Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5545 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.co.uk Review
San Francisco has been the setting of many exciting movie car chases over the years but the one in Bullitt is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the city's steep hills. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing but the rest of the movie is pretty good too. This 1968 police thriller is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in a major trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Video Description
Special Features

Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailer Featurette: "Steve McQueen's Commitment To Reality"
Language in Dolby Surround Stereo: English
Subtitles: English/Arabic/English for the hearing impaired

Customer Reviews

the complete chase?
As much as Bullitt is one of the greats, a question must be asked. Is the car chase complete or the edited version from the last VHS restoration?
Answers on a postcard...

Decent car chase stuck in a (now) rather dull film
Made in 1967-8, this Frisco-set movie somehow manages to miss entirely the Haight Ashbury 'Summer of Love'. (There is some pleasant jazz in a cafe scene, but it's certainly not Jefferson Airplane.)

Even measured in today's money, I suspect the typical episode of '24' has more money lavished on it than this film. The film climaxes, as such, with a chase around San Francisco aiport at night, but there's no tension, and frankly I'd given up caring. The plot is fragile -- why do the hitmen assume it just takes one gunshot to the shoulder to finish off their man, then hang around outside the scene of the crime and follow the ambulance to the hospital to finish him off again?

McQueen is good, Bisset is gorgeous, and San Francisco's curious flat-and-hilly road system never looked more precarious. The Saturday morning kid's programme 'Tiswas' used to show the car chase sometimess -- I think they pretty well condensed the movie down to its essence!

Not impressed!
Somewhere inside the overlong, 114-minute Bullitt there is a brisk 90-minute long film desperate to get out. But as it is, it's seriously overlong with nothing to sustain it. Many pointless scenes come and go with loads of long, indulgent tracking shots goose-up the running time. I almost nodded-off a few times, I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about regarding this film.

The paper-thin story has Detective Bullitt trying to determine how a Mob informant in Police custody managed to be killed (he's not actually killed until about an hour later though). A local politician (Robery Vaughn, who didn't really want to do the film) acts as the token bureaucrat, standing in the way of getting things done. But getting WHAT done exactly? In 114 minutes almost NOTHING happens in this damn movie! Instead of mystery, clues, police procedure, shoot-outs and problem-solving we're treated to scene after scene of...not much. Bullitt eats food at the hospital, he goes shopping for celery and TV dinners, he hangs around with his girlfriend (a completely pointless character played by Jaqueline Bissett) and sometimes takes a passing interest in the case. About 80-minutes into this bore he is FINALLY involved in a car chase (THE car chase that everyone raves about) that 'tears up' the streets of San Francisco.

I don't understand why this film has so much adoration or why all the fans proclaim it's 'the original and best', 'the one that started it all' or any other generic soundbite you can think of. There were cop movies before this, there were car chases before this. What exactly is Bullitt credited with 'starting'?

A sense of being cool, calm and collected doesn't turn water into wine. Bullitt is plain, repetitive, agonizingly slow and almost completely without a plot. Don't consider me a philistine or someone who has been brainwashed by the over-edited nature of modern films where we're guaranteed and explosion every five minutes. I appreciate films from all eras and from all backgrounds. But Bullitt is just way, way overrated certainly does not deserve the high regard it's been lauded with. A real disappointment.

Aside from a few reeaally grainy shots, the HD DVD features a fine 1.85:1 1080p transfer with Dolby Digital Plus Mono sound. A fair amount of extras too.