Movies - Bullitt

	Movies - Bullitt

Bullitt is a 1968 Warner Bros. action crime/mystery/thriller motion picture starring Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset, with Don Gordon, Robert Duvall, Carl Reindel, Felice Orlandi, Vic Tayback, Pat Renella, Paul Genge, Bill Hickman, Norman Fell, and Brandy Carroll.

The director was Peter Yates. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the novel titled Mute Witness (1963) by Robert L. Fish (aka Robert L. Pike). Lalo Schifrin wrote the original music score, a memorable mix of jazz, brass and percussion.

The movie won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller); and was nominated for Best Sound.

Bullitt is most-remembered for its central car chase scene through the streets of downtown San Francisco, one of the earliest and most influential car chase sequences in movies. The scene had Bullitt in a dark highland green 1968 Ford Mustang GT-390, chasing two hit-men in a black Dodge Charger. In 2001, Ford unveiled a limited edition Ford Mustang GT performance-enhanced "Bullitt" and took styling cues from the '68 movie car and even mimicked the legendary sound. The movie as a whole, including the car chase, makes extensive use of the San Francisco Bay Area. However, San Francisco's most famous landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge, was not a part of the chase scene because the city's film commission refused to allow the filmakers to close down the bridge and film there.

Plot

An ambitious politician, Walter Chalmers (played by Vaughn), is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on Organized Crime in America and has a key witness that he hopes will further his national aspirations as he brings down a powerful Mafia syndicate.

The witness scheduled to testify, Johnny Ross, worked with his brother, Chicago mobster Pete Ross (played by Tayback). Johnny stole $2,000,000 dollars from his Mafia cronies and two attempts were made on his life before he left for San Francisco. Chalmers has the Police Department place Johnny Ross (played by Orlandi) in protective custody and requests that the unit headed by Detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (played by McQueen) be assigned to guard him.

Bullitt and his men, Detectives Delgetti (played by Gordon) and Stanton (played by Reindel), will take turns giving Ross around the clock protection at an undisclosed cheap hotel near an overhead freeway. Before Ross enters the hotel, he makes several phone calls. Later, while Stanton is guarding him, the desk clerk calls and says Chalmers and a friend are there and want to come to the room. Stanton calls and tells Bullitt, who tells him no, that Chalmers would not be there at one in the morning. In the meantime, Ross walks over to the door and unlocks it. A pair of hit-men, Mike (played by Genge) and Phil (played by Hickman), then burst into the room and Mike shoots Detective Stanton. He then turns and shoots Ross.

Stanton and Ross are both in the hospital. Bullitt wants to get to the bottom of the case and catch who shot them, as well as the Mafia boss who ordered the hit. Chalmers is angered and blames Bullitt, threatening to ruin his career if Ross dies. He is not interested in the injured policeman or the hit-men, only in the hearings that will launch his national political career, and wants to shut down Bullitt's investigation.

Stanton survives his wounds, but Ross dies during surgery. Bullitt suppresses the news and keeps the death secret, having the doctor misplace the chart and the body placed in the morgue as an unidentified John Doe. He then investigates the phone calls Ross made. He finds that one was to a hotel in San Mateo; to a woman registered under the name Dorothy Simmons.

With the hearing the next day, Bullitt begins to realize that this dead mobster may not be who he seems. The gunman, Mike, then appears at the hospital to finish Ross off, but gets away. The scene is set for the legendary and exciting high-speed car chase through San Francisco, with the other thug, Phil, driving.

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Movies - Bullitt

Plot

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