The New Bullitt? (1 Viewer)

[Mike Kelly]

For me Bullitt was one of the quintessential films of the late sixties. Known mostly for its groundbreaking car chase sequence, it was much more than that. It laid the foundation for the grittier cop films that would come - The French Connection, Dirty Harry, etc. Steve McQueen was the essence of 'cool' - taking on the establishment (Vaughn), beautiful girl in his bed (Bissett). I personally think it was his best work.

The rumor mill has it that Brad Pitt is considering taking on the role of Frank Bullitt for a modern day version. While I would expect much better results than Stallone trying to fill Caine's shoes in Get Carter, I'm still leery.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Mike,
I consider Bullitt one of McQueen's best, but I always thought his best acting performance was in "The Sand Pebbles".

As far as a remake, I think Brad Pitt could do that role, but our acceptance of that film to the original will depend greatly on the writing as well as the casting of the other characters.





Crawdaddy

 

[Francois Caron]

Will it include a green Volkswagon in every car chase shot?

 

[Dan Rudolph]

If Brad Pitt is in it, I'm on board.

 

[Nelson Au]

I saw this news story the other day too.

Well, the guys at the Mustang magazines might be excited by this, and I own a classic one too. Ford has been building a special edition Mustang badged as the Bullitt edition with specific components and holographic name plate in the engine compartment to prevent fakes from being made. So the car is no problem if they chose to use another Mustang. The streets of San Francisco are still there. They could end up going the "Gone in 60 Seconds" route and build special 1968 Mustangs for the movie.

But for me, Bullitt is Steve MacQueen. And today's screen writers and directors treat us as 14 year olds who think we can't sit still unless they rapidly cut scenes and show lots of explosions or make it like a video game. It might be okay if it's done with quality people in charge, and another actor other then Brad Pitt. But I think this one will fail, and I'm a huge fan of the original Bullitt.

Nelson

 

[Alex Spindler]

Brad doesn't go wrong often, so that is encouraging. But, Bullitt is more than a car chase. It was a gritty police drama as well.

Of couse, the new Bullitt Mustang (saw one in KC two days ago), would have a hell of a time doing the SF chase given their ground clearance.

 

[Nelson Au]

Right Alex! That's why I don't think Bullitt can be remade, it could devolve and focus on the car chase aspects as Gone in 60 Seconds did. Granted, that was a car chase movie. But Bullitt is more remembered for the car chase.

After I saw this movie several times, I began to really appreciate the methodology Frank goes through to investigate the case and resolve it. I doubt that a studio will allow for such an old fashioned way to move through a plot. It could become a music video to appeal to the young audiences. It can be a successful modern take on it, but I doubt it will have the weight of the original, the anti hero aspect and those kinds of qualities. It could be fun to see Robert Vaughn in it.

Regarding the car chase, I live down the road from parts of the route. I've driven it in my old and new Mustangs for fun and I think the new Mustang can handle it, unless you refer to the times when the car lands from the jumps. I'm sure they'd take care of that!