Flashback

Bullitt (1968)

San Francisco Police Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) was a pretty cool guy. But maybe not quite as cool as the guys watching him at a special screening in 1970.
San Francisco Police Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) was a pretty cool guy. But maybe not quite as cool as the guys watching him at a special screening in 1970.

Bullitt (1968)

Director: Peter Yates

Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bissett and a 1968 Mustang 390 GT 2+2 Fastback

Remembered by: Jay Burroff, El Dorado

A temple of the Gods, that is where I thought I was, the alert bunker at Strategic Air Command's Barksdale Air Force Base. It was a concrete, steel and earthen bunker buried next to the alert pad where nuclear-weapon-loaded aircraft sat at the ready 100 yards from the entrance. The men, in their green jumpsuits with silver wings and silver and gold insignias, who manned the aircraft, lived there seven days on, seven off.

I was there as a young kid, with other kids, because my dad was one of the men that lived in that bunker. This day was family day, and we had permission to enter the double-concertina-wire enclosed facility for the purpose of watching a movie with our dads.

The movie was Bullitt, my dad was running the reel-to-reel projector. I remember watching Frank Bullitt as he pursued the killers in the film, thinking 'this guy is as cool as my dad.' I can still hear the snarl of the Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang as it roared through San Francisco. The chase was so first person you felt that you should be shifting the 390 in the Ford.

I was among America's best watching the coolest movie ever in the coolest place ever.

I still watch parts of Bullitt on YouTube every now and then, it always brings a smile to my face as it takes me back to that simple, fond time and that bunker and being that little boy holding his dad's hand looking up to what he did and who he was, there at the temple.

Editor's note: For 2018, we revived the old Flashback column, but with a twist. We're asking readers to share their memories of significant movie-going moments. If you have a story, send an email to pmartin@arkansas or mail it to Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203.

MovieStyle on 01/12/2018

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