Bullitt

The sun-scorched streets of San Francisco, its legendary cascading streets, and the legendary 7-minute car chase that many call one of the best in cinema history? Especially with movie legend Steve McQueen, who was famous for never letting a stuntman stand in for him, behind the wheel? Yeah, give it to me! And I will ignore the fact that this old-school crime drama has almost nothing else to offer. It has McQueen, an appealing 60's atmosphere, stylish jazz music, and that’s enough to satisfy me. (16/05/2008)

A great crime movie that I like for being so “silent". I don’t know another mainstream movie that is this silent. You get whole blocks of silence, even in the scene when the sensitive girl looks at the brutally killed dead body. You don’t hear the usual “Don’t look!" line. And it’s the same with everything, from the car chases through problems with his boss, romance, simply everything has a silent aura around it, and when there is some talking, it isn’t needless jabbering. Add to that the excellent McQueen and the gripping, although completely un-ground-breaking plot. (06/03/2005)

Old honest filmmaking of the 60s when film stars managed without getting paid millions of dollars and imitations of Japanese martial arts, just as car chases managed without digital special effects, all without detracting from the quality of the result. This classic detective story relies on the performances of Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn, but even the actors in the supporting roles are not bad. The high-quality economical dialogues, tension, and carefully built atmosphere are unfortunately somewhat devalued by the unfinished script where the actions are subordinate to the needs of the future plot (a very important witness in a mafia trial guarded by a single policeman, hitmen referred to as professionals only injuring the victim with a single shot and leaving without confirming if they succeeded, and so on). Overall impression: 80%. (10/07/2006)

The excellent car chase unfortunately leaves the entire film behind, and not even the interesting first half with a specific atmosphere of 60s crime dramas, or the likeable cast can help it. I simply expected more from a film with such a reputation, although it probably owes that fame mainly because to the chase... (26/02/2012)