968 Steve was then riding high on the success of his previous heist film, "The Thomas Crown Affair", and "Bullitt" just propelled his star even higher into the cinematic heavens !

The plot is tight, economical and well crafted....taciturn, moody Detective Frank Bullitt (McQueen) is charged with the protection of a key witness vital to an upcoming trial involving Mafia connections. Whilst hidden away in a supposed secure location, the witness and his police guard are brutally gunned down by unknown assailants. The heat is turned up on Bullitt by his tough Captain (Simon Oakland) and the manipulative, opportunistic politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) to come up with the right answers fast ! Between the draining investigation, Bullitt struggles to maintain his relationship with his cultured, sensitive girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset)

Primarily coming from a TV series background, Englishman Peter Yates (directing his fourth movie) did a commendable job as director on "Bullitt"...producing a complex, intense crime thriller with a unique style that would ultimately influence many other films. Yates would later to go onto direct tough guy Robert Mitchum in the excellent 1973 "sleeper" crime film "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" !

And of course "Bullitt" is reknowned for it's now legendary car chase between Frank Bullitt's 390 GT Mustang and the two hitmen in their black, Dodge Charger 440 Magnum barrelling through the city streets and highways of San Francisco....just don't pay too much attention to how many times they pass that slow-moving, green VW Beetle !!

The DVD transfer is excellent in both sound and picture quality, and the Limited Edition Collectors Set with the additional goodies (Single sheet poster, shooting draft, lobby cards etc.) is a real bonus for keen film fans !!

One of my favourite cop thrillers....McQueen sizzles on screen !!

I have read GQ and other men's fashion magazines for the last 20 years. No single person is mentioned as a men's style icon more often than Steve McQueen, and this movie defines his style most clearly. What I think that is not often understood, is why his style is so beloved. It is minimalist, yes, but also, this is someone not playing the middle class America game.

1) He lives in a small apartment. The furniture is ordinary, with a few hip 60's touches. (Watch for the picture over his bed, his paisley bathrobe, the cool paper hanging lampshade, and a couple of hippie style items on the walls). You get the impression he owns about six pairs of clothes at most. He eats cheap frozen dinners (except for the occasional date at the cool San Fran Restaurant). He is not wasting this time and life keeping up with the Jones's.

2.) He is not climbing the career ladder. On this case, he doesn't give a thought to politics. He is not chasing the American ideal of success.

3.) Look closely and you will see his car, the most famous in any movie ever, is a olive drab color. Not candy apple bright red. It is a Mustang, a symbol of blue collar America. It is dusty, and he parks it in the street, not a garage. He does not inspect it for door dings every time he goes out to it. It has dents in it. You get the impression he doesn't spend his free time polishing and waxing it.

4.) He doesn't spend his time chasing money. He spends it on his job, trying to do what he thinks is right, not what is good for office politics and promotion.

5.) His clothes are 60's pre-hippie fashion perfection (look for the extremely tapered legs, the suede loafers, and of course the famous tweed blazer and blue turtleneck).

In summary, I think it is funny that people idolize McQueen's personal style in this movie and yet they don't realize why. It is not just the stoicism, or minimalism. It is the old fashion American values (think Old West). Just something to think about as you watch one of my favorite movies of all time.

Better view than the DVD. But only worth renting, or if it can be purchased used or on mark down at $5 or less.

A great film with very problematic picture and sound quality on Blu-Ray. The source transfer for "Bullit" has obviously not been re-done for Blu-Ray, and appears to be the same source transfer used for the older DVD edition of this film. Although the superior medium and capabilities of a 1080p Blu-Ray disc make this an upgraded way to view this material, the limitations of an aging source transfer abound and call attention to themselves. Detail is OK in well lit scenes, much less so on indirectly lit surfaces and shadows. Blacks are unstable and milky, and there is motion judder and blur of in motion detail in shadows. Skin tone and texture show the waxy effect of DNR (digital noise reduction). Surface detail is mediocre at best. Sharpening is obvious and annoying. All in all a better view than the DVD version. But only worth renting, or if it can be purchased used or on mark down at $5 or less.

Few people who see this movie for the first time understand the profound impact it had when it came out. While modern day crime dramas are filled with gratuitous, numbing violence, the reality of this movie was a real breakthrough. The famous car chase may be the thiing that brings people back to "Bullitt" but the gritty realism is what makes this a classic. The only movie of that time which matched it for realism may have been "The Detectives". This movie really changed filmmaking. When I saw this movie in 1968, five people fainted in the theatre during the scene where the killers broke into the hotel room to murder the potential witness. There is also the fine performance of Robert Vaughn as a politician whose murdered star witness was his mealticket. Vaughn is noted as the consummate Hollywood liberal, and his portrayal of this self-serving scumbag is perfect.

