Bullitt

Artist: Thomas William Chantrell
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1968

Description

An extremely rare UK Quad for "Bullitt". Two Quad posters were produced for this film, both by Chantrell & this is the rarer Style-B Quad. It is a poster that only appears on the market every 3-4 years & is in demand from Chantrell, McQueen collectors, the motoring fraternity & indeed diehard fans of the film itself. For a plethora of information about the artist, Chantrell, please see www.chantrellposter.com

 

For the purpose of comparison, we show both the more usual Chantrell Style-A Quad (coutresy of www.moviepostermem.com) & the US 1-Sheet poster too. The American design eschewed original artwork for a basic photographic shot of McQueen. It is a matter of personal taste which is better. Both images are certainly icoinic. The poster has been linen-backed,.

 

"Bullitt" today is perhaps best known for the 13-minute car chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco. Initially both McQueen & director Peter Yates were reluctant to take on the car chase but once the decision was taken, both determined to make this a stand-out feature of the film (McQueen also doing some of his own stunt driving). Few, however, realised that this sequence would set the template evermore for the car chase in modern film. Clearly, however, Chantrell picked up on the commercial appeal. At the time, however, very few cinemas required alternative Quad poster designs (the Style -B Quads mostly only used by the very biggest cinemas) & hence the print run for the Style-B Quad was strictly limited. This is now probably the rarest of all Chantrell's posters. The original artwork for this poster sold via Christie's in March 2006 for £9,000. For the motoring aficinados, most of the cars used in Bullitt were Fords (Warners having a deal with Fords at the time), McQueen's beast of choice being a Ford Mustang 390GT.