Tarantino recommends: This action chase masterpiece

While many moviegoers have seen Bullitt and remember his famous car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, few remember the movie in detail. But luckily, that was before Tarantino talked about it in his book. Movie speculations !

Bullitt begins by introducing us to gangster Johnny Ross, the key witness who could bring down Peter Ross, his brother and Chicago organized crime boss. The politician then requests that San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt provide security for the robber until he is questioned over the weekend. Ross is set up as a security guard at a sleazy motel, but Peter isn’t about to “rob” John…

Quentin Tarantino is a true fan of the film, which he happily sums up as follows:

Bullitt is action, atmosphere, San Francisco, Yates’s great location shots, Lalo Shiffrin’s jazzy soundtrack, and Steve McQueen’s haircut and wardrobe. Everything else is insignificant.

Yates nominates Peter Yates, director of Bullitt, to whom we owe the excellent Murphy’s War a few years later. It fills the film with a realistic and believable atmosphere that gives Steve McQueen all the legitimacy for his almost mute character.

The actor and his stunt driver Bud Eakins will do all the car stunts that made the film famous and which, thanks to the talents of Yates and his editor Frank Keller, introduced a new way of shooting car chases in cinema. The long chase sequence redefined genre codes and influenced all of modern cinema.

In his book, Tarantino is full of praise for the film, concluding:

“Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt keeps going, Yates as director follows suit, we the audience just sit back and let them play for us. This is one of the best movies ever. Pure cinema ever made.”

Bullitt was a public success, grossing $42.3 million on an estimated budget of $4 million. Adjusted for inflation, if it were released today, it would have pulled in 369.6 million, which is more than Guardians of the Galaxy 3!