I have read some of the reviews and what is with all the plot and history stuff.

Maybe short on plot, a little confusing, but a great action film for its time.

No CGI, no fake this or fake that. I later read that they went through several cars to complete the scenes, but it was real or as real as it could be. No green scenes.

This is a movie from the era where muscle cars were being made and Detroit Heavy Metal was King. The Heavy Metal was wrapped with a plain jane body, but there were guts there. Like Steve McQueen.

Maybe I am recalling the visceral feelings I got from watching the movie.

It was Fall in the outskirts of Tacoma Washington at one of several Drive-Ins, and the movie started around 10 - 10:30 on a Friday night. It was damp and there was a low fog that had rolled in. My date and I were in a Fastback Mustang that had a small V-8, we very were close to Screen having arrived late - so the whole movie filled our field of vision. In the chase scenes in the hills of SF, it felt like we were right there in the vehicle. To this date I still can feel my stomach going up and down.

So get the movie, turn down the lights, turn off the cells, unplug the phones and watch the movie on the largest screen possible and as close as possible. Recreate a movie making era and experience that does not exist today and could not be recreated today. Enjoy actors just entering their craft. Do not over-analyze it.


Enjoy it for its rawness and utter power.

Cool never goes out of fashion and this movie remains amazingly watchable almost 40 years after it was made. Steve McQueen did better work than this in his tragically shortened career but this is one of the movies that helped make him a screen icon. He's at his thousand-yard-ice-cool-stare best as the maverick cop assigned to protect a key government witness against a crime syndicate. Robert Vaughn lends great support as the oily politician keen to see the witness kepts safe - or at least so it would seem. McQueen, as Lieutenant Bullitt is forced to resort to unorthodox methods when the assignment goes awry.

This is the movie that introduced me to one of the great loves of my life: the city of San Francisco and in my view, the city is indeed one of the iconic characters of this movie. Director Peter Yates does a great job of using the real urban setting to make more of the movie than the otherwise predictable script might have allowed. Jacqueline Bisset is gorgeous as Bullitt's typical 60s model-like girlfriend and there are notable appearances from the likes of a young Robert Duvall, Norman Fell and, especially interestingly from a black man's perspective, Georg Stanford Brown as the quiet but capable ER doctor.

The hill-jumping car chase scene (for which Frank P Keller won a well-deserved Oscar for editing) is now legendary - and actually the most popular car chase in Hollywood history - and whenever I watch the scene involving Bullitt's beautiful green Mustang GT 390 (and whatever the other car was), I am transported back to my teenage years when I just used to sit and stare.

And dream.

The extras on this two-disc special edition DVD make it a must for anyone who loves this movie.

I have both the standard DVD and now (unfortunately) have the Blu-ray DVD. I was very disappointed in the extremely grainy picture quality on this disc. After watching the movie on Blu-ray I inserted the standard DVD and compared a few scenes. The main difference I can see on the Blu-ray copy is that some scenes appeared brighter. Even on sale for $9.99 this was a waste of money.

Since initially writing this review I have decided there is one benefit to the poor quality of this blu-ray release. It will actually save me money because I now have no desire to replace any movie in my existing collection of standard DVD's with its blu-ray counterpart. Probably not the result Warner Home Video was looking for, but what they should have expected.

This movie is the pattern for Dirty Harry and every car chase film that followed-both good and bad. The well-known car chase scene might have lost just a bit of luster over the years but remember, it was a first of its' kind in 1968. I'm old enough to remember this movie at the theater on a big screen (before the cineplex small screen devolution) and man, when the cars were jumping the hills in SF- you were there! Just ask my stomach. Watching on a small screen at home I'd recommend turning out the lights during the chase and enjoying the 7 minute rollercoaster ride. Name another movie that had a car named after it. In 2001 Ford put out a limited edition Mustang GT Bullitt, dark green fastback in homage to Steve and the "chase". I know that many movies that followed had impressive and more complex car chases but Bullit was first-name an earlier one. After Bullitt there was "The French Connection", "The Seven-Ups", "Dirty Mary,Crazy Larry", "Smokey and the Bandit", even "The Blues Brothers" and many, many more. So you can say that Bullitt created a subgenre of movies that lasted for more than a decade. Even TV got into the action (Dukes of Hazzard). Like I said -both good and bad. Now the movie storyline is great too. I've read many reviews here that say the movie moves too slow with little action. I disagree. Does "The Godfather" move too slow with little action too? The movie is done in a realistic, gritty style that has moments of explosive violence punctuating intelligent dialogue, acting and storyline-especially for 1968. Very much in the French style of film-making, as were French Connection, Dirty Harry, Laughing Policeman,The Exorcist, Atlantic City, et al. When the witness is blown away by a shot gun blast to the midsection he flys off his feet and slams into the wall-very realistic even by todays' jaded eye. No computer generated scenes here. Just good ole' special effects. Steve McQueen would be 72 if he lived but like so many other cultural icons that wasn't meant to be. Live fast, die young (well, middle-aged) and leave us with some wonderful movies.The Great Escape, Cincinnatti Kid, The Getaway, Papillon, The Thomas Crown Affair, On Any Sunday, Baby The Rain Must Fall, Junior Bonner, The Magnificent Seven, Le Mans, The Sand Pebbles, Nevada Smith, and more. Where are the Steve McQueen's of today? None of today's "stars" could be believable(laughable) in his roles. McQueen could kick any of their ... figuratively and literally. We miss you Steve!

