BULLITT & THE ESSENCE OF COOL!

This year, we begin the "Festival" with an intense movie that began filming in February, 1968--not in Los Angeles, but San Francisco. Director Lawrence Kasdan stated that there isn't a serious acting student who hasn't watched Bulitt time and time again to absorb the sheer intensity of McQueen's street smarts and physical theatrical attributes that he infused into the character of plainclothes police detective Lt. Frank Bullitt. McQueen's facial expressions literally displaced paragraphs of dialogue written by Screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner. The examples are numerous. Watch the scene in the hospital between a politician with grand ambitions (played by Robert Vaughn) and again at the San Francisco International Airport. The latter scene is notable for the tense "cat and mouse" dialogue where Vaughn as Walter Chalmers attempts to pressure Bullitt into compromising his principles. McQueen made cinema history when he uttered the word "bullshit!" through gritted teeth--a "first" in motion pictures. Another excellent example of McQueen's instincts and acting talent comes in a scene where he revisits a seedy motel room where a murder was committed. Using his eyes and facial expressions as he quietly ponders how a mafia hit took place, McQueen completely improvised the scene to perfection. Even his body movements climbing in and out of the 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback before the infamous car chase sequence is studied closely by actors today. This was the authentic McQueen.

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It is impossible not to mention, of course, the most famous car chase in cinema history that saved a convoluted script that few people remembered after they left the theater. Filmed over a two-week period over a 22-block area of San Francisco, stunt coordinator Carey Lofton enlisted McQueen and stunt man Bud Ekins (who handled the daring motorcycle jump in 1963's "The Great Escape") to drive the Ford Mustang at dangerous speeds over airborne hill jumps on Taylor Street heading north (downhill). Ekins was pursuing veteran stunt driver Bill Hickman, who drove the black 1968 Dodge Charger. Director Peter Yates (making his United States premiere) had recently wrapped a car chase scene in the crime film Robbery (which was screened by the Bullitt cast) and credits producer Phil D'Antoni's commitment to include the chase. The car chase has never been duplicated in over 41 years, despite numerous attempts to copy it.

Between McQueen, Lofton and Ekins each man handled roughly a third of the driving required of the scene. Bud Ekins handled the most dangerous jump scenes at a 6 AM call (McQueen was deliberately given a 10 AM call but showed up in time to see Ekins finish), while stunt coordinator Carey Loftin handled other key scenes. McQueen was constrained by insurance company regulations. Nevertheless, it should be noted that it is actually McQueen who is driving the Mustang at the beginning of the chase and over the first airborne hill jump, followed by two right-hand turns. Two mistakes were left in this scene. The first occurred when Hickman's front left tire grabbed more traction that he anticipated at the beginning of the chase scene. Instead of glancing off a parked 1956 Ford Victoria as the script required, Hickman's Dodge Charger slams into the car and obliterates an unattended tripod camera on the nearby sidewalk. There is little doubt that if a camera operator had been on hand, they would have been killed by the impact. This is visible on the Special Feature Disc "Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality". Despite magafluxing the suspensions of both cars by veteran race car builder Max Balchowsky, the Mustang and Charger suffered an under steering problem during suburban street scenes where tight cornering was required. McQueen overshoots the same turn Hickman has braved, locks up the brakes, sticks his head outside the open car door window and does a "reverse-burn out" with the Mustang before resuming the chase after the Charger. This scene was left in the film and also marks the suspension of filming with McQueen replaced behind the wheel with stunt man Bud Ekins. However, Steve does handle the risky dirt and gravel spin-out that is preceded by Ekins' most dangerous stunt---laying down a BSA motorcycle in front of McQueen's car on the Guadelupe Canyon Parkway. According to author Marshall Terrill, McQueen recalled: "When he told us he was going to do this stunt, I really didn't want him to do it. 'You're liable to get kissed off, and your wife will never forgive me', I told him. But he was stubborn, convinced he could do it okay, so we let him go ahead. Man, I'll tell you, I never saw anything as scary as having him throw down that BSA in front of us. He must have slid at least seventy-five feet along the blacktop. I just twisted the Mustang side-ways to miss him, spun twice and slapped the bank--which wasn't in the script!" For you motor heads out there like me, the double-clutching (redundant with today's more sophisticated transmissions) at speeds of up to 114 miles on the Canyon Highway flats was all performed by McQueen. In an amusing, if not tense moment, Director Peter Yates was filming close-ups of McQueen inside the Mustang when he suddenly tapped Steve on the shoulder and said "I believe we're out of film". McQueen replied, "That's nothing. We're out of brakes!" At that point, McQueen struggled with multiple down-shifting, coupled with weaving the Ford wildly side to side to slow the car down. Relief was at hand when McQueen turned up a hill and the car was brought to a stop with both men laughing hysterically afterwards. McQueen is again behind the wheel side-slamming the Ford Mustang mercilessly into Hickman's Dodge Charger parallel along the Guadelupe Canyon Highway. For the previous two weeks, both men practiced handling the cars at the Cotati Racetrack to gain a sense of camaraderie.

