Monday, January 10, 2011

Peter Yates, R. I. P.

Bullitt director Peter Yates dies aged 82 | Film | guardian.co.uk: "Peter Yates, the four-time Oscar-nominated British director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and The Dresser, has died in London after a long illness. He was 82.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art whose first film as a director was the lightweight Cliff Richard and the Shadows vehicle Summer Holiday, Yates made his name with the action-packed 1967 crime thriller Robbery, a dramatisation of the great train robbery. Hollywood beckoned, and Yates's first US effort, Bullitt, featured the first car chase in the modern style, with star Steve McQueen himself taking the wheel for a large part of a bravura extended sequence in which his Ford Mustang slaloms and chicanes through the streets of San Francisco."

6 comments:

David Cranmer said...

Bullitt remains a high point in cop flicks. I'm sure Yates deserves a big part of that credit.

R.I.P.

Toby O'B said...

Learned a new word with that link - chicane(s). So, thanks for that! The "Bullitt" sequence will always be cited as one of the best action scenes ever.....

Lawrence Person said...

Bullit is a great chase scene surrounded by a pretty mediocre film with plot points that don't really make sense when you think about them. (Ronin and To Live and Die in LA are the same way.) As opposed to The French Connection, which is a great film with a great chase scene.

But Breaking Away was great, and I'd like to see The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Jerry House said...

I saw this, pre-marriage, with my wife. We were holding hands and, during one scene, she nearly ripped my thumb off.

(I recovered, we got married, and eventually Steve McQueen died. Two out of three.)

Todd Mason said...

Actually, Lawrence, I don't think you're giving BULLITT enough credit. Though it does make its points offhandedly...it's a Solar Production, after all.

He did a fair amount of great work.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Friends of Eddie Coyle is a must see. Criterion put out a nice edition about a year ago.