Bullitt (1968)

Second viewing; first was between 1983 and 1986.

A San Francisco police detective is assigned the protection of a mafioso who is about to testify in a Senate subcommittee.

Although it seems blasphemous to deny it the 'classic' status, for it has several commendable virtues, chief among them the perfect filming technique and an ingenious plot, it has some script shortcomings which weigh disfavorably on my assessment. First, a scene which is perfectly self-parodic, and has become (that is, if it were not already) a cliché among cop movies: a cop's girl somehow blames the cop for being 'contaminated' with the violence he has to witness in his job; in Bullitt, this behavior is so perfectly unjustified, and done in such earnestness too, that it becomes anthological in its absurdity. Another point which I took issue with, and more problematic, since it seems to pervade the whole movie and ideologize it, is the characterization of a politician as the incarnation of evil; again, it is an established cliché in movies, but here, unless there is some element which escaped me, there is absolutely no grounds for such an exaggerated position. From what I gather, the film equals a disagreeable person (and, sure, prone to resorting to exchange of favors for persuasion) to a dishonest, unprincipled one.

Rating: 58 (up from 48)