I’m sort of with him but of the CGI bent. I love seeing the world destroyed by some CGI rendered disaster, it just invariably is surrounded by some execrable story telling that I cannot sit through.
It’s more of an artsy movie. If you notice, Bullitt doesn’t speak for like half the movie. Lots of meaningful looks though. His scene with his gf along the side of the freeway (“Time starts now”.) is about as deep as Frank can get.
But he sure looks cool doing it.
In a related bit, we’ve been watching The Streets of San Francisco. The first season must have used the location director and casting director from Bullitt. They used the same hotel to guard a witness in SoSF as Bullitt (with better results for the witness), the same hospital, and another episode used the same hotel clerk actor., and Joey Ross (one of them, at least) guest starred, too.
Bullitt suffers somewhat from the “Shakespeare problem” – we’re so familiar with the tropes and the ideas, that seeing the originator of them just doesn’t pack the same punch that the very first people to see it experienced.
I love the timlessness. Chalmers and Baker are such “modern” republicans. They accuse Bullitt of hiding Ross for “personal aggrandizement”, which he is not, but it IS exactly what they are doing. (What exactly do they think Bullitt could do? It’s not his hearing that Ross is testifying at.) Chalmers undermines the cops, but hypocritically has a “support your local police” bumper sticker.
To be fair, Bullitt really does, in his parlance, blow it. He should have never used that hotel, and he should have left two cops on duty. He didn’t take it seriously. Everything after, though, he did smart. I love how he embarrassed Chalmers (you sent us to guard the wrong man) and just walked away.
PS the soundtrack is pure Lalo Schifrin awesomeness.
Bullitt’s metaphorrrr…allegorryy…message whatever is so 60’s soft around the edges as to almost not make sense. “You’re living in a sewer Frank”…ok, you might have shown us rather tell. You had plenty of time, but you spent it on making us watch Frank shop and stock his fridge.
Dirty Harry’s message is so 70’s sharp as to definitely not make sense. {We’re too soft on crime. We let creeps go on technicalities}
Are you crazy Dirty Harry (The movie)?? I don’t care how many chain of evidence branches Harry tainted (And he didn’t taint some of the ones they said) There’s no way Scorpio walks after all people saw he did.
It also avoids some tropes…I thought for sure that probably Norman Fell and maybe Simon Oakland was in the mobs pocket but…nope. No twist with Ross being someone we would recognize. No twist in the end. He just goes home.