Somewhere inside the overlong, 114-minute Bullitt there is a brisk 90-minute long film desperate to get out. But as it is, it's seriously overlong with nothing to sustain it. Many pointless scenes come and go with loads of long, indulgent tracking shots goose-up the running time. I almost nodded-off a few times, I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about regarding this film.
The paper-thin story has Detective Bullitt trying to determine how a Mob informant in Police custody managed to be killed (he's not actually killed until about an hour later though). A local politician (Robery Vaughn, who didn't really want to do the film) acts as the token bureaucrat, standing in the way of getting things done. But getting WHAT done exactly? In 114 minutes almost NOTHING happens in this damn movie! Instead of mystery, clues, police procedure, shoot-outs and problem-solving we're treated to scene after scene of...not much. Bullitt eats food at the hospital, he goes shopping for celery and TV dinners, he hangs around with his girlfriend (a completely pointless character played by Jaqueline Bissett) and sometimes takes a passing interest in the case. About 80-minutes into this bore he is FINALLY involved in a car chase (THE car chase that everyone raves about) that 'tears up' the streets of San Francisco.
I don't understand why this film has so much adoration or why all the fans proclaim it's 'the original and best', 'the one that started it all' or any other generic soundbite you can think of. There were cop movies before this, there were car chases before this. What exactly is Bullitt credited with 'starting'?
A sense of being cool, calm and collected doesn't turn water into wine. Bullitt is plain, repetitive, agonizingly slow and almost completely without a plot. Don't consider me a philistine or someone who has been brainwashed by the over-edited nature of modern films where we're guaranteed and explosion every five minutes. I appreciate films from all eras and from all backgrounds. But Bullitt is just way, way overrated certainly does not deserve the high regard it's been lauded with. A real disappointment.
The paper-thin story has Detective Bullitt trying to determine how a Mob informant in Police custody managed to be killed (he's not actually killed until about an hour later though). A local politician (Robery Vaughn, who didn't really want to do the film) acts as the token bureaucrat, standing in the way of getting things done. But getting WHAT done exactly? In 114 minutes almost NOTHING happens in this damn movie! Instead of mystery, clues, police procedure, shoot-outs and problem-solving we're treated to scene after scene of...not much. Bullitt eats food at the hospital, he goes shopping for celery and TV dinners, he hangs around with his girlfriend (a completely pointless character played by Jaqueline Bissett) and sometimes takes a passing interest in the case. About 80-minutes into this bore he is FINALLY involved in a car chase (THE car chase that everyone raves about) that 'tears up' the streets of San Francisco.
I don't understand why this film has so much adoration or why all the fans proclaim it's 'the original and best', 'the one that started it all' or any other generic soundbite you can think of. There were cop movies before this, there were car chases before this. What exactly is Bullitt credited with 'starting'?
A sense of being cool, calm and collected doesn't turn water into wine. Bullitt is plain, repetitive, agonizingly slow and almost completely without a plot. Don't consider me a philistine or someone who has been brainwashed by the over-edited nature of modern films where we're guaranteed and explosion every five minutes. I appreciate films from all eras and from all backgrounds. But Bullitt is just way, way overrated certainly does not deserve the high regard it's been lauded with. A real disappointment.