Here's something I wrote published last year in a Bricktown Newspaper on Car Chases-Enjoy-:)

Everyone Loves A Car Chase

Film fans love car chases. They can feel the excitement and even smell the scent of burning rubber. They get dizzy during the bumps and turns and hold their breath at the abrupt stops and near misses. Here are some cinematic car chases that are worth the trip to the video store.

In 1968, the film Bullitt came out. Steven McQueen starred as a San Francisco cop determined to find the underworld boss that had a witness in his protection killed. What made the film truly unique was the 10-minute car chase McQueen choreographed and did the stunt driving for. Many feel it was the first of its kind.

Three years later Director William Friedkin got in a car with one of his camera men as a stunt driver drove full speed down the busy New York streets to shoot the realistic head on shots in The French Connection. This insane and maverick technique helped create one of the greatest car chases of all time. Gene Hackman not only nabbed the killer as the chase concluded but an Oscar for Best Actor.

The 80's began with an insane car chase in the comedy The Blues Brothers. Just watch the end credits and you'll still be amazed at the amount of stuntmen listed. We were then introduced to Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Ark where we discovered our hero pursuing the Ark of the Covenant on horseback that led to an amazing truck chase. We were also blown away by some great chases in The Road Warrior. In 1988, The Dead Pool, the final Dirty Harry flick, had a heck of a unique chase scene. In the film an explosive remote control car pursues Clint Eastwood and his partner up and down the streets of San Francisco. What a scene.

The James Bond franchise continued strongly through the 80's and the 90's and kept the chases coming. Just check out Roger Moore's pursuit of Grace Jones from the Eiffel Tower as his car gets smashed to a pulp in A View To A Kill. Timothy Dalton's vengeful Bond pursues the bad guys in a twenty five minute tanker chase at the end of License To Kill. Pierce Brosnan's Bond even drives his car from a remote in the back seat and sends it crashing into the Rent-A-Car place at the end of a thrilling car chase in a parking garage in Tomorrow Never Dies.

There were two electrifying car chases in John Frankenheimer's Ronin in 1998. In one we see Robert DeNiro emerge from a sun roof with a bazooka and blast and flip over a car. In the second one we watch DeNiro and Jean Reno pursue a trio of bad guys through a tunnel in France. It turns frighteningly realistic as we see cars smash, flip over, and explode as the chase continues on at lightning speed the wrong way through traffic.

I hope that everyone who has just read this is no longer feeling dizzy. I know I feel a little lightheaded just recalling those cinematic chase scenes. First things first though. I'll race you to the video store.

The Way of the Gun had a unique car chase

A personal fav chase of mine is actilly a Moterbike chase in T2 about 20 mins in ...Classic..

Not really. I like to consider myself as a film fan, but get totally bored by car chases. I liked the one in French Connection though. It was an exception. Did anyone like the car/bike chase scene in Matrix 2? It was ludicrous IMO

I hate the Matrix trilogy and i remember the car chase in 2,so over the top(like the trilogy) and lasted about an hour..

The French Connection car / train chase scene is probably my favorite chase scene.

And I've always loved the boat / car / boat chase scene in Live and Let Die.

I believe that there was also another great car chase scene in a movie called The Seven Ups.

The first two chases you mentioned ("Bullitt" and "The French Connection") were the best of the lot. The up and down streets of San Francisco (in "Bullitt") added greatly to the feeling of almost getting nauseous (and the low camera angles only magnified that). There were a few cuts of film that were used more than once (going down the same street a few times, for example) but that didn't really matter... it was one awesome scene!

Likewise in "The French Connection" (filmed in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst). That was the most realistic (and exciting) car chase I've ever seen.

I guess I wouldn't consider it a car chase but in the 1978 Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn-flick FOUL PLAY there is a very long sequence where they try to get to the Opera that is very entertaining.

I believe that there was also another great car chase scene in a movie called The Seven Ups.

Yes-You are right. That sequence ends with Roy Scheider crashing into the back of a truck-Very Cool!

The chase in The Seven Ups, French Connection and Bullitt are all now "classics". GREAT chases, but none beats The Blues Brothers.

You beat me to it. I agree that has to be the best car chase ever.

And, to me, the best part of that is under the El.

I bought a book about cars in movies a few years ago, and found a couple of interesting tidbits:
First, though McQueen was an avid car collector and race driver, he didn't drive that Mustang in all the scenes. When you see him in the car, he's driving. But in the scenes that don't show McQueen, a stunt driver is behind the wheel.

Second, Bill Hickman, the driver of the Dodge Charger that was pursuing McQueen's Mustang (and ended up becoming the pursued) was a real stunt driver. Ironically, he showed up in a speaking role in "The French Connection" as Bill Mulderig, the Federal agent who gets on Hackman's case and who's shot by Hackman at the end. But he didn't drive the car in that chase scene.