This review is specifically about the blu ray presentation of Bullitt and not the film itself. You probably already know if you like the movie or not and I will leave it's content to other reviewers.
(I happen to think it is a great film)

Bullitt is presented on a dual-layer BD 50 disc with plenty of room for the main feature and the included extras of which there are many. The video features a nice 1080p VC-1 transfer that at times really shines with color, detail and overall clarity. Due to the limitations of the actual film stock used for Bullitt, oftentimes there is a grainy appearance to things (not TOO bad) especially during darkly lit indoor scenes. This is NOT due to a bad Blu Ray transfer, but rather the type of film stock that was used. I wondered myself, so I did some extensive Googling on that topic to educate myself about it)

ON a scale of 1 to 5 the video is a strong solid 3.5 that occasionally goes into the "4" level especially with outdoor daylight scenes. I found it to be more visually satisfying than my 1969 Planet of the Apes blu ray transfer but less satisfying than my 1971 Omega Man blu ray which I would rate as a solid 4 all the way. You can be assured this is the BEST Bullitt has ever looked on home video or probably will look until the next big leap in display technology.

The included extras are pretty good. You get two full length documentaries and one 10 minute short film about Steve McQueen and the actual making of this film. The SD transfer of "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool " is fine. If you haven't seen it before on TCM it is well worth watching. The other full length documentary "The Cutting Edge: "The Magic of Film Editing" is presented in full 1080p and features segment dedicated to the famous Bullitt car chase and how it was assembled from various bits of film. If you are a movie lover who is interested in the technical aspect of things, the entire show is interesting. The 1968 short film is called "Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality" and I found it very interesting, especially after watching the film. I am one of the very few who was unaware that McQueen did some of his own driving in this movie (although I now hear stunt driver Bud Elkins did the vast majority) and it was very cool hearing him explain how they prepared for those shots.

I left the sound for last, as this is really the only area where this disc falls short. Again, it is NOT the fault of the studio who did the transfer but rather the limitations of the 1969 source material. Bullitt is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. You can use your surround decider to output a Dolby pro Logic II soundtrack or listen to it in stereo. I found the soundtrack to be a mixed bag. Overall, the music is pretty good sounding, but the dialogue ranges from clear, to almost a faint whisper at times as far as levels go. The whole thing has a squashed compressed sound that really detracts from the viewing experience if you have a dedicated home theater set-up and are used to DTS Master Audio or Dolby TruHD tracks. This is not to say it is totally horrible, it just isn't all that good and I found myself having to cranky my Denon up much higher than any other movie I own to be able to hear and understand ALL of the dialogue. If the studio invested a bit more money they could have come up with 5.1 soundtrack IF they could access the original audio stems used to mix the movie back in 1968. My Bond remastered discs by Lowry digital have worked wonders with their DTS and DTS Master Audio mixes of movies that were originally presented in MONO.

Sub standard audio aside, Bullitt on blu ray is very satisfying, offering a nice selection of very good special features, an above average visual presentation and one hell of a good movie! I don't regret buying this for one second!

Bullitt is Steve McQueen at his finest! It's an excellent movie with an excellent cast, a great plot, top notch acting, and the "Greatest" chase scene ever filmed. Two of the most powerful street cars of the 1960's (1968 GT 390 Mustang Fastback, and a 1968 Dodge Charger) battled it out on the streets of San Francisco! If you have a big screen TV you'll enjoy feeling yourself move in your seat with the cars as they race down the hills of frisco. Cameras are mounted in the windshields for the best special effect ever. I remember when I was a kid watching Bullitt in the theater, everyone was rocking in their seats as the cars went down the hills. This movie was made when all of the actors were stars and headliners, not like today with one or two leading actors and a bus load of newbies. Also, Bullitt was real stuff - not special effects! Bullitt was made before green screens, gimicks, and computer techology had come along. The racing was real, the crashing was real, the explosions were real, and yes - Steve really drove the Gt 390 Mustang.

Thomas