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Bullitt
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Final Verdict: [Meh...]
Bullitt
Action Thriller / English / 1968
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
For the Action Movie Countdown.
Don't know anything about it except that Iroquois referenced it in regards to Mad Max: Fury Road.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Don't know anything about it except that Iroquois referenced it in regards to Mad Max: Fury Road.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Kissing, Milk, a bunch of Frozen Dinners.
Bullitt is the story of Frank Bullitt, an officer assigned to protect a witness whose court testimony would sink a non-specific "Organization". The witness is shortly killed in an assassination attempt, and instead of confirming whether the shotgun blast to the shoulder was lethal, the killers instead leave and return to kill him in the hospital. It's from this point forward that Bullitt attempts to lure the baddies to him with the assumption that the witness still lives while a senator breathes down his neck about how he could either help or punish the police department depending on the results.
The story is interesting, but it's mercilessly padded out with overlong shots, needless tangents, and just general repetition of the same information. If Bullitt tells one guy something, he's gotta tell the same thing to someone else.
It takes 23 minutes before any conflict actually shows up in the movie and at the 1 hour, 24 minute mark out of nowhere we're suddenly having an intimate conversation about how Frank "lives in a world of violence" and "how it doesn't make him callous".
Where the hell is this in the rest of the movie? This is no narrative payoff, this is character development after nearly 90 minutes!
It ends on an airport scene that raises such questions as:
Was there really no screening for guns in the 60s?
Why weren't you checking passports to find the bad guy when you know his name?
You know jumping out the back of a Boeing 737 would break your legs or dislocate something, right? That's no soft landing.
Closing shot is Bullitt meaningfully gazing off into the distance... as if that means something.
I'll admit I liked the 60s-70s mood music and I did find the regular shot composition involving reflections to be visually interesting, but Bullitt was incredibly [Meh]. I'm really not sure why the short car chase gets so much promotion either, car chases are generally pretty boring given it's 99% intercutting shots of two cars driving real fast and 1% hilariously fake panic zoom to explosion.
Bullitt is the story of Frank Bullitt, an officer assigned to protect a witness whose court testimony would sink a non-specific "Organization". The witness is shortly killed in an assassination attempt, and instead of confirming whether the shotgun blast to the shoulder was lethal, the killers instead leave and return to kill him in the hospital. It's from this point forward that Bullitt attempts to lure the baddies to him with the assumption that the witness still lives while a senator breathes down his neck about how he could either help or punish the police department depending on the results.
The story is interesting, but it's mercilessly padded out with overlong shots, needless tangents, and just general repetition of the same information. If Bullitt tells one guy something, he's gotta tell the same thing to someone else.
It takes 23 minutes before any conflict actually shows up in the movie and at the 1 hour, 24 minute mark out of nowhere we're suddenly having an intimate conversation about how Frank "lives in a world of violence" and "how it doesn't make him callous".
Where the hell is this in the rest of the movie? This is no narrative payoff, this is character development after nearly 90 minutes!
Was there really no screening for guns in the 60s?
Why weren't you checking passports to find the bad guy when you know his name?
You know jumping out the back of a Boeing 737 would break your legs or dislocate something, right? That's no soft landing.
Closing shot is Bullitt meaningfully gazing off into the distance... as if that means something.
I'll admit I liked the 60s-70s mood music and I did find the regular shot composition involving reflections to be visually interesting, but Bullitt was incredibly [Meh]. I'm really not sure why the short car chase gets so much promotion either, car chases are generally pretty boring given it's 99% intercutting shots of two cars driving real fast and 1% hilariously fake panic zoom to explosion.