Years ago.... when the only way to watch these car movies was in the Movie Theater or maybe it made the TV late night movie....the downfall of Bullitt was the VHS tape...I was so let down to think I was fooled for years that there were four different Volkswagen's passed !!! It was like the girl in high school who used tissue paper in her bra...just not right..
Ronan was excellent...as far as early movies go...I liked Vanishing Point.
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This is a rare shot of the chase scene as it was originally shot. They cut it and replaced it with a Mustang. Good move in my opinion. The studio thought that if they used this bike, it might encourage kids to ride recklessly!
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Bullitt has one big thing going for it and that was that all the scenes were shot as shown and no computer enhancement. San Francisco let them shut down that street for one run only, so they had 7 cameras at different points and that is why it looks as if it takes forever to get down the hill. The Volkswagen drove through a barricade and was not supposed to be in the movie, but they didn't have the abilities they have now to take things out and add stuff. It actually set the standard for chase scenes. And the Mustang was used because the engineers told them the Fairlane they had originally planned to use would break into on those jumps across the intersections. I kind of liked the Fast and Furious. Some good driving in that movie too.
For back then, the bullet chase was premium. And, let's face it, we have seen movies where cars have been destroyed in the name of a "good ending".
For overall wreckage, I would have to say the original Gone in 60 Seconds was impressive. I am not sure I believe all of the bull about there being only 1 car ( mustang ) in the entire chase, but it was impressive.
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It was this scene that got me interested in Mustangs which naturally progressed to Shelby's and of course Cobras. Darn movie cost me a fortune Later I had a '68 390 GT and my daily driver was a '67 fastback, black on black. My 70 coupe with the Cleveland was faster then the 390 was. But, it also had headers, improved ignition and carb, tied frame, ladder bars, detroit locker and a shift kit modified C6 and ran street/strip slicks. LOW 12 second car with a basically stock motor back then was pretty darn quick.
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That car chase in Bullit is my all-time favorite but every time I watch it again I notice other bloopers. Still don't care, fantastic chase Of all the 1968 Ford colors, Hunter Green has to be the most blah ever but it doesn't really matter when that '68 Fastback is in the air over the hills in SF. Did you ever notice on the highway how many gears he shifted through on several straight areas - like 5 or 6 - and this was a 4-speed car. Same thing with the Charger, they have sound dubbed in here and there with the Charger shifting gears but it was an automatic. Oh, well. Still great fun and a classic
I can't believe no one has mentioned Vanishing Point. I've liked Challengers ever since that movie came out. Talk about destruction of a car!!! I think those were 2 D-9 Cats that he slammed into. I'll bet they didn't move an inch!
Didn't anyone see the chase seen in Bad Boys III? The Porsche chasing the Cobra in Bad Boys I wasn't too bad, but short.
Fast and the Furious had a pretty good chase scene when the Ricer and the 68 supercharged Charger are going at it after the bad guys on motorcycles. That was definitely one bad ass Charger!
Also, Matrix II has an awesome chase scene that lasts at least 20 minutes.
Still liked the Bullit chase scene, mostly because I was a huge Steve McQueen fan when I was younger. But it is definitely dated compared to some of the chase scenes of the last few years.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Vanishing Point. I've liked Challengers ever since that movie came out. Talk about destruction of a car!!! I think those were 2 D-9 Cats that he slammed into. I'll bet they didn't move an inch!
My number two favorite car movie and what fun out in the desert huh. I clicked through the final frames of that movie many times, you can actually see the Challenger morph into the Camaro that they actually destroyed, and in several frames you can see the tow wire coming out the front of the Camaro. In other frames you can see the Camaro hood flying through the air (no Challenger hood for sure!). I read somewhere that they destroyed a number of those Challengers in making that movie, great stuff
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I also liked thee French Connection chase !! The movie Vanishing Point mentioned by Txblu was a cool movie with total destruction in the end. That movie had parts filmed in my home town and the movie company rented part of my Dad shop to repair the movie cars. I was barely a teenager and that was The Big Time for me. A lot of locals were stand ins with that beat up yellow Chevy pick up seen in the movie one of my first cars a few years later.
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Bullitt, Ronin, Vanishing Point, The Driver (Ryan O'Neal) all good. Gone in 60 Seconds, the original (terrible acting, camerawork sucks) the replica ( ) is ok until they felt compelled to put that lame scene of jumping over the line of cars in. Destroys the movie for me. the Fast and Furious are ok if you can stand to hear Walker say 'bro' 3,179,238 times in 90 minutes. I like the last of the trio the best because I don't like Walker, looks like a punk pos I went to college with.
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Although it really wasn't great for chase scenes, the Dukes of Hazzard used up a lot of cars. I talked to one of the people on the show once and he told me they averaged using 4 to 8 cars per show and then stripping whatever they could still use to put on other cars for the next show. Two of the shows people were going around here looking for anybody that had a MOPAR and would sell it or any parts they had.
I also saw a show on the History Channel about some place in New York that makes cars for the movies. They would cut them into pieces and then weld them back together and maybe use the same car in different configurations in several movies. The man that owned the place had three 1965 Shelby GT-350 Mustangs in his shop that were his. He said he didn't mind chopping up an $200K car for the movies, but if anyone even looked at one of his Mustangs they were fired.
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It is an amazing sequence - but I can't suspend my disdain for John Landis and his penchant for very dangerous stunts. As you recall, his demanding, careless risk taking came to an end with the tragedy on the set of the Twilight Zone movie.
I think that sobered up a lot of studios and why you see a lot more computer generated stunts and motion control action.
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