I take your point about Bullitt not just being about the car chase. However, I'm not quite sure what you mean by The French Connection and The Exorcist not being must-see films. They both are absolute musts as far as I'm concerned. Though I wasn't alive at the time any of these films were released, so I can't talk about them from that perspective. All I can say is that when I was growing up, and became aware of them, they were classics one absolutely had to see. :)