'Bullitt' casting Steve McQueen turned cop movie into action
'Bullitt': How the casting of Steve McQueen turned a cop movie into an action movie, and laid the foundation for films like 'Lethal Weapon' and 'Die Hard.'
(Credit: Alamy)
Film » Cutting Room Floor
Sun 19 January 2025 1:30, UK
When producer Philip DâAntoni first got his hands on a novel entitled Mute Witness and began to think about turning it into a movie, he and co-producer Ernest Pintoff immediately considered Spencer Tracy for the lead role. At the time, Tracy was in the latter part of his career, as was the lead character in the book â an overweight police detective assigned to protect a mob witness who is about to testify to a Senate subcommittee on organised crime. However, when Tracy died in 1967, a new star was brought in â and with Steve McQueen on board, the entire film was reshaped from a standard cop movie into something altogether new.
These days, Bullitt is widely seen as one of the most important action movies ever made because of its bravura car chase, which has rarely been bettered. In fact, director Peter Yates is still predominantly remembered for that chase, despite directing other great films like The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The Hot Rock. However, Iâd argue that McQueen coming on board the project and changing it so completely into a star vehicle that played to his strengths as a taciturn, stoic man of action is of equal importance for another reason.
A few years ago, I made it a point to re-watch many classic cop movies from the 1960s and â70s. Naturally, the likes of Bullitt and The French Connection stood out head and shoulders above most others â but there was something different about Bullitt. As I watched it, I began to realise that it felt like an action movie, while The French Connection was a cop movie with some action sequences included. That mightnât seem like an important distinction, but I believe it is when you look at how action movies continued to develop, especially in the â80s and â90s.
To me, Bullitt is a forebearer to action classics like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and even Bad Boys. These films, like Bullitt, have gun-toting cops as their lead characters and they may pay lip service to the police trying to solve a case, but the movies arenât actually about the investigation. Instead, theyâre about the explosive action and fiery pyrotechnics that result from the investigation.
We donât watch Lethal Weapon to pay close attention to how Riggs and Murtaugh follow clues to bring the bad guys to justice; we watch it to see them bicker and become best pals, all while shooting hoards of villains. Similarly, in Bullitt, the structure that holds up the plot â the organised crime subcommittee â is mainly an excuse to throw Frank Bullitt, the coolest darn cop that cinema has ever seen, into an adventure with multiple thrilling, action-heavy set-pieces.
On the other hand, The French Connection, even though it features Gene Hackman in an iconic tough guy role, doesnât quite operate in the same way. Yes, it has an equally pulse-pounding car chase, which DâAntoni mainly wanted to execute to see if he could top Bullitt somehow. However, in this William Friedkin classic, the investigation is the most important thing, and the car chase serves to show how unhinged âPopeyeâ Doyle has become in his quest to bring drug dealer Alain Charnier to justice. The action is informed by the character in Friedkinâs film, whereas in Bullitt, the action informs the character. Or, as Tom Sizemoreâs character in Michael Mannâs Heat says with such passion, âThe action is the juice.
So, when McQueen signed up for Bullitt, and the script was retooled into an action movie with a much younger, fitter, cooler male lead, it laid the foundation for future generations. No longer did cop movies have to solely feature slovenly, weathered guys who looked like they lived on cigarettes and coffee conducting investigations by pounding the pavement, interviewing witnesses, and filing paperwork. Yes, plenty of films like that were still made, but there was also this new strain of âcop as action heroâ film that was a whole different beast entirely.
In this regard, Bullitt is more important and more influential than simply being the McQueen movie with that mind-boggling car chase.
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The guests and âKnowing Brosâ cast members then don hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) to play a guessing game together. When Sieun argues with her dad over a story about an amusement park trip, Lee Sang Minâwho doesnât have children of his ownâwoefully shares, âI want to argue with my daughter too.â
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Check out the full preview below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mR_4AKcpo
âKnowing Brosâ airs on Saturdays at 8:50 p.m. KST.
Watch full episodes of âKnowing Brosâ with subtitles on Viki below:
[viki-watchnow url=https://www.viki.com/tv/36478c-ask-us-anything?locale=en]
Or watch BIBI in her film âHopelessâ below!
[viki-watchnow url=https://www.viki.com/movies/40648c-hopeless]
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