Bullitt - Steve McQueen in The Luminary Film of the Week

How would you like to spend an evening in the peerless company of Steve McQueen, movie star, racing legend and reformed tearaway as ' The King of Cool, in Bullitt, one of the greatest films about crime and retribution from the sixties?

"Frank, you live in a sewer," declares Jacqueline Bisset who plays McQueen's architect girlfriend. One day she accompanies her man when he is working and she walks in on a woman who has been strangled. In that moment she understands that she doesn't know the man she is in love or his work. That scene in Bullitt could be a mirror for McQueen's own life and struggles, given the deep wounds inflicted on him as a child as a result of his mother's cruelty, neglect and tragic choices in men.

Time Starts Here

Cathy asks what will happen to them as a couple, and he says, " Time starts here," which suggests he wants a different life, but will he live long enough as a policeman to get out of the line of fire?

Bullitt is Director Peter Yates Sixties Film Masterpiece

Reader, Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn is director Peter Yates atmospheric masterpiece police 1968 thriller that will linger in your imagination long after the credits have rolled. Bullit is celebrated for its realism, superb editing and the greatest cinematic car chase of all time when McQueen pursues a mob assassin through the streets of San Fransisco in a Ford Mustang GT Fastback, painted a dirty, lived-in shade of highland green. The car is like a prowling beast on wheels which suits the mood perfectly.

Bullitt and the Greatest Car Chase in Cinematic History

Look out for the moment McQueen outwits the gangsters and becomes the hunter not the prey.

Watch Bullitt late at night alone, with a class of biodynamic single malt. I can suggest Waterford's Biodynamic Cuvee Luna. Steve McQueen is the talented, rising star police lieutenant Frank Bullitt assigned to protect a witness in a mob trial, putting his life in danger in this cult classic which is the Luminary Magazine film of the week.

Watch Bullitt on ITV and then buy the DVD so you can revisit anytime you want. Look out for for mint condition DVD's in your local charity shop or support a great second hand site such as World of Books, WOB who also sell films.

McQueen portrays Frank Bullitt a police lieutenant who exudes that steely, unknowable magnetism that made him a star and drew on his own life from depression era poverty, reform school and serving in the Marine Corps to the most highly paid film star of the sixties and seventies. Bullitt and his two officers are assigned to mind a star witness in a showpiece mob trial. What unfolds over the next 48 hours is a tenacious, visceral cat and mouse game between Bullitt, the mob and Vaughn's thoroughly nasty, reptilian district attorney.

Vaughan was so convincing in the role as Walter Chalmers that he was typecast after the film came out and struggled to play different characters on screen.

Bullitt is a pertinent film to watch now to remind yourself that politics, bureaucrats and professional politicians are often in the pay of horrible vested interests that don't serve the public.

When Vaughan can't bully, bribe or coerce Bullitt, he demands that his bosses 'castrate' him. What a charming man.

There is a savage realism to Yates film that pulls the viewer along, dominated by the personality of McQueen who inhabits a horrible world, juxtaposed with elegant, sartorial style and normal interludes with his beautiful girlfriend played by the English actress and it girl of the sixties, Jacqueline Bisset.

Forensic attention to detail is what makes this film work, from the scenes in the hospital with real doctors and nurses to police protocol. To that you can add a subterranean jazz soundtrack which takes us back to the sixties culture scene from fashion to music to the disastrous invention of the ready meal!

Steve McQueen and the Ford Mustang Car Chase Scenes

A lot of mythology has swirled around the film and how much of the car chase scenes Steve McQueen did himself. The answer appears to be more than he would ever be allowed to do now as the film's star, but not quite as much as his fans would like given his passion for motor racing. The more difficult and dangerous stunt scenes were done by McQueen's friend and stunt driver, Bud Ekins, alongside fellow stunt drivers Carey Loftkin and Loren James.

Whatever jam McQueen finds himself in, he stands aloof and above it all. Style is McQueen's badge of armour. Observe him in the immaculate trench car coat, slim blue polo neck sweater or preppy, Ivy League, elegant brown tweed jacket with notched lapels and leather patches and laconic shades.

The contrast between Frank's police work and his elegant persona is startling.

McQueen's Bullitt wardrobe was designed by Theodora Van Runkle and the tailor Doug Taylor and the inspiration came straight from McQueen's own life and how he liked to dress. His style is classical. It's all about sharp, clean lines and minimal detail. He is influenced by his passions, motor racing and motorcycling and by his time in the forces.

Steve McQueen used fashion to assert his star power and success beyond inherited privilege and class.

Like Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen's persona on and off screen has created a remarkable impact on the way men view style and that influence continues to exert a powerful effect on menswear more than fifty years on. The internet and Etsy is brimming with opportunities to flaunt McQueen's image on a Bullitt t-shirt or you can buy an infinite variety of casual footwear inspired by his beloved chukka boots.

Observe that Frank never wears a tie, a subtle act of rebellion.

Reader, this is one of the films that nurtured by love of film, thrillers, style and fast cars. Peter Yates has created a timeless and sophisticated, classic gangster film. Bullitt works because Steve McQueen's is so damn cool you could freeze ice on the holster of his Cult Diamondback. 38 revolver and to that you can add in all the detail from the legendary location scenes on the streets of San Francisco to the authentic portrayal of police procedures and hospital protocol.

Everything about this film revolves around Steve McQueen and the way he inhabits 'the sewer' of dangerous police work without showing signs of stress, fear or emotion. His performance is one for the ages.

Watch Bullitt

Buy the DVD. Try World of Books or HMV in the UK.

Get The Look

Steve McQueen Style

For an elegant trench car coat, look at Burberry. The long gaberdine car coat is perfect. N Peal is the slow fashion house for an organic cashmere polo neck sweater and Johnston's of Elgin for the authentic brown tweed jacket. Persol still make the 714 pilot style, aviator sunglasses that Steve McQueen adopted on an off screen with a special blue tint.

Jacqueline Bisset Sixties Style

Saloni and Rixo have dresses that match the sixties silhouette. Vintage shops and Oxfam Online are other really good places for original sixties fashion treasures including a cute princess coat. Lelet NY is wonderful for alluring hair accessories from headbands to oversized bows.

Copyright Alison Jane Reid/The Luminaries Magazine October 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Become a support of The Luminaries Magazine and pay to read slow independent journalism that delight and informs you. Support The Luminaries Magazine.

Or pay for this magazine story and send AJ a Journalism Tip.