Based on the novel “Mute Witness” by Robert L. Pike, Bullitt is a precursor to just about every tough-guy, overly violent, rogue, vigilante cop, from Dirty Harry to Popeye Doyle. Remembered chiefly for a realistic car chase through the San Francisco bay area, the film is actually more of an examination of a hard-boiled man dehumanized by his submersion into the sewers of crime and violence than an adventure flick. The action is sparse and the organization of events is procedural, but Steve McQueen handles the title character with care, making sure that he’s believable without completely living up to the unnaturally macho insinuations of the name.

When Johnny Ross turns state’s evidence to rat on the Chicago crime “organization,” it becomes a babysitting job for Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen), personally requested by politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) who’s looking for praise before local elections. When Ross is attacked by professionals while being holed up in a hotel, Frank is asked to play it by the book. But getting the job done is slightly more important – and he really isn’t the man to play by other’s rules. He’s the kind of guy who eats frozen TV dinners, hangs with worrisome eye candy Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), steals newspapers and hangs up on phone calls from police captains. Oddly enough, we don’t really find out too much about Bullitt (including his manly last name) until the main premise is well under way.

Public crucifixion means nothing to Frank, especially compared to the task of outsmarting another attempt on Ross’ life. And protecting the witness forces the chase to commence. It’s brooding and observational as the plot progresses, leaning away from suspense and action. It’s also a little bit bloody. During every action sequence the music completely stops in favor of sound effects and gritty realism, leaving the jazzy music by Lalo Schifrin to merely compliment the quieter moments. The infamous and lengthy car chase scene itself is very cleverly edited; a high-speed pursuit in which the hunter becomes the hunted, complete with tire-squealing, rubber-burning, a behind-the-wheel viewpoint, frequently airborne vehicles, engine-revving, metal-crunching, and heavy destruction.

Very minor characters are given screentime and dialogue unnecessarily, including doctors and nurses with routine hospital lingo and family members, and Jacqueline Bisset gets a painfully generic speech on Frank’s increasing callousness due to interacting with the harsh nature of his career. Resultantly, Bullitt is slow-moving more often than it should be and the hitman efficiency is questionable, but the story is intriguing, the character study is brilliant, the editing and camerawork is wildly innovative (the film won an Oscar for Best Film Editing) and McQueen perfects the renegade cop template.

- Mike Massie

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