Steve McQueen is Frank Bullitt, a desensitized police lieutenant who doesn’t allow his emotions to influence his tactical performance. The film is a fairly straight-forward police procedural, but its McQueen and an interesting plot that makes the film wonderful.
Hot-shot DA Walter Chambers (Robert Vaughn, TV’s A-TEAM) enlists Bullitt to guard a mob informant named Johnny Ross (Felice Orlandi, CATCH-22) at the beginning of the film. After Ross and a cop are shot, Bullitt makes it his mission to figure out what happened, despite Chambers threats to ruin his career. The antagonism between Bullitt and Chambers is awesome. I loved the subtle way the film developed Bullitt’s relationship with his girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS). Bullitt never makes any emotional declarations, but we know that his oasis in a world of violence is her.
The action is exciting and the film’s attention to detail adds great tension. The car chase scene is actually thrilling because the cars seem like they’re on the brink of going out of control. The final scene works wonderfully as a metaphor of what a cop must do with his work and personal life. This is just one helluva action flick.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
