562K views 2 years ago #SteveMcQueen #CarChase #60s A visual and verbal breakdown of the famous car chase to the 1968 American crime thriller starring Steve McQueen Bullitt. Naturally, it won that year's Academy Award for Best Editing". Copyright 2023 Silent Cal Productions, LLC. Directed by Peter Yates, the film stars detective Frank Bullitt played by Steve McQueen who did most of his own stunt driving in the iconic car chase featuring a Ford Mustang 390 GT and Dodge. Here we collect the 33 best car chases ever put in movies, and rank them all. [73][74], Theatrical release poster by Michel Landi. Mapping the movie route shows that it is not continuous and is impossible to follow in real time. So, fortunately everything worked out., Generally everyone seemed to agree that the chase went smoothly, although filming went a little bit slow, Bud Ekins recalls. I thought Id post one. We're going to, ahem, bite the bullet, by naming it the best movie car chase of all time. He said the cops were watching the action and werent watching the traffic and this motorcycle guy slipped through, and got into the scene and ended up in the picture. I said, you really think thats what happened? The extra said, I know, I saw it, I was there. And I said thats the way its supposed to look, because it wasnt supposed to look like a stunt. Ron Riner comments on the scene, I didnt know about the stunt and I was supposed to get the information!, There were THREE cars racing wildly through the streets of San Francisco, making car chase history, although only two are seen in the movie. In the emergency room operation scene, real doctors and nurses were used as the supporting cast. Visit the building of Blade Runner before stopping at Hogwarts and finally landing in Jurassic Parkin the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago. Im not going to cite a particular favorite, but this topic provides an opportunity to rant on how terrible most car chases have gotten since the advent of computer graphics. I always felt a motor racing sequence in the street, a chase in the street, could be very exciting because you have the reality objects to work with, like bouncing off a parked car. (KTLA) The chase ended in the 1000 block of Hacienda Boulevard . [59] In 2009, Bud Brutsman of Overhaulin' built an authentic-looking replica of the Bullitt Mustang, fully loaded with modern components, for the five-episode 2009 TV series, Celebrity Rides: Hollywood's Speeding Bullitt, hosted by Chad McQueen, son of Steve McQueen. Bullitt is famous for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, which is regarded as one of the most influential in film history. Also set in San Francisco: Whats up, Doc. The car chase scene in the 1968 American action-thriller film Bullitt is considered one of the best and most exciting in cinematic history. In addition, the two-CD set features the official soundtrack album, newly mixed from the 1" master tape. Hence, I appreciate the original Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) because they used only a single Mustang throughout the movie (though they had to do some significant patching after a stunt driver missed a mark and the Mustang hit a lamp post it wasnt supposed to). I let him go ahead and tell it. Over the years, fans have asked questions about the two cars used in the movie, a 1968 Dodge Charger and a 1968 Mustang GT. Well, I said, hes sitting right here. Well, if were just going to ignore the rules entirely : That was good. When city officials were first approached about shooting in the streets of San Francisco, they balked at the proposed high speeds and the idea of filming part of the chase on the Golden Gate Bridge. Peter and Paul Church are visible just to the right of Coit Tower. Im with Hartmann on this one. Ive always had good luck with Fords, and didnt want to spend money if i didnt have to putting a Holley on. Two Mustangs and two Dodge Chargers were used for the famous chase scene. Find the whole story and 99 others in the book Cult! Enregistrez mon nom, mon adresse lectronique et mon site web dans les cookies de ce navigateur pour la prochaine fois que je ferai un commentaire. He had a motorcycle collection. The race begins in Bernal Heights and continues through Columbus and Chesnut before heading uptown. My wife owns a 65 Mustang that has been in her family since the day it left the showroom (her uncle bought it, later gave it to her grandmother, who gave it to her father, who gave it to her). Longer, faster and more action packed than anything before it, the 10-minute car chase scenefeaturing McQueen as Lt. Frank Bullitt chasing a black Dodge Charger while behind the wheel of this 1968 Ford Mustang GTwas the first to use cameras in a way that put the audience right inside the cars and alongside the actors. The owner refused to sell, and the car now sits in a barn and