Movie actors were chasing each other in cars before movies could talk. As the world moved faster, so did the action films—the frames per minute rose higher and the needles on the speedometers went into red. Long before Fast and Furious, two great films brought car chases to the edge of possibility—without the aid of computer-enhancement, with real cars and real drivers in actual locations. The danger was visceral.
Bullitt (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
“Speed Kills” warns the hospital sign. It was part of the “Just Say No” campaign of 1968, a warning against popping uppers for kicks. In Bullitt, it’s a visual foreshadow of the thrill ride to come—the automotive blitz that set new standards for movie car chases.
The pursuit pits maverick San Francisco Police detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) against a pair of professional killers. He’s driving a Ford Mustang and they’re riding a Dodge Charger. The Bay area terrain provides its own excitement along hilly Frisco streets whose steep descents put the noses of those cars close to the pavement as the vehicles leap several feet over the hillcrests. Speeds top 100mph, four-way stops are ignored, tires squeal on the sharp turns, high-speed fish-tailing is inevitable and engines smoke as they’re pushed beyond their limits. McQueen drove his car in the less dangerous scenes, leaving the higher odds for death to his trusted stuntman, Loren Janes.
The action continues outside city limits as hubcaps fly and auto bodies raise sparks against guard rails. The chase concludes in the sort of fiery explosion that has since become de rigueur but was breathtaking in 1968. Note to viewers: the Mustangs and Chargers used in Bullitt were souped-up and modified. Don’t try it with your cars!
The French Connection (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
New York was spiraling into crime and decay. Only sexual tourists visited Times Square and cheap rent could be had in Manhattan where genuinely starving artists worked and played in the abandoned lofts. Heroin was rampant. It was the New York of The French Connection, the grit caught in the cameras of director William Friedkin.
The French Connection includes many memorable scenes starting with NYPD narcotics detective Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman), disguised as a bell-ringing Santa, giving chase to a suspect—on foot. Of course, the chase scene everyone remembers most involves that determined if bad cop (Popeye is an unrepentant racist and anti-Semite) behind the wheel of a speeding car.
Unlike most movie vehicular chases, The French Connection’s isn’t car vs. car. Instead, it pits Popeye in a sedan commandeered from a passing motorist against an elevated train commandeered by a French gunman working for heroin traffickers. Popeye is trying to beat the train to its scheduled stop and bust the gunman but the train keeps rolling faster and faster as Popeye races below, veering between bridge pillars and passing cars. He honks and veers, veers and honks, smashing his stolen vehicle until it’s reduced to a crushed car with a working engine.
Popeye ignores intersections and hopes for the best. Fortunately, his breaks still work. He halted in his tracks for seconds—just before he would have run over a mother pushing a baby carriage. The camera hugs close to the pavement throughout the chase. Popeye gets his man but that henchman’s boss, the heroin trafficking kingpin from Marseilles, slips away.