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Cinematographer William Fraker had the thankless job of filming McQueen and Hickman just six feet away from their vehicles during the Guadelupe Canyon Parkway chase scene. Fraker was precariously perched on a seat mounted on a stripped down Corvette chassis that served as the camera car. Hickman's stunt driving was so precise, that the scene in which he appears to lose control of the Dodge Charger, clipping a tractor-trailer's bumper on the left side of the car while careening off the last section of guard rail on the right side of the highway was fortuitous; the drop-off at the end of the guard rail was approximately 500 feet! Interestingly, 13 years earlier, it was Hickman who was driving James Dean's station wagon towing an empty flat bed trailer behind the actor's Porche Spyder when Dean was killed in a Cholame, California collision on September 30, 1955 en route to a race the next day in Salinas. Hickman attempted to pull Dean from the wreckage when the actor died in Hickman's arms. HIckman later said he was traumatized for days after Deans death. For roughly 25 years, Hickman earned a living as a stunt driver for movies including Walt Disney's "Love Bug", doubling for Gene Hackman in "The French Connection" and opposite Roy Scheider in "The Seven-Ups". The latter two films were also produced by Phil D'Antoni.

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The cast for Bullitt included then 21 year-old British actress Jacqueline Bissett as "Cathy", Bullitt's girlfriend, long time McQueen friend and co-star Don Gordon as Detective Delgetti, Simon Oakland is cast as Bullitt's Police Captain, Robert Vaughn is the slimy politician, Chalmers and Norman Fell is Captain Baker. Both McQueen and Gordon were taken on ride-alongs at night with San Francisco Police officers to prepare them for their roles. McQueen experienced a riot and an intense track down of the killer of a young Hispanic woman. Gordon was on-hand for an actual drug bust. In the film, McQueen and Gordon completely improvised the scene at police headquarters where they broke open two travel trunks. Director Yates ensured that the duo not know what the trunks contained. Filming concluded in May, 1968 with post-production completed for the October 17, 1968 premiere at New York's Radio City Music Hall. McQueen's fated second wife, Ali MacGraw was in attendance.

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Variety hailed the film as "an extremely well-made crime melodrama, highlighted by one of the most exciting auto chase sequences in years". Infused with a gritty realism together with McQueen's natural instincts for bringing the character of Lt. Frank Bullitt to life, this film has action, drama, tension and the hard-bitten realism of a cool cop who had a thankless job to do and reluctantly carried out his responsibilities. Many of the films co-stars including Robert Duvall and Jacqueline Bissett went on to achieve major leading actor/actress status throughout the next 30 years. For McQueen, the over-the top success of the film for Warner Brothers and his Solar Productions secured his status as a Hollywood superstar. It also marked the last time McQueen would ever play a cop.

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The film is based on the Robert L. Fish novel "Mute Witness" about a former mafia member who is under police protection over the weekend to ensure his scheduled testimony before a Senate Subcommittee investigating organized crime on Monday morning. It would be McQueen's last film as a cop. The Cast: Steve McQueen is Lt. Frank Bullitt; Jacqueline Bissett is Cathy; Don Gordon is Delgetti; Simon Oakland is Captain Bennett; Norman Fell is Captain Baker; Bill Hickman is Phil; Georg Stanford Brown is Dr. Willard. Winner: 1969 Academy Award for "Best Film Editing": Frank P. Keller.

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I deliberately chose Bullitt to begin the Festival with plenty of adrenaline, but also to capture Steve at his zenith for those under the age of 40 who might not be familiar with his work. This film helped defined "The King of Cool".

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DOCUMENTARY NOTE: In 2005, Turner Classic Movies premiered the excellent documentary: "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool" which is included in the Bullitt DVD package. It is highly recommended by this author that you view this special edition DVD featuring recollections of McQueen's life and work from Neile Adams, Robert Culp, Alec Baldwin, Don Gordon, Robert Relyea, Chad McQueen, Hilly Elkins, Bud Ekins, Pat Johnson, Loren Janes, Suzanne Pleshette, Katherine Haber, Martin Landau, Eli Wallach, Lawrence Kasdan, Robert Vaughn, Norman Jewison and Barbara McQueen. This is admittedly a high-octane way to jump-start the 4th Annual Steve McQueen Film Festival. But I felt this year's approach required a bold beginning for audiences to capture the true essence of what became the legend we now know and appreciate as Steve McQueen.