Yahoo News ‘Bullitt’ Ford Mustang returns, a priceless example of cinematic and automotive heritage
The word icon is over-used, but there are indeed a select number of cinematic cars that may be so-described – especially a 1960s Ford Mustang 390GT Fastback painted in Highland Green. In early 1968 two examples left the production line to be acquired by Warner Brothers for a screen adaption of the novel Mute Witness. Dearborn originally wanted Bullitt (as the film version was named) to feature the Galaxie but Steve McQueen insisted on the car “that makes it happen”, to quote the advertisements.
Of the two Fords, the Mustang VIN number 8R02S125558 (558 for short) was the “jump car” for the heavy stunts with 8R02S125559 (aka 559) serving as the principle “hero” vehicle.
In 2017 the former was discovered in a Mexican junkyard and for many years the main vehicle was believed as lost as the Mini Coopers of The Italian Job. But on January 14, 2018 the actual 559 Mustang was the star of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Bullitt went on general release on October 17, 1968 and, post-filming, 559 was refurbished prior to it being sold to a Warner Brothers executive named Robert Ross. From a 2018 perspective it may initially seem surprising that a car of such fame was dispensed with as opposed to employed as a stellar attraction by the studio but, as many classic experts have noted, in the late 1960s few would have guessed that a used Mustang would become collector’s piece.
By late 1970 Ross sold the Mustang for $6,000 to Frank Marranca, a New Jersey police detective who kept 559 for the next four years and in October 1974 the 390GT was advertised in Road & Track magazine in the US – “1968 Bullett (sic) Mustang driven by McQueen in the movie. Can be documented. Best offer”.
559 was acquired by Robert and Robbie Kiernan and in 1977 the couple was approached by McQueen who wanted to purchase the car, but the actor was unsuccessful in his quest. The Kiernans originally used the Ford on a regular basis, and in 2001 Robert and his son Sean commenced a long restoration process. Kiernan Snr passed away in 2014 and over the past two years Sean laboured to return 559 to the same condition as when it was the family’s daily driver.
The result is not just an ultra-desirable Mustang that bears the patina of age but a priceless example of cinematic and automotive heritage. The stories surrounding the making of Bullitt have been oft-told – how McQueen wanted Peter Yates for the director after he saw Robbery, and precisely how much of the driving was undertaken by the star or by Hollywood’s finest stunt professionals.
The plot is fairly forgettable but enhanced by the talents of Simon Oakland, Don Gordon, Vic Tayback and a young Robert Duvall. There is also is any number of sharp-suited hoods; one could fairly imagine that Bullitt was a favourite of the young Tony Soprano.
But this is to overlook the fact that the timing of Bullitt was perfect, a crime thriller made in the dying days of the Motion Pictures’ Production Code. The star aimed for narrative centred on “doing authority differently” where a police lieutenant could wear roll-neck sweaters instead of a charcoal suit and a fedora. McQueen understood that the Ford Mustang was the ideal car for Frank Bullitt; the factory’s choice of Galaxie was too middle-aged, while the likes of a full specified Chevrolet Corvette would have been wholly inappropriate for a hard-working San Francisco police officer.
A 390GT was also a Ford that many American cinemagoers could plausibly aspire to. When the picture was released in the UK, the Mustang seemed almost impossibly exotic but in its homeland it was a sports car within reach of a blue collar worker.
Watching Bullitt today, what is so striking is not so much the cinematography, the locations or even Lalo Schifrin’s score, but how well used 559 appears. Sean Kiernan has noted that “In the movie, all the badges were removed and the paint was scoured with Scotch-Brite pads to make it dull”. The Mustang was not a show car but a working vehicle, one which further differentiated McQueen’s character from Robert Vaughan’s snide upper-class politician whose transport is a Lincoln Continental and his architect girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset) who drives a Porsche 356C Cabriolet
Five decades on, the excitement of the Mustang’s discovery stems from the simple fact that Bullitt is one of the most prefect blends of star and car on screen. The critic David Thomson once noted of McQueen that “As time passes, his remorseless honesty becomes more affecting. He may be brutal, or brutish, at times – but when is he fake?”
Frank Bullitt is no cardboard superhero but one who quietly performs his duty. Anyone who has seen the set piece chase will remember that the villains’ Dodge Charger R/T 440 has more than its fair share of hubcaps but there is a brief moment in the chase that encapsulates the character. A motorcyclist is knocked off his machine and so the detective skids to halt, to ensure the rider is not injured.
It is such scenes that made the green Mustang Fastback a truly iconic car – and why its survival means so much to film and motor car aficionados around the world.
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