I know! It's been ages since I've had a movie posted! Well, during Christmas time, I watch a lot more of the holiday classics, so no new ones to post about :) But, back to Netflix, though, and this time it's Bullitt.
Plot: As summarized on IMDB, "an all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection." (Yes, it IS more than "the movie with that car chase"!) In a little more detail, Frank Bullitt is a San Francisco police lieutenant who is assigned by an ambitious politician to guard an important witness testifying against an organized crime organization. When the witness is killed and one of his men seriously wounded, Bullitt become determined to find some answers about the attack.
I actually didn't like it. I just didn't care about any of the characters. I realize that Bullitt is supposed to be a gritty, hardworking, bull-dogish sort of detective, but he is so tight lipped that I had a hard time relating to him or the case he was working on. I realize that if you're trying to have a more cerebral hero, he's probably going to be a bit quieter, but when you can't care about your title character, that's not a good thing.
Not that McQueen did a bad job with it though. I actually do like him in taciturn roles, like in The Great Escape. He did a good job with facial expressions and quiet attitudes. I think some of it was the writing that never really pulled me into the characters - he's just a little too quiet. For example, the conversation Bullitt has with his girlfriend after she sees the dead body and him on his job... it just felt out of place, somehow. I guess up til that point in the movie, the biggest talker in the movie was Chalmers, so having some deep discussion between Bullitt and his girlfriend just struck me funny. I guess I never really felt the connection between the lovers either. Both are good actors (and Jacqueline Bisset is still one of the most beautiful actresses ever) but I just never felt any chemistry.
Robert Vaugh, as the politician Chalmers, was classic, though. Very irritating, very pushy, but not overstated in a "this guys is obviously crooked" stereotyped villain sort of way (you know, what you would get in a movie now). He was just an ambitious, pushy politician used to getting his way running up against a case which was not going his way.
Thinking of characters though, be sure to see Robert Duvall in a relatively small role as a taxi driver! Not his big screen debut (as that was obviously To Kill A Mockingbird) but still several years before M*A*S*H and The Godfather.
There were a lot of technical things I really liked, too. The editing was great - actually earned an Oscar for that work! A lot of the camera work was really well done, a very pretty film to watch. I really liked the end scene, too, as he washes his face after coming home. The first time I really felt how tired and overworked and drained Bullitt was in this job.
The movie is very quiet. There is little background music, no sweeping soundtrack. I kinda liked it. I don't like glaring soundtracks in my suspense films, I think.
The car chase was interesting. It wasn't as loud as a car chase would be in a modern movie - the whole movie, like I mentioned, is actually was very quiet. And the chase was nearly 10 minutes of bouncing and speeding through the streets of San Francisco, so a lot of technical camera and stunt work was involved (though it is a pretty classic example of a continuity error - how the hubcap goes flying off on one turn, then is still present around the next). It was one of those moments where you see the original compared to modern movies, and you have to try and keep it in context - no CGI editing of the chase, but actually driven through the city. Makes it seem that much more impressive.
Not that McQueen did a bad job with it though. I actually do like him in taciturn roles, like in The Great Escape. He did a good job with facial expressions and quiet attitudes. I think some of it was the writing that never really pulled me into the characters - he's just a little too quiet. For example, the conversation Bullitt has with his girlfriend after she sees the dead body and him on his job... it just felt out of place, somehow. I guess up til that point in the movie, the biggest talker in the movie was Chalmers, so having some deep discussion between Bullitt and his girlfriend just struck me funny. I guess I never really felt the connection between the lovers either. Both are good actors (and Jacqueline Bisset is still one of the most beautiful actresses ever) but I just never felt any chemistry.
Robert Vaugh, as the politician Chalmers, was classic, though. Very irritating, very pushy, but not overstated in a "this guys is obviously crooked" stereotyped villain sort of way (you know, what you would get in a movie now). He was just an ambitious, pushy politician used to getting his way running up against a case which was not going his way.
Thinking of characters though, be sure to see Robert Duvall in a relatively small role as a taxi driver! Not his big screen debut (as that was obviously To Kill A Mockingbird) but still several years before M*A*S*H and The Godfather.
There were a lot of technical things I really liked, too. The editing was great - actually earned an Oscar for that work! A lot of the camera work was really well done, a very pretty film to watch. I really liked the end scene, too, as he washes his face after coming home. The first time I really felt how tired and overworked and drained Bullitt was in this job.
The movie is very quiet. There is little background music, no sweeping soundtrack. I kinda liked it. I don't like glaring soundtracks in my suspense films, I think.
The car chase was interesting. It wasn't as loud as a car chase would be in a modern movie - the whole movie, like I mentioned, is actually was very quiet. And the chase was nearly 10 minutes of bouncing and speeding through the streets of San Francisco, so a lot of technical camera and stunt work was involved (though it is a pretty classic example of a continuity error - how the hubcap goes flying off on one turn, then is still present around the next). It was one of those moments where you see the original compared to modern movies, and you have to try and keep it in context - no CGI editing of the chase, but actually driven through the city. Makes it seem that much more impressive.
I know I'm an action movie buff, but there are a lot of dramas and such that I like, and a lot of action movies I don't, so it's not because it was a "classic, cerebral, not flashy and loud" sort of action movie that I didn't like it. I don't mind if a movie is quiet if it's well done - I love M for example (and heck, that's quiet and in German!). And there are plenty of anti-hero movies and down-trodden-cops-against-the-system movies on my shelf. I love Dirty Harry, and Bullitt is one that's supposed to be in the same genre. I think that it was simply the characters that I didn't like here. Oh well...
Overall: 3 of 5. Beautiful editing, some strong performances, and of course that car chase. But, really didn't draw me in. Neither the suspense of the case nor the characters ever really clicked with me. One of those movie to watch to understand all the references in other movies, but not one for my shelf.
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