Bullitt

This iconic movie is well known for it's car chase scene. Considered one of the , if not the best, car chase scene ever placed on film it has out shined what was a very good movie.

Steve McQueen was known as The King of Cool. The title may have changed hands in the decades since his death but he still is one of the leading contenders. When I was a young boy, still in the single digit years I had no real knowledge of who Steve McQueen was, I certainly had not seen his movies. I did know though that he made movies and he was cool. His spot in the culture was so big that somehow it drifted down to a young boy like me, perhaps from my older brother, perhaps from other sources. Steve McQueen was a cultural icon.

In this movie he plays Frank Bullitt, a San Fransisco police lieutenant given the task of protecting a mob informant the weekend before he testifies. Nothing goes as planned, the police officer protecting him is overpowered, the witness is shot and eventually dies but all is not as it seems. Frank Bullitt over the course of the movie solves the case but not before several people are dead. The movie has several actors that we came to know later. Norman Fell, who long before being Mr. Roper was a well known character actor in many films. Vic Tayback, later well known as Mel in the Alice movie and television series also appears.

I pointed out to my sons that the actor playing Senator Chalmers the ambitious politician driving the case against the witness was played by Robert Vaughn. For the current generation at least here in Maine, Robert Vaughn shills for Joe Bornstein advising us to tell our potential plaintiffs that we mean business. Most notably appearing beside McQueen is a young Robert Duvall in a small role as a cab driver who provides some information to the Lieutenant. From small parts big careers develop.

The movie is all McQueen however. His ability to express himself with a look or a stare and usually with as few words as possible was well honed by this time. His collarless shirts with a nice jacket were a style that he put in place and that was copied not just by hipsters but suburban Dads trying to be cool. McQueen's image has lasted for several reasons. He was cool. He died young so we never saw him grow old and he in the sixties, a very culturally crazy time, was one of the few entertainment icons who could appeal to both sides of the emerging divide between young and old.

The car chase is great, the movie is good, but McQueen was immense. He filled the screen. He was The King of Cool.