egbert nosh

hi, heard a story about steve mcqueen. in the film "the great escape",they would'nt let him do the motorcycle jump over the barbwire fences and some off the other bike stunts due to insurance purposes, but because mcqueen liked bike riding he would dress as a german soldier, so in some scenes,due to editing, he is chasing himself as one of the german bike soldiers!!! is this true?
sorry if the has been on forum before.

batman

This is basically true, but IIRC the only one he was forbidden to do was the famous jump. As for the rest, he was actually a better rider than some of the stunt guys and so was able to do as many bike scenes as he wanted and does indeed chase himself all over the place!

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egbert nosh

cheers for that, batman

zulu

Hi, Egbert:

I'm a big McQueen fan. You might find this interesting:

Great Escape stuntman dies
October 10, 2007 - 1:13PM
Source: ABC


Hollywood stuntman Bud Ekins, who doubled for the late Steve McQueen in
memorable action scenes in The Great Escape and Bullit, has died of
natural causes.

He was 77.

McQueen, who died at 50 in 1980, did most of the riding in the motorcycle
chase sequence of the 1962 movie The Great Escape - where, as a prisoner
of war, he tries to outride his Nazi pursuers to freedom over the Swiss
border.

However it was Ekins who actually made the famous jump that ended with
McQueen and his bike tangled up in the barbed-wire fence lining the
border.

Ekin's jump, said his press agent Paul Bloch, "was perhaps the most
famous motorcycle stunt ever performed in a movie".
Six years later, Ekins took the wheel of McQueen's Ford Mustang during
the thrilling car chase through San Francisco's hilly streets in Bullit,
setting a benchmark for Hollywood action movies.

christoph404

I think the studio and press office at the time liked to promote the myth that McQueen made the motorcyle jump in "The Great Escape", it was good publicity and Ekins was happy to go along with it as he never publicly claimed to have made the jump until years later. Ekins and McQueen were great friends in real life, as well as being a motor cycle stuntrider Ekins also owned a motorcycle shop in LA selling bikes for his main living. On "Bullit" Peter Yates says McQueen did all his own driving, Ekins was on board for that film and certainly did some driving for McQueen though McQueen himself does some impressive reverse wheel spins with his head hanging out the window just to make sure that you know its him thats doing it! There is a motorcycle stunt in "Bullit" during the car chase when McQueens Mustang almost collides with a motorcyclist, some speculation says McQueen performed that stunt but I think it was in reality another Ekins stunt.As mentioned, McQueen was more than capable of doing all his own driving and motorcycle stunts but for insurance reasons would not be allowed to do high risk stunts, probably quite sensible!

Amethyst_Isle

I would like to add that the car chase in "Bullit" was not actually that good (if you have seen it you will know why ) but with very careful editing it did "look " good on the screen though, which I suppose it was meant to.


If you wish to watch a great car chase then may I suggest a film called Ronin (1998 ) Starring Robert DeNiro,now that is what I would call a terrific car chase.

Harleybloke

And if you had the Triumph used for the jump and it's provenance............

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

s20076037

Wonderful editing of the rolling hills really makes it look like McQueen did the jump. A masterful piece of film editing!

christoph404

"Bullit" is one of my favourite Steve McQueen films and I feel British director Peter Yates filmed one of the best and most immitated , certainly one of the most influential, car chases ever! I think its brilliant, and on a recent thread on this site we covered other notable chases from "The French Connection" and "The Seven Ups" Prior to "Bullit" there had not really been a movie car chase filmed in that way.I think a chase or action sequence only works within the context of a story where tension has already been steadily built up and you care and are involved with the outcome, such as the sequence in "The French Connection" I think the trouble with some modern films and the chase sequences in them ,is that they bombard our senses with increasingly impossible and unreal scenarios while the storyline and characters are not that involving, hence I find myself yawning when I watch the chase sequence in the "Matrix" sequel which has technically very well done pyrotechnics involving a motorcycle and large trucks etc with lots of martial arts thrown in, its all too much for me and I get past caring about who wins, I just want it to end.....soon! Film director John Sturges once said something along the lines of, " you can film a spectacular fist fight between two guys hanging off the edge of a skyscraper but it means nothing and will remain unmoving unless you are involved in the story as to how they got there and you are rooting for one of the characters" I admire John Frankenheimer as a director and thought "Ronin" was an okay film, but again for me, too many chase sequences and all too slik for me to get excited by any one of them and the story was not that involving either, more of a visual spectacle than anything else, so in my opinion "Bullit" is still top of the list!

Harleybloke

I love McQueen and I love 'Bullitt' but the car chase in the 'Ronin' is just the dogs danglies......................

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

PaulPlowman

Ronin is worth watching just for the 2 car chases, but the rest of the story, while still decent, could have done with another couple of rewrites. IMHO.

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Amethyst_Isle

I agree that Ronin is great entertainment and that car chase is done without the careful editing that Bullitt had.
If you scrutinise the chase in Bullitt you can see clearly they use the same roads over and over and therefore given the impression that the chase is much longer than it really is,Ronin did not do that.

Steve Crook

Count the number of times they go past the same VW Beetle in the car chase in Bullitt, or the number of times the hubcaps come off the Dodge Charger. How many wheels did it have?

The car chase in Ronin is very well done and is very dramatic, but it's too neatly choreographed. If the cars in the chase clipped a few of the other cars a few time it would have been more realistic - and a whole load more dangerous

Steve

Amethyst_Isle

Yeah Bullitt has so many goofs in that chase scene alone (see imdb for that )

and to create a bit more realism yes they should have done a bit more but then I would not want to be a driver on either side.

batman

The car chase in Bullitt is superb as is the entire film. The car chase in Ronin in also very good, but the film is mediocre at best. Bullitt shades it for me but neither chase is as good as the ones in Robbery and To Live and Die In LA, two more excellent films.

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