Bullitt

I like San Francisco for a couple of reasons. 

The first is, when I've started my first job for a multinational  company, I was sent to Silicon Valley for two weeks. It was 1997, my first time in the U.S., I had zero experience and with my school (more british than american) english the first 1-2 days I couldn't understand a word. Things changed after a while, but the "ehm" feeling will be always remembered. 

The second reason are classics - a movie and a series from the 60's and 70's. The series was The Streets of San Francisco featuring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas and the movie was Bullitt with Steeve McQueen and Jacqueline Bisset. Bullitts opening credits (created by Pablo Ferro), the atmosphere, the famous car chase and all around, the whole movie is a masterpiece. 

The cars ! :) The famous car chase is between a 1967 Ford Mustang GT-390 Fastback (V8, 6.4L, 325hp) driven by Steeve McQueen vs. 1968 Dodge Charger 1968 R/T 440. 

The Bullitt filming locations are mapped, there are two main resources for it : the Bullitt locations in San Francisco is a wonderful overview including up-to-date (2002) pictures of the locations and the Bullitt car chase Google map. At the end I found the first link (text) a better one. 

So we did a drive there with cameras. Even if there are coverages around the web, I wanted to do my own as well as go through the places.

All the pictures are clickable for higher resolution. The car chase can be found in several places on youtube. 

This is a part of the chase filmed on Filbert street heading east. The church is Saints Peter and Paul Church and the tower is Coit Tower. Above the shot from the movie, below from 7. January 2013.

Filbert street.

Next the famous jumping scene. It starts at the intersection of Taylor / Vallejo with a bay view with Alcatraz. Both houses are still there, maybe the trees are the same as well.

Taylor / Vallejo crossroad

The rollercoaster continues. In real life Taylor looks much more narrow than in the movie. It might be because of the original camera, the way the cars are parking today on the left side, I don't know.

Taylor street

The other look on this passage is from the other side, means uphill. A picture blinked in my mind, so I was driving down, made a "semilegal" U-turn and came back.

Taylor street

On the Taylor street there were also two places, known from the movie. The first is Bullitt's house, 1153 Taylor street. It's still there, but with different colour. And someone made a garage from the place on the ground floor. Just look.

1153, Taylor Street

The second known thing is the small grocery, where Bullitt "bought the newspaper" and shopped inside. It is across the street, in front of the house. Both the house and the grocery are on cross Taylor / Clay. When I came here, I recognised the grocery prior to the house, it is much more visible and in simillar colors like in the movie.

Grocery at Taylor street

That's it. For more, there wasn't time. Maybe at the next visit, if it comes. Hopely you like it. The pictures are taken on 7. January 2013. The photos from the movie are from the rjsmith.com site, currently the best coverage I've found. Wonderful. One picture originates from here.

Edit : 
The last evening our GPS in the rental car played completely crazy, so we came home on another route than usual. As things sometimes develop, it leaded us around another place from the Bullitt filming locations - the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel. Not too far away from our hotel, so I took a walk back to take some night picture.

Mark Hopkins Intercontinental, where Bullitt started to trace Johnny Ross

Well and than I turned to the other side of the street and spotted another place known from the movie - the Grace Cathedral, where Chalmers confronted Bullitts superior Sam Bennett requiring Johnny Ross should attend on the court hearing on Monday.

The Grace Cathedral

The newer pictures are all from 7.1.2013, the last two from 8.1.2013.
Copyright notice : 
This blog post is a pure fan post and is not trying by any meaning to violate copyrights of anyone. 
"BULLITT" is a trademark of Warner Bros./Chad & T. McQueen Testament Trust. Still captures from the Bullitt DVD are copyright Warner Bros., are included here for review puposes, and are for personal viewing only. The current photos are copyright of Saabism.