SummaryAn all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.
Directed By:Peter Yates
Written By:Alan Trustman, Harold Clements, Robert L. Fish
Bullitt
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
81
User score
Generally Favorable
7.0
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
90% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
10% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
One of the cinema’s very best car-chase sequences – set amid the hilly, windy San Francisco streets – caps this quintessential Steve McQueen policier.
100
It is simply one of the most exciting and intelligent action films in years, probably the best good-cop film we can expect to encounter.
User score
Generally Favorable
75% Positive
38 Ratings
38 Ratings
18% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
8% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Jan 17, 2020
9
If you looked up cool in a dictionary, it should read Steve McQueen in this movie, he simply ozzes the stuff. I don't know why I like him, but he simply offers up a look, a quiet reserve that makes this movie. It's not about the car chase, or the scenry, it is the click of the shoes, the look of the hospital, the complexity of the story, the beuaty of his girlfriend and him protecting her, his ally Dalgetty. But most of all it is about Steve, the looks, the fashion, the fact he knows it, the good cop, the car, the San Fran. A masterpiece in cop movies.
Sep 23, 2024
6
A super, super stylish slab of police detective action starring Steve McQueen, right at the height of his status as the coolest man in all of Hollywood. It certainly looks great. Bullitt's picture quality and directorial choices are astounding for a fifty-year-old film, with a heavy, lasting influence on modern action cornerstones. An ambitious opening credits sequence sets that tone early, creative and experimental and ahead of its time, while McQueen's essential wardrobe choices remain fashionable throughout. Perhaps the film's most memorable, oft-referenced legacy is its screeching, white-knuckled, climactic muscle car chase through the streets of San Francisco. That scene alone is almost worth the price of admission, a ten-minute thrill ride with tangible mass, unpolished mistakes, curved steel and grim consequences. It almost, almost, polishes over the extra-slow pace, occasional dirty stereotypes and confusing plot turns. Still an entertaining watch, but often as nothing more than a simple, vivid document of everyday life in SF during the late '60s. There's barely enough substance in the police story to fill a twenty-minute network TV crime drama.
90
A terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen—fast, well acted, written the way people talk.
80
Yates (hired on the strength of his taut British crime flick Robbery) eschews fashionable camera gimmickry and facile psychiatry, and concentrates on telling a fast-paced story of decent San Francisco cop Steve McQueen doing his job. The set-pieces (the car chase, the airport shoot-out) are famous, but the film lives on through its tone of romantic realism. [23 Jan 2000, p.10]
75
Bullitt earned its reputation for Steve McQueen’s lengthy car chase through the hills of San Francisco, and the sequence does have a gritty, low-tech authenticity. Yet there’s more to the movie than squealing wheels.
70
Peter Yates-directed cop thriller that relies on McQueen's chiseled features to hold an audience's attention through what's essentially a 45-minute TV show stretched to two hours. Aside from the famous car chase through the streets of San Francisco, Bullitt is primarily watchable for McQueen's performance as a cop breaking the rules to break a case, as well as all the '68 cinema signifiers: lens flares, soft-focus foregrounds, a jazzy Lalo Schifrin score, and vivid location shooting.
60
Steve McQueen as a tres chic San Francisco cop, though the real star is his sports car. There isn't much here, and what there is is awfully easy. With Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Robert Duvall, and a chase sequence that achieved classic status mainly by going on too long; Peter Yates directed this 1968 feature.
Aug 16, 2024
5
The car chase scene was cool, but the plot and characters were boring. It's one of those movies where you justify sitting through it because there's 10 minutes of fun in between hours of boring. If you lookup "Bullitt car chase scene" on YouTube, you'll have a better experience than watching the whole movie.
Nov 4, 2023
5
This was a fine evening film with one amazing car scene . It was interesting watching the movie because it happens in the 60s and that time is so far gone now that is interesting just seeing how technology how acting how everything is this movie feels like a time capsule just like the James Bond movie. It has a good and relaxing pace to it has some interesting stories scenes it certainly worth watching but you are mostly watching it for the one Car scene.
Aug 21, 2021
3
Outside of one impressive and gripping car chase, ‘Bullitt' is a gross case of riding on the star power of McQueen, who sadly cannot carry this picture, a picture which doesn't bother to invest in its characters. Instead, the film would much rather stare at an airplane landing and a photocopier printing someone's profile. Those are just a couple of padding scenes that take up much of the running time. The film takes the crime out of crime-drama and becomes a total slog to sit through both before and after the chase scene, which by the way, doesn't come in until past the halfway mark. Be warned as this one hasn't aged too well.
Apr 22, 2020
2
Superbe poursuite très bien faite et très bien filmée, vraiment on ne se lasse pas de la voir et la revoir ! même s'il faut accélérer fissa (pied au plancher avec la télécommande, trace, trace la route !) jusqu'au moment où elle arrive ou plutôt démarre enfin (autour d'une heure je crois, j'ai pas fait très attention). C'est un peu traître comme film, car on s'endort en effet très rapidement et si on a pas mis son réveil, on risque alors de louper la fameuse poursuite ! pourquoi ne l'ont-ils pas mise dès le début ? on aurait gagné du temps, puis on aurait au bout de 10 mn vaqué à nos occupations normales. Cela étant, en réaccélérant juste après, j'ai constaté la présence de la ravissante Jacqueline Bisset en repos du guerrier-flicard pour ce bon vieux Steve... ce dernier ne peut pas grand-chose pour redonner un semblant d'intérêt à l'un des plus mauvais polars de ces -au moins- 100 dernières années... Oui, c'est "mauvais" à ce point, ça parle, ça n'avance pas, ça reparle... Steve fait un créneau avec la Mustang et... éventuellement, il peut poursuivre iniopinément un malfrat ici pendant 30 s... puis un autre à la fin : enfin ! Et pendant ce temps euh...c'était quoi l'histoire déjà ? un témoin qui fait chier tout le monde, nous y compris ! donc j'hésite : 2 ou 3 ? 3 points pour une seule poursuite ? non, c'est exagéré : 2 points suffiront...
