Bullitt

[Bert]

Still one of the greatest car chases on film. Driven by one of our own, Steve McQueen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-7IE...layer_embedded

The director of the film, Peter Yates, died yesterday.

[davep]

RIP Peter Yates.

[Bert]

Sorry. The director's name was Peter Yates.

[Jim Garfield]

Last time I saw Bullitt on TV I remember being struck by how many VW Beetles show up throughout the movie. So, just for kicks I counted interesting cars that I noticed in the chase scene.

31 Beetles, not including the 3 times the same green one appears, 4 VW buses, 2 356s, 2 Austin Healey 3000s, 1 MGB, 1 MG Sprite, 1 Corvette, 1 Morris Minor, 1 '64 GTO, 1 '68 GTO, and 2 Corvair Corsas.

31 Beetles in one 10 minute scene, how is that possible?

[PeterM1965]

Last time I saw Bullitt on TV I remember being struck by how many VW Beetles show up throughout the movie. So, just for kicks I counted interesting cars that I noticed in the chase scene.

31 Beetles, not including the 3 times the same green one appears, 4 VW buses, 2 356s, 2 Austin Healey 3000s, 1 MGB, 1 MG Sprite, 1 Corvette, 1 Morris Minor, 1 '64 GTO, 1 '68 GTO, and 2 Corvair Corsas.

31 Beetles in one 10 minute scene, how is that possible?

It's because they shot those scenes with multiple cameras. Go back and watch again, you'll see more than just the Bug. It's the same streets, with the same parked cars too.

[Jim Garfield]

I noticed that, especially the scene coming down the hills. Taking that into account, and trying not to count the same cars twice is how I came up with the number. It's not only the chase scene either, they show up throughout the movie. Evidently there was just an abundance of VWs in SF in the late 60s.

[steven0401]

There is a brilliant article in the new Total 911 by John Glynn about San Francisco. Jamie Lipman photographed my Aga blue 67S in many of the locations used in the movie, and John's sort of post-structuralist riff on SF, Steve McQueen, and Bullitt is a great read. I picked it up at the airport in London over New Years, so it should be in the shops soon.

[gruen911]

I noticed that, especially the scene coming down the hills. Taking that into account, and trying not to count the same cars twice is how I came up with the number. It's not only the chase scene either, they show up throughout the movie. Evidently there was just an abundance of VWs in SF in the late 60s.

Jim,
You may have forgotten that VW built and sold 21,529,464 of the original beetles!!! You can see them on the streets of SF back in the late 60's because it was a huge seller, and especially popular among the hippie counterculture in SF during the 60's.

[LongRanger]

. . . VW built and sold 21,529,464 of the original beetles!!! You can see them on the streets . . . because it was a huge seller, and especially popular among the hippie counterculture in SF during the 60's.

Not just in SF. And not just 'hippies.'

When I was a kid in school, back in the mid-70s, I would conservatively estimate that at least half of the rolling stock of any high school parking lot consisted of Volkswagen's air-cooled products. Not to mention all the other parking lots, city streets, and highways.

Way, way, waaaaay before Smarts, Hybrids, Electrics and cattle-car mass-transit . . . . VWs were The Weapon of Choice if you needed to get around . . . and didn't wanna spend a lot of money --- either up-front buying it, or down the road living with it.

Seeing one now is like seeing a Passenger Pigeon.

Rick Kreiskott