has not been driven in many years. In the next cut, they are coming downhill, north towards the Bay. In 2000, the original arrangements as heard in the movie were recreated by Schifrin in a recording session with the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, and released on the Aleph label. and if you can run a car real hard up and down that hill its working pretty good., The day before the chase scenes were to be filmed, we went up to Santa Rosa and rented the track,said Balchowsky. At 1am Sunday, while Stanton is phoning Bullitt to say Chalmers and a friend want to come up, Ross unchains the room door. In a magazine article many years later, one of the drivers involved in the chase sequence remarked that the Charger - with a larger engine (big-block 440 cu. Le stockage ou laccs technique est strictement ncessaire dans la finalit dintrt lgitime de permettre lutilisation dun service spcifique explicitement demand par labonn ou lutilisateur, ou dans le seul but deffectuer la transmission dune communication sur un rseau de communications lectroniques. The chase sequence takes place over a number of non-contiguous streets in and south of San Francisco. [39] In 2011, Time listed it among the 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time, describing it as "the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list", and saying "Bullitt's car chase is a reminder that every great such scene is a triumph of editing as much as it is stunt work. And Im doing some personal goal-post setting and trying to avoid the recent generation of films in the computer-graphics era (e.g., Fast and Furious, Gone in 60 seconds etc.). Car chase scene in Bullitt - Credit: Solar and Warner Bros. Pictures 893 Filbert St Address 893 Filbert St San Francisco, CA 94133, USA Popular with locals and tourists alike for many years, the city's steep streets gained international fame thanks to Bullitt. -, "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Katharine Jacqueline Stars on No. We set out to learn what the recipe is for such a successful chase sequence. Im a fan of winter car chase from The Living Daylights. In the ensuing decades, the car was assumed to be lost. Carey Loftin says, the extras were a big help. 2020 Fantrippers SAS. Since Bullitt is an action/crime movie, a car chase will be a key part of the film. [26][27][28][29], Two 1968 390 cu. A true feat that is still cited today as an example by filmmakers around the world. In 2016, though, Hugo Sanchez purchased a pair of Mustang coups from the backyard of a house near Los Cabos, Mexico. You will receive an email with a link to set a new password. April 20, 2011 / CitySleuth. A F-type street car is seen coming the opposite direction. Id rather have his girlfriend with or without the car. It begins under Highway 101 in the city's Mission District, as Bullitt spots the hitmen's car. Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. They were real good., Because some of the stunts were so well orchestrated, they did not look like stunts at all. I had suggested using a Mustang, and a Dodge Charger, or else there would be too may Fords in the picture. (Look up Odessa steps baby carriage if youve never heard of it). My biased opinion is that the Bullitt chase is the best. Equally deserving of attention is the Dodge Charger R/T that was chasing the Mustang. Car chases were once shot on a backlot, slowed down and then sped up on film afterward. Those cold blue eyes! "[14] In his obituary for Peter Yates, Bruce Weber wrote, "Mr. Yates' reputation probably rests most securely on Bullitt (1968), his first American film and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic. You can undercrank the camera so you can control everything in the scene. At the time, Keller was credited with cutting the piece in such a superb manner that he made the city of San Francisco a "character" in the film. It was rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1906. Of all the musclecars offered in the late sixties, why I was bangin into Bill. Yeah, that was a good one! Sanchez and Garcia are now in the process of giving the car a full restoration. Steve McQueens cool never goes away. Before the filming could be done, the Charger and the Mustang required preparation. The cars were modified for the high-speed chase by veteran auto racer Max Balchowsky. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner was based on the 1963 novel, Mute Witness, by Robert L. Fish, writing under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike. My favorite car from the movie is the Porsche 356 owned by his girlfriend. Chad McQueen and niece Molly McQueen (son and granddaughter of Steve), will be executive producers. Carey said they were gonna do a lot of jumping with it, and he said it had to be strong. Tex929rr(View Comment): You would rehearse it once- its got to be choreographed- then you would rehearse it again, and if it looked good, they shot it. It was successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards, winning Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). Said Ron Riner, Pat Houstis was excellent and he was in his prime at the time. Carey Loftin has nothing but praise for Mr. Houstis and an amusing recollection. St. Martin's Press. The BULLITT chase scenes were shot around Easter of 1968. Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. It is not cars but I always like this chase scene from Terminator 2. Loren Janes tells us, I loved to see a lot of the little things in Steves films. They scared the hell out of him. Those cold blue eyes! The chase in The Dead Pool is my second favorite. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day. I thought wed mix up the cars. The two 1968, four-speed Mustang GT fastbacks were purchased primarily because, promotionally, they were the best deal at the time. In 2000, the Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh. McQueen, at the time a world-class race-car driver, drove in the close-up scenes, while stunt coordinator Carey Loftin, stuntman and motorcycle racer Bud Ekins, and McQueen's usual stunt driver, Loren Janes, drove for the high-speed parts of the chase and performed other dangerous stunts. They accelerate down Marina with the Marina Green and the Bay visible in the background. Multiple takes were spliced into a single end product resulting in discontinuity: heavy damage on the passenger side of Bullitt's car can be seen much earlier than the incident producing it, and the Charger appears to lose five wheel covers, with different ones missing in different shots. It starts around 47:00. Sure, Bullitt wins for a straight car chase but for a comic car chase,Blues Brothersrules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz81ZO0qfvI. McQueen and Hickman were both tickled with the cars. Motorcycle Classics magazine reported the sale, observing the McQueen effect still obtains, meaning it went for 2 or 3 times the money it would have if he had not owned it once. The authentication revealed this to be the lost Bullitt car. You rehearsed at about 1/4 speed or 1/2 speed, then you went in to film it at full speed., For the in-car scenes, two cameras were mounted in the cars and painted black. Exactly! In the next scene the Dodge is going north, rounding Laguna onto Marina, having leaped six blocks. It never gets old watching that 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 and 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 race pell-mell through the streets of San Francisco. Shooting from multiple angles simultaneously and creating a montage from the footage to give the illusion of different streets also resulted in the speeding cars passing the same vehicles at several different times, including, as widely noted, a green Volkswagen Beetle. [31] The sale made it the most expensive Ford in the world. [30] The Mustangs' engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase by veteran car racer and technician Max Balchowsky. Steve liked the sound of the car and he wanted mags. These cars had the sequential vehicle identification numbers 8R02S125558 and 8R02S125559. He then sent the cars to Ralph Garcia to start work on turning one into a clone of the Eleanor Mustang from the movie, Gone in 60 Seconds. The black Dodge Charger was driven by veteran stunt driver Bill Hickman, who played one of the hitmen and helped with the chase scene choreography. [18], Bullitt was director Yates's first American film. As director Peter Yates prepared to begin filming the chase scenes, there were four drivers, McQueen, Bud Ekins, Bill Hickman, and in a few scenes, Carey Loftin. The Dodge, which was practically stock, just left the Mustang like you wouldnt believe. Ron Riner has similar recollections. It ends outside the city, at the Brisbane exit of the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway on San Bruno Mountain. We wanted some shots of the Mustang really burning the corners. McQueen gave the group a visual cameo appearance in the movie, "Bullitt," which was being filmed in San Francisco in April." Here's its amazing story. Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) and his trusty 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback were definitely the stars of that scene. As with the Mustang, all parts were fluxed. Initially the car chase was supposed to be scored, but Lalo Schifrin suggested that no music be added to that sequence, pointing out that the soundtrack was powerful enough as it was. With reviews like that, and sharing double billing with the hit BONNIE AND CLYDE, BULLITT devastated audiences with incredible scenes of leaping, screaming automobiles that seemed to fly off the screen. Im with Hartmann on this one. The Ford Mustang name has been closely associated with the film. .this was an obvious send-up of Bullett. He was hired after McQueen saw his 1967 UK feature Robbery, with its extended car chase. I cant really argue with Bullitt. That full scene (a little over ten minutes in length) is below. The story begins with Bullitt assigned to a seemingly routine detail, protecting mafia informant Johnny Ross (Pat Renella), who is scheduled to testify against his Mob cronies before a Senate subcommittee in San Francisco. The detectives are told he is in a cheap hotel on Embarcadero. All suspension parts were magnafluxed and replaced where nescessary. Le stockage ou laccs technique qui est utilis exclusivement dans des finalits statistiques anonymes. On Oct. 17, 1968, Steve McQueen roared into theaters with Bullitt, a car-chase-filled actioner that nabbed two Oscar nominations at the 41st Academy Awards. They turn from Laguna St., in front of Ft. Mason, onto Marina and in front of the Safeway. He did a real good job on it. You sent us to guard the wrong man, Bullitt tells Chalmers. and greater horsepower (375 versus 325) - was so much faster than the Mustang that the drivers had to keep backing off the accelerator to prevent the Charger from pulling away from the Mustang. [34] Ekins, who doubled for McQueen in The Great Escape sequence where McQueen's character jumps over a barbed-wire fence on a motorcycle, performs a lowsider crash stunt in front of a skidding truck during the Bullitt chase. [36] Paul Monaco has written, "The most compelling street footage of 1968, however, appeared in an entirely contrived sequence, with nary a hint of documentary feel about it the car chase through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt, created from footage shot over nearly five weeks. They turn west and the next few scenes are inter-cut, reused footage of the same street sequence, as shown by repeated presence of the same Cadillac and a Green Volkswagen Beetle. movies! Feel free to put your two cents in on either your favorite car chase scene(s) or what you consider the best car chase scene from the movies. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score. There were car chase scenes in the movies long before Bullitt (lots of em), and there have been even more car chase scenes in the movies since Bullitt. As far as Bud Ekins can recall, he feels the reason they used the Mustang was because they wanted it to look like a cop car. [64], Steve McQueen's likeness as Frank Bullitt was used in two Ford commercials. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score, arranged for brass and percussion. I should note that when I started to put this post together it took a while to find the complete scene (at least in a form that could be pasted here on Ricochet), which was a little surprising. However, Ross (now using Renick's passport) has switched to an earlier London flight. For the rear end, Balchowsky told us, I got some special rear springs, what you call a high spring rate, a flat without any arch in it, and using that spring the car would stay low. McQueens car in the movie has an interesting history as well. Eventually, it was agreed to keep the chase within only a few city blocks. Exactly! Due to the length of this part of the movie and the endless action in it, these . Released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box-office success, later winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Best Sound. The film was made by McQueen's Solar Productions company, with his partner Robert Relyea as executive producer. Do you know the definition of an alcoholic? At San Francisco International Airport, Delgetti and Bullitt watch the Rome gate. He also said the Dodge Chargers had to be purchased without promotional consideration, but after the success of the movie and the increase in Charger sales, Chrysler was more than willing to be generous with their vehicles to Warner Brothers for future projects. The other less banged-up Mustang was purchased by a WB employee after all production and post-production was completed. Bullitt is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni.The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. To extend the length of the chase the cars are shown driving East then West and back and forth with each cut while supposedly heading only one way before the Charger crashes at the Parkways Eastern exit in Brisbane. [41] This release also includes re-recordings of the 1968 soundtrack album arrangements for some tracks. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. There were THREE cars racing wildly through the streets of San Francisco, making car chase history, although only two are seen in the movie. It is located not far from the Saints Peter and Paul Church, a Roman style religious building, whose foundations date from 1884. So I was a little hesitant. An audience digs sitting there watching somebody do something that Im sure almost all of them would like to do.. Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin got Bud Ekins to drive the Mustang for the bulk of the stunts. Wed put the hubcaps back on, but I suppose it probably would have been better if we had left them off., Ill tell you this, said Max Balchowsky, I was really impressed with the Mustang after I got done with it. According to Adler, "the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet to Camus. The driver of the Charger is Bill Hickman, maybe the most famous stunt driver of all time, he also played important roles in the chase scenes in The French Connection and The Seven-Ups, among many others. in. Of all the musclecars offered in the late sixties, why were these two cars chosen, and how were they modified to survive the torturous driving? Mr. Riner posed an interesting premise: did you realize that there wouldnt be an 01 car (the General Lee in Dukes of Hazzard) if we hadnt done BULLITT and Dodge hadnt sold so many Chargers?. Frank Bullitts car is a 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT 2+2 Fastback. If we are going for purity, this one stunt at the end of the chase scene from the James Bond movie,The Man with the Golden Gun has my vote. Both the Mustang and Charger in Bullitt were heavily worked on. The chase in Bullit doesnt have a baby carriage in it, now does it? According to Ron Riner, Mr. Genge, who played a very realistic tough guy, seemed like he had hardly ever seen a gun before. I thought it was terrific when the guy whips the shotgun out and the way the special effects fellow devised how those pebbles cracked the windshield and it made it so realistic like he really shot the windshield. McQueen, an accomplished race car driver, blocked out the chase scenes himself. For example, additional sound was needed because on occasion a tire squeal was not picked up by the microphones. [citation needed], McQueen based the character of Frank Bullitt on San Francisco Inspector Dave Toschi, with whom he worked prior to filming. Together, car and driver were the epitome of old . in. It was WILD reckless driving, but it was planned and coordinated. You beat me to it. Fine, Loftin replied. They turn hard left next onto a four-lane street with a concrete median, what might be Columbus. The next morning SFPD detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt and his team, Delgetti and Stanton, are tasked by US Senator Walter Chalmers with guarding Ross over the weekend, until he can be presented as a witness to a Senate subcommittee hearing on organized crime on Monday morning. When the time came to start shooting, the production managed to obtain the approval of the San Francisco City Council. Steve McQueen and director Peter Yates brought in some of the best names in the business in preparation for the filming of BULLITTs chase scenes, and we were able to track some of them down. On Sunday, Chalmers stops Captain Sam Bennett outside the family church and served him with a writ of habeas corpus for Ross. There may have been chase scenes before, but nothing before or since has equalled the intensity and impact of BULLITT. But the movie's other star was its 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback. This was his personal car and he wasnt a rich guy, he didnt have a real nice car. You might have opened up the movie section of the newspaper and read a review about the newly released movie BULLITT. It then explodes into an all-out high speed frenzy, accompanied only by the snarl . In 2020, one of the fastbacks was sold at Mecum Auctions for a record price of $3.7 million. The latter are sometimes as exciting as the feature films themselves. What does hold up is a good slow moving story for solid entertainment. A production manager would have cut your throat if you wanted to do something like that. The brief prologue is set in Chicago with the briefest establishing shot of the Chicago Sun Times Building and the Marina City Towers - though the action itself was, like the rest of the movie, filmed in San Francisco.. Detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) has to track down a . [31], The director called for maximum speeds of about 7580 miles per hour (121129km/h), but the cars (including the chase cars filming) at times reached speeds over 110 miles per hour (180km/h). Yes, they use tricks to make cars do things that are not physically possible, it is mostly quick cuts that I find annoying, and there are continuity problems (damage seen at one moment is not there in a subsequent scene), but the innovations the filmmakers developed to allow a camera to film the star in the car during the chase made the sequence very exciting. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films.
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