Last night I returned from dinner. AP was in the TV room. His children were asleep. I poked my head into the room to say hello. AP motioned for me to sit down.
“BULLITT. It just started.”
I needed no further encouragement.
No man had been cooler than Steve McQueen in 1968 and I joined AP on the couch. We put our feet up on the settee.
We were two men in paradise.
Widescreen TV.
A puff of marijuana.
Within seconds the terse movie directed by Peter Yates transported us to San Francisco of 1967. This was not the City of Love. Bullitt dealt with hard-nosed cops and killer crooks. He drove a muscle car and hung out with hip people, not hippies.
A young Jacqueline Bisset was Bullitt’s girlfriend.
Cathy: “What will happen to us in time?”
Bullitt: “Time starts now.”
Steve McQueen was always cool.
There were no special effects or gun ballets in his movies.
Just a stunning car chase with a “Highland Green” 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 CID Fastback versus a “Tuxedo Black” 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum at speeds up to 110 on the streets of San Francisco plus a great bike laydown by the legendary motorcycle racer Bud Ekins.
BULLITT won Academy Award for Film Editing.
Last evening I sat through this film without looking at the time. I doubted young people could do the same. Maybe, but what does an old man know about the young other than what they tell him.
I was 16 in 1968.
We all wanted to be McQueen.
And lay in bed with Jacqueline Bisset.
To see the car chase go to this URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy5oyr4DRZ0