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Bullitt opens nationwide. Written by Alan R. Trustman, from the novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Pike, and directed by Peter Yates, Steve McQueen is the eponymous San Francisco police detective whose penchant for rule-bending whilst investigating the murder of a witness his team was assigned to protect incurs the ire of both his superior (Simon Oakland) and a smarmy, ambitious politician (Robert Vaughan) looking to burnish his public image. With no special effects to speak of, the film’s sui generis, eleven minute car chase up and down the city’s hilly streets is generally considered to be the classy forerunner of just about every demolition derby that Hollywood has churned out in the intervening years. Jacqueline Bisset and Dan Gordon co-star.
