(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So my favorite coffee shop, the Raven in Prescott, has Monday night movies and so I went down to see Bullitt. I had never seen a Steve McQueen movie before, so I was curious. Growing up as a kid in the 1970s and early 80s, I watched a fair amount of BBC television on PBS, and so the only thing I knew about Steve McQueen was that the British were totally crazy about him, making frequent Steve McQueen references, often in reverant tones.
A couple of years ago, I think Ford made a commercial with old McQueen footage for their revamped Mustang. Apparently, McQueen was associated with muscle cars. Still, Steve McQueen flew in my cultural blind spot for the first 41 years of my life.
But no more!
Bullitt is hardly a great movie, but I can’t wait to see more like it. Some of the acting seems George Lucas style stilted. Except of course for McQueen, who was the Platonic ideal of American stoic tough guy. This guy can almost kill a bad guy with a cold icy silent stare. If that doesn’t work, he’ll be happy to lay a beating on you, fill you full of lead, or chase you off the road in his muscle car until your produce a mini mushroom cloud as the gas in your tank (which should have been fairly empty after that hour long high speed chase) explodes in a fiery inferno. McQueen uses his tough-guy powers to put the extra gas in your tank just to make sure you are a crispy critter for daring to think your death race skill begin to match his own.
Speaking of which, you can watch Bullitt’s famous car chase through San Fransico here. It really starts after about three minutes and thirty seconds.
Hello netflix! If you have any other Steve McQueen movies to suggest, zap me an email or leave them in the comment section.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
I thought it was a pretty good movie, considering when it was from. Also, as far as I know, I believe that is the first chase scene filmed in real time (instead of speeding up the film).
The editing is sloppy (especially during the chase scene) and the pacing is slow, but overall I liked it.
As far as old car movies go, I liked Vanishing Point better, although I’m glad I didn’t live during this time…when practically every movie seemed to want to end like Easy Rider….bla
As fate would have it, the Raven in showing Vanishing Point next Monday.
Its a hippy flick with a muscle car, I warned you!