Thoughts from Our Bridge Pastor
Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau
Thoughts from the Pastor…
One night I’m trying to go to sleep. My mind won’t calm down but it’s already going on 11 pm and if I don’t start now, I’ll be awake until 2 or 3. I start poking around for a movie. Something to take my mind off whatever is rolling around in there. I check out Netflix, YouTube, Amazon. I finally settled on what seemed to be, at first glance, a really not so good indie flick called “Chasing Bullitt” on Peacock. When I think of what a “B Movie” would be, this would be it.
Ostensibly, the movie is about Steve McQueen’s search for the Mustang he drove in the quirky 1968 neo-noir action thriller “Bullitt,” which despite being a “critical and box office smash” takes about three viewings before anyone can understand the plot. The center piece of the film, of course, is the famous chase scene between the Mustang and the Dodge Charger through the hilly streets of San Francisco. For sure, a chase scene for the ages!
Surprisingly, I found “Chasing Bullitt” to be layered with meaning and metaphor that went deeper and beyond Steve McQueen simply looking for “the car”. The first metaphor was probably the actor who portrayed Steve McQueen, Andre Brooks. I never heard of Andre Brooks. There were times in the movie when he looked uncannily just like Steve McQueen. It’s as if McQueen wasn’t actually himself but there he was. The movie takes place in 1971, after the successful “Bullitt” and the flop, “Le Mans.” As portrayed in the movie, McQueen is not in a good place in his life. He’s floundering. His marriage is on the rocks. He’s unfocused without direction. Like he wasn’t himself, but there he was.
After driving his car in circles (another metaphor) at a raceway in the Arizona desert, McQueen tells his manager to find “the car.” It’s as if McQueen can’t get his life together until he gets “the car.” He then takes off for a journey through the desert.
Then there’s “the car” that Warner Brothers sold to someone who worked at the studio. “The car” McQueen is looking for, of course, is the one he drove in “Bullitt,” a Dark Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT 390 with a 4 speed manual transmission. That’s the one he doesn’t have. It’s the one he wants. The car he drives around in circles and through the desert is a blue 1967 Boss 302 prototype with an automatic. So not Steve McQueen. It was a gift from the studio. It has the look but It’s not what he wants. He wants “the car.”
As he drives through the desert, a great metaphor, for rediscovering oneself, God, meaning, direction, purpose, McQueen reflects about his life, his marriage, how he screwed up and blamed his wife. He thinks about his past and how he was orphaned and was bullied and abused by his uncle. He arrives in Los Angeles at the address of the last known owner of the original 1968 Bullitt Mustang. The one he wants. He pulls up behind a teenager working under the hood of a white 1968 Dodge Charger. More movie references. More metaphors.
McQueen notices the bruising on the kid’s face. They’re from his foster-dad. McQueen goes to the house to talk with the guy he thinks has the 1968 Dark Highland Green Mustang. The guy doesn’t have it. He sold it. It’s probably in New Jersey by now.
I admit, I didn’t understand the movie until the end when it all made sense. McQueen leaves the man’s house, sees the foster-dad bullying the teenager. McQueen clobbers the foster-dad (not recommended) and tells him to stop (recommended), or he has McQueen to deal with. As McQueen walks into the sunset, he tosses the keys to the blue Mustang to the kid and says, “Here, it’s yours.”.
From there, the real Steve McQueen would get involved with United Artists, join Dustin Hoffman in “Papillion” and star in “The Getaway.” That’s when it came to me. Sometimes we are in the wrong car and need to go on a desert journey of our own to rediscover who we are and where we’re going, and that we are in the wrong car. Sometimes we just need to toss the keys and walk into the sunset toward another day filled with new promises and new hopes.
May the road rise up to meet you and your gears always shift smoothly,
~ Pastor Barbara