Biting the Bullitt (Chin Cleft Theater)

The problem with watching "classics", or movies that have the 1st instance of x, y, or z, is that they are often crappy when viewed in entirety. And utterly destroyed by 60's/70's pacing. Take Bullitt. Steve McQueen was a fine looking man. No problems there. Jacqueline Bissett is a fine looking woman. (Although, I was highly distracted because she looked and sounded a LOT like Elizabeth Hurley. That'd be the other way around, I guess.) Their relationship was unconvincing and at one point, JB had a dress on so short, AT WORK, that I helpfully reminded her to put pants on next time.

From Wikipedia: "Bullitt is most-remembered for its central car chase scene through the streets of downtown San Francisco, one of the earliest and most influential car chase sequences in movies." I must admit that I missed the car chase scene, because the 1st 45 minutes of the movie was SO BORING, that I left the room and didn't come back until very near the end. This movie was billed as a "thriller". Oh. Uh-huh.

There was this one scene where McQueen's back is to us, and you can see Bissett's face, but not all of it... his shoulder is totally blocking her mouth, WHILE SHE IS SPEAKING. At first I thought it was just crappy filming, but then I wondered if they hadn't written the dialog yet... so that they could dub it in later.

There was one bit of comedy too, although I think it was supposed to be suspenseful. I asked Lee after I laughed out loud. SMcQ and several dark-haired, cleft-chinned men were waiting by the TELEX machine to spit out a picture which will identify the bad guy. The machine made a grinding noise, and they all just stood there, watching it. Maybe it was only 15 seconds, but that's LONG time in filming language, for there to be a herd of guys just standing around, not moving the plot forward.

Also, Lee and I decided that the late 60's sounds were VERY ANNOYING. Every time a siren went off in the movie, the cats would go on high alert and come in to see where that ear-splitting noise was coming from. That part was funny... watching their ears swivel, as they looked quite concerned.