The car chase is now a thing of movie legend, but this film is not just about the car chase. The film is actually a excellent cop thriller, although the highlight is the car chase. McQueen was at the top of his game, and effortly oozes cool. This is one of the best cop thrillers of the early 70's( only beaten by Dirty Harry) and if you have not seen it yet, you are missing a milestone in movie history.
This movie is a master-class in cool, and raised the bar on all that followed.
ICONIC!

What do you think? It just possibly might be. You have to watch it a few times to really get the plot, and it gets better when you fully understand it.

This is McQueen's best movie, with several suspenseful scenes, three engrossing action sequences (the opening getaway, the car chase [of course] and the final shootout) and an entertainingly sinister turn from Robert Vaughn as the DA who clashes with good cop Bullitt. It's a pity he didn't go onto bigger things after playing the deceitful Walter Chalmers.

This harks back to a time when movies had ounces of style and there was none of that 'shaky camerawork' nonsense.

"Bullitt" is so much more than just "that film with the great car chase". Certainly, the chase scene is still awe-inspiring after all these years. Looking beyond that, though, this is also a brilliant character piece about an alienated cop who's seen it all and cannot relate to society the way most others do.

Compared with most modern thrillers, there's little action to speak of in the film and the plot is often rather hard to grasp. None of this matters, though; the sunny San Francisco locations are excellent, the film has a documetary-like realism, the late '60s period is highly evocative... and McQueen is the coolest man in town. He totally inhabits his role, the King of Cool at his absolute pinnacle.