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BullittBullitt is one those films that's so iconic you may feel you've already seen it, even if you haven't. That's largely because the image of Steve McQueen driving his car over the hilly streets of San Francisco has been referenced or parodied thousands of times.
And yet Bullitt is very much a product of its time, and of McQueen's acting style. It is terse to the point of grumpiness, and it's not just because the characters speak so rarely - the action has a similarly cold, hard feel. Indeed Bullitt set the tone for The French Connection, which also gives you the thrill of being in a speeding car but with a puritan edge. It's a universe away from the easy big bangs of a Michael Bay film, and much closer to Jean-Pierre Melville's moody - even miserable - crime movies.
The big shock at the time was that McQueen was playing a cop. While a maverick, he's no anti-cop like Serpico, but with his cropped hair, he certainly looks like a grimly authoritarian figure. However, McQueen is also pure movie star: always looking right, and never disappearing into the part. And that's fine, because no-one wanted him to.
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