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How does a peg-leg 390 cu.in 325 HP 4 speed fast back Mustang racing on (and over) the streets of S.F. so many years ago still get my blood flowin'?!!!
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Because it was real. They scripted that chase to look like something that could actually happen. Today's chases are full of barrell-rolling cars, giant fireball explosions, insane maneuvering, etc. The Bullitt chase looked like a real, bare-knuckled car chase. All that shifting and glass-pack roar from two big V8s certainly helped too!
Steve McQueen was a man's man. No bullshit, no namby-pamby crybaby tendencies, just pure American male, before such men became abhorrent to decent society.
Ever wonder why Ford had to go back to 1968 "Bullitt" footage of Steve McQueen to help sell Mustangs a year or so back? Because Ben Affleck can't sell Mustangs. "Bullitt" helped make the Mustang an icon but without Steve McQueen it probably wouldn't have happened. Steve McQueen knew what it meant to be a man's man. Real car chase, real cars (not "Eleanors"), real guns (not laser-sighted chrome death rays), and an overall plausible situation. No ramps to make the cars barrell-roll through fireballs. The fireball at the end was because the Charger crashed into a gas station. Plausible. The "Bullit" chase was an honest depiction of a car chase, mistakes and all (the Charger hits the parked car, McQueen misses a turn).
Why did Cheryl Crow have to write a song about Steve McQueen? Why not write a song about Lance Armstrong? Because Steve McQueen is what women wanted all along. Feminism killed-off the Steve McQueen image long ago and forced men to become Ben Afflecks and Matt Damons and John Travoltas. Namby-pamby. Yeah, there's lots of explosions and gunplay in today's movies and Travolta smokes (because the tobacco companies pay him to skoke in his movies) but it just ain't the same.
In 1973's "The Getaway" McQueen slaps around Ali McGraw for sleeping with another man to help get McQueen out of prison. If "The Getaway" were re-made today, Ben Affleck would start crying and get down on his knees and beg the McGraw character to please forgive him for making her sleep with another man. Give me a break.
Want to know why Steve McQueen could not exist in today's America? Read this book.
This book is a great read and meant for men only. Don't read this in front of the little woman, it's none of her business. Get it from Amazon and read it out in the garage after the wife/girlfriend has gone to bed or out for the day. You'll just shake your head page after page and you'll learn why Ford has to use 40-year old footage of a pre-feminist male to help sell Mustangs.