If there is any one of his many movie roles that best exemplifies the McQueen persona, it would have to be this one.
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"Mr. Cool." "The King of Cool." "The Coolest Man in Hollywood."
In 1960 Steve McQueen burst onto the screen in full-fledged stardom with "The Magnificent Seven," after having labored for several previous years in things like the campy, low-budget horror classic "The Blob" (1958), the popular television series "Wanted Dead or Alive" (1958), and the Frank Sinatra vehicle "Never So Few" (1959).
By 1970 he was the biggest star in Tinseltown, with "The Great Escape," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Sand Pebbles," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Bullitt" to his credit.
The early 1970's saw more successes: "Le Mans," "Junior Bonner," "The Getaway," "Papillon," and "The Towering Inferno."
Then, by the end of the decade, he all but disappeared from the screen, dying of lung cancer on November 7, 1980. His last two films, "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter," are barely remembered by anyone but his most-dedicated fans.
He was accused of fast driving and fast living, hard fighting and hard drinking. He was accused of being generous by some people yet tightfisted by others. He was accused of being homophobic by his detractors while accused of being homosexual by many of the same faultfinders. He was accused of having affairs with most of Hollywood's leading ladies. And he converted to Christianity shortly before he died. He was, to say the least, a man of contradictions.
For me, his 1968 movie "Bullitt" best sums up his life, his image, and his work. These days, the movie is probably best known for its celebrated car chase, and younger viewers who have never seen the movie may assume it is a typical high-energy action thriller. But with that one exception, the movie is the complete opposite of today's ultra fast-paced, quick-edited adventures. "Bullitt" is the epitome of cool.
The movie "Bullitt" is controlled, composed, laid-back, fashioned by director Peter Yates in a semidocumentary style. It's a police procedural with the icy coolness of a History Channel special but the white-hot intensity of a grand-prix racing event. The main character, McQueen's Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, is outwardly unruffled, almost detached; yet he's inwardly agitated, tightly wound. He's a loner with a girlfriend; a detective who goes by the book yet breaks every rule in it; a man who hates his work but does it better than any cop on the force. The setting is San Francisco, cool and laid back.
In the story, Lt. Bullitt has been assigned the task of protecting a witness against the Mob until the witness can testify in a few days. He's the star witness in a case that ambitious local District Attorney Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) thinks is going to further his career. Chalmers isn't so concerned with crime prevention as he is with building his reputation as a crime fighter. This witness is very important to him and his political objectives.
Bullitt puts the witness up in a seedy hotel, a place he feels is both secure and well hidden. But the witness is murdered in spite of Bullitt's best precautions, gunned down by two professional hit men right out of Hemingway's "The Killers," complete with shotguns. But how could this happen? How could anyone have known where Bullitt hid the witness? The slimy D.A. wants Bullitt's head on a platter, and Bullitt wants the assassins.
Meanwhile, Bullitt is so aloof he has trouble relating to the people around him. His partner (Don Gordon) doesn't understand him; his captain (Simon Oakland) doesn't understand him; not even his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset) understands him. There may be some question as to whether Bullitt really understands himself.
Now, here's the thing. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect the Bullitt character to be a superhero or the movie to be a slam-bang action adventure. He's not, and it's not. McQueen's "Bullitt" is no Eastwood "Dirty Harry," Willis "Die Hard," or Gibson "Lethal Weapon." The action in "Bullitt" may be exaggerated and at times melodramatic, but for the most part the movie, like its main character, keeps its cool, maintains its restraint, and attempts to put its plot over with some small degree of realism.
In fact, one of the highlights of "Bullitt" is that it was filmed almost entirely on location, both indoors and outdoors, in and around San Francisco. It lends the movie a note of authenticity sorely needed by most later police action films. If you're acquainted with the City, you'll recognize North Beach, Enrico's Coffee House, City Hall, the Hall of Justice, Pacific Heights, the Embarcadero freeway, a number of downtown streets, the waterfront, the Marina Green, the S.F. International Airport, and dozens of other familiar sights. You'll also find it amusing that Bullitt may turn a corner in one place and a second later emerge from the other side of the corner many miles away. It's the magic of movie editing, and it's especially evident during the car-chase scene. "Bullitt" is more of a character study than an action movie, with the famous car chase acting like the centerpiece dance number in a big musical; and it's choreographed as well as any dance scene, too.
Yes, the chase scene. Of course, "Bullitt" did not invent the car chase. We've had car chases since the silent days of the Keystone Kops. But "Bullitt" did reinvent the car chase. It is so exciting, so thrilling, so fast-paced that virtually every action movie since has copied "Bullitt" and included an obligatory chase scene. Movies like "The French Connection," the original "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Ronin" were among the most successful, but no matter how sophisticated today's special effects get, it's hard to beat the chase in "Bullitt." Such a great sequence; I was mesmerized by it all over again. And I'll bet it sold more Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers than any film on record; certainly more than any commercial could have sold. For fun, count the hubcaps that fly off the Charger and compare that with how many are still left on the car. Incidentally, the entire sequence was done for real, with no speeded-up footage; and McQueen did most of his own driving.
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