The car chase scene is fine, but the whole movie is pretty pointless. The plot must have been the boilerplate for subsequent Quinn Martin TV productions in the 70s, and in fact the movie could have been 50 minutes long and been just as good.
The best thing about the movie is seeing San Francisco in 1968. The weirdest thing about the movie is that it takes place in San Francisco in 1968, and there is no sense that anything different was happening, in San Francisco or anywhere else in the world, in 1968. Dirty Harry in 1971 was clearly of its time and place, a response to what had happened in 1968 and the rest of the 60s. Bullitt, which takes place in that time and place, could have been filmed ten years earlier or ten years later. There is no larger sense of politics ... the district attorney is ambitious, but that pales against what was actually happening in San Francisco, and Paris, and Chicago, doesn't it? It was only a year after the Summer of Love, but there's not a hippie in sight. If it wasn't for the hills and the landmarks, you'd think the movie was made in Omaha in 1974.
The best thing about the movie is seeing San Francisco in 1968. The weirdest thing about the movie is that it takes place in San Francisco in 1968, and there is no sense that anything different was happening, in San Francisco or anywhere else in the world, in 1968. Dirty Harry in 1971 was clearly of its time and place, a response to what had happened in 1968 and the rest of the 60s. Bullitt, which takes place in that time and place, could have been filmed ten years earlier or ten years later. There is no larger sense of politics ... the district attorney is ambitious, but that pales against what was actually happening in San Francisco, and Paris, and Chicago, doesn't it? It was only a year after the Summer of Love, but there's not a hippie in sight. If it wasn't for the hills and the landmarks, you'd think the movie was made in Omaha in 1974.