# Just saw Bullitt **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 4, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032 "2023-08-04T01:26:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/1 "2023-08-04T01:26:00Z")
What the hell was that??? I thought I was going to be seeing a 70’s action-cop thriller like Dirty Harry. “See Bullitt log evidence!” “Hot telecopier action!” “See a plane embark and pull back into the station…IN REAL TIME!!!” I mean…it was fine but definitely a lot slower then I thought it would be given its claim to fame is the car chase. McQueen: _"The thing we tried to achieve was not to do a theatrical film, but a film about reality._ Well that was definitely the feeling, that I was watching an ep of The First 48…except with all the procedural stuff left in. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/2 "2023-08-04T02:11:11Z")
That car is cool tho’ ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/3 "2023-08-04T02:18:32Z")
Yup. The car chase and the final part of the airport scene. Tons of recognizable actors who all have about one page of dialogue combined Norman Fell Robert Duvall Jacqueline Bissett George Stanford Brown Vic Tayback I dont mention Vaughn and Oakland cause they had a decent amount of dialogue ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/4 "2023-08-04T02:40:57Z")
It would be different if you hadn’t seen all the movies that copied the style. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/5 "2023-08-04T02:42:39Z")
I used to work with a guy whose idea of the perfect movie was 2 hours of nothing but car chases. He would have loved this. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/6 "2023-08-04T03:06:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/7 "2023-08-04T03:53:23Z")
I also thought Bullitt was way less action-packed than I anticipated. Even the car chase struck me as “good”, not “great”. Maybe I’d enjoy it more on a second viewing, now that my expectations are calibrated to a suitably low level. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/8 "2023-08-04T04:27:58Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/9 "2023-08-04T04:44:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I used to work with a guy whose idea of the perfect movie was 2 hours of nothing but car chases. Has he seen the original _Gone in 60 Seconds_? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/10 "2023-08-05T21:40:40Z")
Other threads on this subject have noted that the car chase doesn’t make much geographical sense to those who recognise the locations. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/11 "2023-08-05T21:43:28Z")
Including my wife, who lived in SF for 25 years. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/12 "2023-08-05T21:51:46Z")
I’ve watched the Bullitt car chase numerous times, and while it’s memorable, I have to agree that the rest of the movie isn’t all that interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Digger11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Digger11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digger11)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/13 "2023-08-05T21:59:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/14 "2023-08-06T00:19:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/15 "2023-08-06T02:56:00Z")
Yeah its is!!! So here’s a huge sweeping generality: 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. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/16 "2023-08-06T03:19:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-bullitt/988032/17 "2023-08-06T03:38:04Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he has LOL. Watching real car chases on You Tube may very well be one of his modern-day hobbies.