VIDEO: 'Making Of' Bullitt short is period awesomeness

When megastar Steve McQueen and director Peter Yates set out to make Bullitt, the object was to make a "real" film with one of the most ambitious chase scenes in the history of cinema. And they did it before computers and CGI enabled filmmakers to do the lion's share of the dangerous work with the click of a mouse. The chase scene in Bullitt remains an all-time classic, with McQueen's 1968 Mustang Bullitt going head-to-head with a black 1968 Charger R/T 440 Magnum.

The chase was real, with speeds surpassing 100 mph on the hilly streets of San Francisco. Steve McQueen teamed up with stunt driver extraordinaire Bill Hickman, and the other cars in the scene were driven by eight of the best stunt drivers around to create an epic high speed chase for the ages.

Hit the jump to view a 10-minute "making of" documentary of the movie Bullitt. It's an excellent work that shows how much thought and emotion was invested in the making of the film. Our favorite part comes when McQueen describes the chase scene in Bullitt:

"The big problems, of course, with doing a chase as dangerous as this on the street is that nothing comes off like wheels, axles, shock absorbers, because the things we did on the streets with automobiles I don't think will not be done again for a long long time."

We're still waiting, Steve, and we're not holding our breath. As an added bonus, we've added the video from the chase scene in Bullitt to refresh your memory. Hat tip to Richard!

[Source: MySpace via Auto-Focus]

Making of Bullitt

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