BULLITT - DVD review

"Mr. Cool." "The King of Cool." "The Coolest Man in Hollywood."

In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).

By 1970 he was the biggest star in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit.

The early 1970's saw more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."

Then, by the end of the decade, he all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.

He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.

For me, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.

The movie "Bullitt" is controlled, composed, laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special but the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. The main character, McQueen's Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force. The setting is San Francisco, cool and laid back.

In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political objectives.

Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.

Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.

Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. McQueen's "Bullitt" is no Eastwood "Dirty Harry," Willis "Die Hard," or Gibson "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with some small degree of realism.

In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. It lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you're acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.

Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" were among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. For fun, count the hubcaps that fly off the Charger and compare that with how many are still left on the car. Incidentally, the entire sequence was done for real, with no speeded-up footage; and McQueen did most of his own driving.

OK, so why if I like this film so much am I not giving it a 10/10? Well, I have to admit that beyond McQueen's definitive antihero, the superb location shots, and the great car chase, the rest is rather humdrum. The plot is more than a bit convoluted and needs a second viewing to get the details straight; the dialogue is probably too terse to be as entertaining as it could be; the Bullitt character is reasonably complex, but beyond him the other folks are rather clichéd; and the narrative may be a tad too reserved, too sterile, to satisfy every taste.

Still and all, "Bullitt" holds up as one of the best of its breed. Credit not only McQueen but director Peter Yates, producer Philip D'Antoni, and screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner for turning Robert L. Pike's novel "Mute Witness" into a movie classic. Its ultracool hero; its dispassionate, semidocumentary style; its jazz-inflected musical score; and its mother-of-all modern car chases make it the archetypal forerunner of almost everything else we've gotten in the cops-and-robbers genre for the past four decades. It's hard to argue with success.

Video:
Because of its popularity, "Bullitt" was among Warner Bros.' first DVD releases back in 1997, a bare-bones affair, so it was about time the studio provided a more up-to-date transfer and a few bonus features. The first transfer looked a little peaked, with colors that were anything but vivid or deep. I'm happy to say that this Special Edition has rectified that weakness nicely with a new, high-bit rate, digital transfer.

The higher bit rate has helped to improve the picture's colors, especially, which are no longer quite so pale as they once were. Hues are now deeper and darker, even too dark at times. Definition is also improved, with less blur, although the image remains more than a tad murky in the most shadowy scenes. Nevertheless, it's probably as good as the original print and current technology will allow.

Audio:
The sound is, as before, reproduced via Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. I was hoping WB might spruce it up by giving it a full 5.1 treatment, but anything in the rear channels (and that would be almost nothing) is left up to your audio system's own surround processing. Worse, the front-channel spread is still so narrow, it more closely resembles monaural than true stereo. And there is some small, occasional background noise intruding on the soundtrack. I honestly couldn't tell any difference between this Special Edition's audio and the old edition's. I think they're identical.

Extras:
Disc one of this two-disc set contains the feature picture and several bonus items. First and most important is a new audio commentary with director Peter Yates. He is a perfect English gentleman and an elegant speaker who is quite informative and very entertaining. Without trying to be amusing or overly chatty, Yates is charming and fun to listen to. In addition, there is a widescreen theatrical trailer; twenty-three scene selections (but no chapter insert); English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Disc two, naturally, contains the bulk of the special features. First and foremost are two newly made documentaries: "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool" and "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing." There is also a brief, ten-minute vintage promo, "Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality," which held little interest for me.

"The Essence of Cool," eighty-six minutes long, was produced in 2005 and is divided into twenty-two chapters. It covers McQueen's life from his early TV days through his death, with comments from practically everybody who ever knew him. Among those interviewed are actors Alec Baldwin, Robert Culp, Don Gordon, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach, Suzanne Pleshette, Richard Attenborough, Martin Landau, and LaVar Burton; plus directors Lawrence Kasdan, Norman Jewison, Peter Yates, and Robert Relyea; wife Neile Adams, publicist David Foster, stunt driver Bud Ekins, stunt double Loren Janes, photographer William Claxton, and film critic Charles Champlin. It's a fascinating study of a fascinating man, a fellow not always likable and not always easy to get along with. The documentary is honest enough to show us all sides of the actor.

The second documentary, "The Cutting Edge," is a tribute to film editors and explains the importance of film editing. It's ninety-nine minutes long, made in 2004, and divided into twenty chapters. Narrated by Kathy Bates, the documentary includes commentary from just about everyone in the movie business from Martin Scorsese to Walter Murch to Quentin Tarantino to Steven Spielberg. I couldn't help thinking as I was watching it that if you weren't in this thing, it could have been considered a slight. In any case, editing is an important subject that most viewers take for granted; but, as this documentary points out, it makes or breaks a film.

Parting Thoughts:
You think of "Bullitt," you think Steve McQueen and cars, no? But obviously it's much more than that, although McQueen and the car are essentially the same character. Both are cool yet ready to move at a moment's notice; reserved yet lethal; and models of efficiency. If there is any one of his many movie roles that best exemplifies the McQueen persona, it would have to be this one.

"Bullitt" may be purchased separately or in "The Essential Steve McQueen Collection," a six-disc WB box set that also includes "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Getaway," "Never So Few," "Papillon," and "Tom Horn." However, it is only "Bullitt" that gets the two-disc, special-edition treatment.