The
history-making car chase from Bullitt is arguably the godfather
of all car chases. Even if that Beetle turns up too many times,
and there's too many gear changes and unnecessary double de-clutching.
Even if you believe the myths and legends surrounding this scene, like
the engine sound track being taken from the engine of the '55 Chevy
famous for appearing in American Graffiti and Two Lane Black top. Or
that when Steve Mcqueen is seen reversing the Mustang so severely it
suffers axle tramping, he'd actually mistakenly over shot the corner
nearly wrecking the car, this supposedly being the
moment the studio exec’s pulled the plug on
Steve’s plans and brought in professional stunt drivers with a little
more practical experience and skill. Main driving duties being handed
over to McQueen’s good buddy's Bud Ekins and of course Bill
Hickman, the man seen in the film driving the Charger.
Even if that Charger looses at least five hubcaps during the chase,
this is still considered the gold standard for which all such scenes
are held to this day.
This
painting is set near the end of the epic chase having left the centre
of San Fransico and heading out towards the coast. On closer inspection
you will see the gunman in the passenger seat of the black Charger
preparing his shotgun ready to attempt to scare off his pursuer in the
highland green Mustang. The
infamous gas station is around the next left hand bend. I didn't want
to include it in the painting, that scene upsets me too much!
As a side note, when gathering reference for this
painting I came across an issue concerning the fact that more than one
Mustang was used in the making of the movie. It seems that only one,
some say two, genuine Mustang Fastback GTs were used, other Mustangs
not
being GTs. It is said that it was Steve Mcqueen's idea to debadge all
the cars to make them look the same. It was a quicker option than
trying to rebadge the Mustangs to make them look like GTs and in the
end the Mustang looks cool and understated for not having these
embellishments. But the fact remained that different Mustangs were
used, and while watching the chase scene over and over I realised that
in some shots the Mustang's rear valance had cut-outs for the exhausts
and in other shots it didn't.
Now when I paint a scene from a movie I never just
recreate a still from the film, that'd be too easy. I like to create a
fresh view that doesn't exist in the movie, my own take on it,
otherwise what's the point really? And that's where the painstaking
research comes in, leaving me choices like which valance do I use . . .
To answer the question of whether to be true
to the '68 Mustang Fastback GT as represented in the movie, or true to
the scene created by the movie makers. Or looked at another way, do I
paint Frank Bullitt in his Mustang pursuing the villains in the
Charger or Steve Mcqueen driving a Mustang during the making of the
film Bullitt ? I chose the later. The story behind the filming of this
ground-breaking scene (dare I say it)
is more fascinating to me than the whole of the film
itself. This is why there are no cut outs in the rear valance of the
Mustang!
