Bullitt: Special Edition (1968)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Peter Yates (Director) Featurette-Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment To Reality Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Steve McQueen: The Essence Of Cool Featurette-The Cutting Edge: The Magic Of Movie Editing
Rating
Year Of Production	1968
Running Time	109:02 (Case: 108)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Peter Yates
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Steve McQueen Robert Vaughn Jacqueline Bisset Don Gordon Robert Duvall Simon Oakland Norman Fell Georg Stanford Brown Justin Tarr Carl Reindel Felice Orlandi Vic Tayback Robert Lipton
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Lalo Schifrin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Arabic Bulgarian Dutch Romanian English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bullitt is one of those movies that has become a victim of its own fame. Best known for its central car chase, which is justifiably known as one of the best ever committed to film, there is a tendency for the chase sequence to eclipse the film as a whole. Yet Bullitt is far more than just a car chase. This is a carefully crafted movie and the action scenes are only a part, albeit a very memorable part, of an enjoyable movie. Granted, the script would not win any awards - Robert Vaughan actually declined his role a number of times as he felt the script was poor - and the basic plot reads like one of the many rogue cop movies made over the years, but Bullitt is a movie where the total is greater than the sum of its parts.

    What Bullitt has in abundance is atmosphere. British director Peter Yates did not shoot any part in a studio - it was all filmed on location. Hospital scenes were filmed in a hospital, morgue scenes in a morgue, the run-down hotel room was an actual run-down hotel room, and so on. This stretched the film technology of the day to the limit as lighting was difficult in such cramped conditions, but it gave the movie a gritty, often dark, documentary feel. Similarly, the economical script adds to the realism. The characters perform their tasks without explanatory dialogue, as real professionals do, and the audience is left feeling like they are watching actual events. Instead of words, Bullitt often uses body language and movement to convey what is happening, often saying more in the silences than in the dialogue. The relationship between Lt. Bullitt (Steve McQueen) and his girlfriend (Jacqueline Bissett), for example, is told without words. You watch them over dinner looking in through a restaurant window, and although you hear no dialogue, you still discover a lot about the nature of their relationship. This is very clever staging and consummate acting from McQueen, who never wastes a movement on screen.

    Realism was paramount when making Bullitt. The car chase was staged at actual speeds, with no undercranking of the camera, and there was certainly no CGI in 1968. When the script required extras, actual professionals were used rather than actors. If a nurse was needed, a real nurse was employed; when a doctor was needed, a real doctor used. This added an authenticity to the action as the crew filmed these people going about the jobs they do every day.

    In many ways Bullitt is clearly a Hollywood movie - the locations, action and the cast place it firmly in America; but the location shooting, mood and lack of explanatory dialogue give the movie a very European feel. Peter Yates has blended these well to produce a movie that is outside the normal Hollywood style, but not so far out that it would alienate the American viewing public.

    Bullitt won the 1969 Academy Award for editing, and it is easy to see why. Not one frame of the movie is wasted. Everything has an importance to the movie. If you don't watch this film closely you'll miss vital details and that's what makes it more than just another cop movie with a car chase. If you're a student of movie making, Bullitt should be on your must see list.

    And, of course, there is the car chase...

    Originally released to DVD in 1998, this is a two disc Special Edition with some added extras and what looks like a new transfer. MichealD's review of the original release can be found here.

Video

    Although there is no mention of remastering on the slick, the transfer on this special edition is different from the original release. The original transfer had somewhat muted colours and  a flat, soft appearance. This transfer has richer colour and increased contrast which makes the image appear sharper, but some shadow detail has been lost. While the new transfer is better overall, I tend to prefer the old transfer for some of the darker scenes due to the slightly better shadow detail.

    The new transfer attempts to make the most of the limitations of the original film. In an era where fast film and fast lenses just didn't exist, director of photography William Fraker pushed the boundaries of the film by working with available light for much of the movie. With this in mind it would be unfair to expect quality up to today's standards, but I did feel that this new edition had the colour a little over-saturated at times and that detracted from what is otherwise a fine transfer given the age of the source.

    There is some slight graininess, again expected in a film from the 1960s, but no other film artefacts were noticed.

    The cover says that this is a full screen 1.33:1 presentation, but it is, in fact, 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio is 1.85:1, so the image has been cropped slightly to provide a full screen image on widescreen TVs. Not as bad as a pan and scan chop, but still an unnecessary violation of the original.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Sound is Dolby Digital 2.0. Stereo separation is used well for both the music and effects, such as during the car chase, but is limited at other times.

    Audio is generally clear and quite good for an older movie, but there is an audible amount of hiss at various times. The worst examples occur around the 70 minute mark when Bullitt is being dressed down by his bosses in the police station office. Hiss drops in and out between cuts, being very obvious during close ups of the captain, and then disappearing when cut to a close up of McQueen, only to reappear when cutting back to the captain. This became irritating very quickly and lasted the entire scene.

    Audio sync was good throughout.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is animated with background music. On startup a country/language menu is shown, and when Australia is selected a propaganda piece about the evils of movie piracy is shown prior to the menu. Fortunately, if you press your menu button you can skip this so you don't have to look at it every time.

Audio Commentary-Peter Yates (Director)

    A fairly standard commentary by the director and one of the more interesting you can sit through. He gives a lot of insight both into the technical difficulties involved and how certain scenes were filmed.

Featurette-Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment To Reality (9:48)

    A small featurette that appears to have been made for television to promote the movie. Narrated in part by Steve McQueen, it talks about the efforts taken by the production team to ensure the procedures and action were as realistic as possible.

Theatrical Trailer (2:44)

    The original trailer for the film.

Featurette-Steve McQueen: The Essence Of Cool (83:27) ***NEW***

    An interesting look at Steve McQueen's life told by people who knew him. Directors, actors, his ex-wife, son and others who worked with and lived with McQueen talk discuss his work and his life from his childhood in an orphanage, through his career to his death in 1980.

Featurette-The Cutting Edge: The Magic Of Movie Editing (95:17) ***NEW***

    A good documentary that investigates the near invisible art of film editing. Directors such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Quentin Tarantino and editors that have worked with them give a fascinating insight into what actually happens in the cutting room. The history of film editing and the techniques an editor can use to change the feel and emotion of a movie, as well as make or break a scene, are discussed and demonstrated. Well worth a look if you have an interest in motion pictures.

    As far as I can determine, the Region 1 Special Edition is the same as Region 4 except for a few differences in language and subtitles. Call it a draw.

    A piece of movie history well worth a view. The car chase may be the centre-piece, but this is a film that offers much more if you are looking for it.

    Video is reasonable for its age, but could be better.

    Audio is generally clear with just a few faults.

    Extras are good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall