Fanspot
Car chase
“Do you know the definition of an alcoholic?
It’s someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do!”
Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen)
When the time came to start shooting, the production managed to obtain the approval of the San Francisco City Council. The chase scene is a particular focus for director Peter Yates’ team. In order to be as immersive as possible, it opts for ingenious camera angles that allow you to follow the action as closely as possible.
Cult! movies: 100 mythical places of cinema [French Edition]
Want to know more about this location and its connection to Bullitt? Find the whole story and 99 others in the book Cult! movies!
Remarkably cut out, the chase is on the other hand freed from any geographical reality. From one shot to the next, the two cars jump from one corner of the city to a diametrically opposed location.
The race begins in Bernal Heights and continues through Columbus and Chesnut before heading uptown. The island of Alcatraz appears in the windshield of the hero’s Ford Mustang Fastback GT 390, before giving way to the Coit Tower as the vehicle climbs Filbert Street. Finally, the frantic race ends outside the city on the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway, on the Brisbane side, after 10 minutes and 53 seconds.
To realize the famous scene of the pursuit, two Ford Mustang Fastback V8 GT 390 were lent by by the American brand to the production.
893 Filbert St
Popular with locals and tourists alike for many years, the city’s steep streets gained international fame thanks to Bullitt.
With a slope of 31.5% in places, Filbert Street connects Lyon Street, next to the Presidio, and Telegraph Hill. It ends with stairs, close to the Coit Tower, an Art Deco monument built in 1933, reaching a height of 64 meters. It is located not far from the Saints Peter and Paul Church, a Roman style religious building, whose foundations date from 1884. It was rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1906. The section where the steps are located is also famous for its wild parrots. They were even the subject of a documentary in 2003.
The Fantrippers Buying Board
Cult! movies: 100 mythical places of cinema [French Edition]
Since the dawn of cinema, films have invaded the world and highlighted sometimes unexpected places. Every film location has its secrets. The latter are sometimes as exciting as the feature films themselves.
Did you know that the cemetery where the final duel of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was built from scratch and that no body lies there? Or that the bus ofInto The Wild has been moved to discourage fans from spending the night there? From the story of the construction of The Bridge on the River Kwai to the incredible encounter during the shooting of the last scene ofIndiana Jones and the Last Crusadeembark on an exciting world tour with the greatest stars of the seventh art. Shiver in the real haunted house ofAmityville and discover the terrifying anecdotes of the making ofApocalypse Now in the Philippines. Visit the building of Blade Runner before stopping at Hogwarts and finally landing in Jurassic Parkin the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago. What if we also took you behind the scenes of the making of the Hobbits’ village of Lord of the Rings ?
Produced by a team of pop-culture specialists and enhanced by numerous anecdotes, Cult! movies tells the secrets of the places that made the history of cinema.
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By Gilles Rolland
Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.