Main Cast: Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell, J.T. Walsh, Ed O'Neill, Alfre Woodard
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Blue Chips examines greed, cheating, and "winning at all costs" in the world of college basketball. Nick Nolte plays the stressed-out coach on the verge of his first losing season, who hits the road in search of new players not already signed by a bigger school. He finds three prospects: a precision Chicago shooter (Anfernee Hardaway), a giant farmboy (Matt Nover), and a talented troublemaker (Shaquille O'Neal). All three, wise to the ways of college basketball recruitment, make excessive financial and lifestyle demands before they can be persuaded to come to the school; the coach, already haunted by accusations of underhanded dealings, doesn't want to dig himself a deeper hole but has no choice. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
Review
Spittle flying and veins popping, Nick Nolte's Pete Bell is the prototype of the Bobby Knight-like basketball coach whose play diagramming is exceeded only by his irascible personality. Blue Chips opens with his total verbal castration of a locker room of chastened athletes, then ups the wicked satirical level by having Bell, in full pouting diva mode, punt a ball into the stands during the game. This prepares the viewer for the possibility that the director who achieved widespread acclaim for his atypical cop movie (The French Connection) and horror movie (The Exorcist) might round out his resumé with an atypical sports movie. But William Friedkin's unexpected foray into this genre can't live up to its promising start. It softens Bell into a vacillating pawn with far more bark than bite, diminishing Nolte's wonderfully realized portrayal. The film's recruiting violations and other compromised ethics are well worth examining, but they follow many of the expected avenues of this type of behavior. Blue Chips does create a believable sense of the pressure cooker world that would imperil a ridiculously successful coach after a single losing season. With help from real sports personalities playing both characters and themselves, including Knight offering an uncharacteristically sportsmanlike self-parody, Friedkin and screenwriter/sports enthusiast Ron Shelton score a slam dunk on realism. For viewers entrenched in this world, pointing out the cameos will be just the beginning of the fun. However, the uninitiated may find too few insights to sustain them. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Louis Gossett, Jr. - Father Dawkins; Bob Cousy - Vic; Shaquille O'Neal - Neon; Anfernee (Penny) Hardaway - Butch; Matt Nover - Ricky; Cylk Cozart - Slick; Anthony C. Hall - Tony; Kevin Benton - Jack; Bill Cross - Freddie; Marques Johnson - Mel; Robert Wuhl - Marty; Jim Beaver - Ricky's Father; Larry Bird; Sam Crawford - The Texas Western Team; Thomas Hill - The Coast Team; Allan Malamud - Reporter; Nigel Miguel - Dolphin; Jerry Tarkanian - Himself; Dick Vitale - Himself; Bobby Knight - Himself; Tony Gonzalez - Dolphin Mascot; Louis Di Giaimo; Michael Johnson - Cash Man; Michael Butler - Dolphin
Credit
Bill Arnold - Art Director, Ed Verreaux - Art Director, Louis Di Giaimo - Casting, Bernie Pollack - Costume Designer, William Friedkin - Director, Robert Lambert - Editor, David Rosenbloom - Editor, Ron Shelton - Executive Producer, Wolfgang Glattes - Executive Producer, Jeff Beck - Composer (Music Score), Nile Rodgers - Composer (Music Score), Jed Leiber - Composer (Music Score), James D. Bissell - Production Designer, Wolfgang Glattes - Production Designer, Tom Priestley Jr. - Cinematographer, Michelle Rappaport - Producer, John H.M. Berger - Set Designer, Lauren Polizzi - Set Designer, Thomas Roysden - Set Designer, Kirk A. Francis - Sound/Sound Designer, Ron Shelton - Screenwriter, J.Paul Huntsman - Supervising Sound Editor
Pete Bell (Nick Nolte), a college basketball coach for the fictional Western University Dolphins, is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning as often as it once did and his successful program needs to attract new star players and fast. But the brightest stars of the future -- the so-called "blue-chip" prospects -- are secretly being paid by other schools.
This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate after a losing season. A school booster, greedy "friend of the program" Happy (J.T. Walsh), will stop at nothing to land these star high school players for Western's next season. This includes giving a Lexus to the gigantic Neon Boudreaux (played by O'Neal), a house and job to the mother of Butch McRae (played by Hardaway) and a tractor to the father of farmboy Ricky Roe (played by Matt Nover), as well as a bag filled with cash.
With local sportswriter Ed (Ed O'Neill) suspecting a scandal and hot on the trail, Pete continues to be contaminated by selfish demands from the players and a dirty association with the booster. His estranged wife (Mary McDonnell), who is a former guidance councellor at the college agrees to tutor Neon who has below average grades, but she feels betrayed when Pete lies to her about the new athletes receiving illegal inducements to attend the school.
Pete comes to realize that one of his previous players, a personal favorite, "shaved points" in a game in one of the previous seasons, conspiring to beat a gambling point spread. Pete is disgusted at what he and his team have become.
Western University has a big nationally televised game coming up versus Indiana, the #1 team in the country, coached by Bob Knight. After winning the game, Pete cannot bear the guilt of having cheated. At a press conference, he confesses to the entire scandal and resigns as head coach.
An epilogue later reveals that the Dolphins would be suspended from the NCAA tournament for three years. Pete did continue to coach, but at the high school level.
This movie was filmed in Frankfort, Indiana. Pete Bell appears to have the look, values, and temper of Knight - especially in a scene where he kicks a basketball into the crowd out of anger.
Nolte actually shadowed Knight during many games in 1992 to research the role.
The movie features several famous players and coaches playing themselves. Among them Larry Bird, Rick Pitino and Bob Knight
