Blue Chips (1994)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writer (WGA):

Ron Shelton (written by)

Release Date:

18 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

A college basketball coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive.

Plot Keywords:

College | Basketball | Rural | Single Parent | Gratuities

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Nick Nolte	...	Pete Bell
Mary McDonnell	...	Jenny Bell
J.T. Walsh	...	Happy
Ed O'Neill	...	Ed
Alfre Woodard	...	Lavada McRae
Bob Cousy	...	Vic
Shaquille O'Neal	...	Neon
Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway	...	Butch McRae
Matt Nover	...	Ricky Roe
Cylk Cozart	...	Slick
Anthony C. Hall	...	Tony
Kevin Benton	...	Jack
Bill Cross	...	Freddie
Marques Johnson	...	Mel
Robert Wuhl	...	Marty

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Spain:T | UK:15 (video premiere) | USA:PG-13 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Frankfort Senior High School - 1 S. Maish Road, Frankfort, Indiana, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

For the filming of Pete's team versus Bobby Knight's, the filmmakers had the teams play two games, from which they took bits and pieces to assemble what is seen in the film. Unlike the screen version, Knight's team prevailed in both games.

Goofs:

Continuity: During Western's season finale against the Coast, about midway through the game a Coast player goes up for a dunk and in the background a side scoreboard clearly reads 00 as the score for Western.

Quotes:

Pete Bell: ...But goddamnit, those kids played out their heart. They gave everything they had! They played up to the *maximum* of their ability! They gave it everything. And you know, it wasn't good enough. It wasn't good enough for me, wasn't good enough for you, wasn't good enough for anybody!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Directors: The Films of William Friedkin (#2.13)" (????)

Tells it like it is

Pete Bell is a college basketball coach. He's under pressure to win and is under pressure to get the players by any means necessary. How will he stand up to the pressure or will he give in to pressure?

Basketball movies are often the `weak team overcomes' type and are not exactly great. Some are good (Hoosiers) but most are mildly distracting at best (The air up there), few reach the heights of Hoop Dreams. However Blue Chips is good because it manages to cast a critical eye over the real world of college ball – there are no small town winners, there are no `kids with hearts of gold' etc – instead it is as much a business as the NBA and the stakes are high to get the best players.

Bell shows us how he must juggle doing what's right but also doing what the players want in order to get a winning team. This is refreshing – rather than yet another sports movie with the same old cliches. The down side is that it doesn't go far enough in my mind and it doesn't offer solutions.

Nolte is good and is really convincing as a coach – even if he's a bit OTT at times on the sidelines. His support is great in the form of McDonnell, Walsh, Woodard and the real players of Shaq and Penny do OK. The cast is also filled out with plenty of coaches, commentators and such from real life – so there's plenty to see.

Overall this is one of my favourite basketball movies simply because it tells it like it is – even if it does have it's weaknesses.