BLUE CHIPS
US, 1994, 108 minutes, Colour.
Nick Nolte, Mary Mc Donnell, J.T. Walsh, Ed O’ Neill, Alfre Woodard, Shaquille O’ Neal, Anthony C. Hall, Robert Wuhl.
Directed by William Friedkin.
Blue Chips was directed by William Friedkin, best known for his Oscar for The French Connection and the controversy for The Exorcist. He has had an up and down career. This film is very interesting, not just as a sports film, but about college politics and corruption in college sports. It is much more of a Ron Shelton film. Shelton was the writer and had also directed a number of interesting sports films including Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, Cobb, The Tin Cup and Play It To The Bone. He was also interested in politics with Blaze and police work in Dark Blue and Hollywood Homicide.
The film is a star vehicle for Nick Nolte as a basketball coach who is becoming more and more disillusioned because of the rules about signing up new players and the regulations which were being flouted by other schools, giving players all that they wanted. With the connivance of one of the ex-alumni, J.T. Walsh, he then hires basketball players – some of them professionals off screening including Shaquille O’ Neill and enabling them to be the stars.
The film then explores the moral impact for the coach, the exposure, the consequences – and the morality of this kind of sport double-dealing, egged on by notions of celebrity as well as fans’ demands.
One of the more interesting sports films – especially for its underlying themes.
1.The popularity of basketball? American sport? The world of sport, celebrity? The fans? The importance of the spirit of sport, the realities of money? Professionalism? Corruption? A critique for the future of sport?
2.The Californian settings, Chicago, Louisiana? The musical score?
3.The presentation of the matches themselves, the players, the dressing rooms, the coach and his work, practice, the fans and their responses, strategies and training? The musical score?
4.Nick Nolte as Pete Bell? Nolte’s screen presence, craggy and rugged? The opening, the blasts? The tantrums and the kicking? His speeches, and the role of Ed? The video? Jenny and her acceptance or not? Tony and the television? The management, the losses, the TV commentators and their snide remarks? Pete as a character?
5.The recruits, Lavada and the house, the Indiana Baptist and the tractor, Neon and his play? The sport bosses, the staff, the rules?
6.Happy, his role as ex-alumnus, his position, the pressure from him, the gifts, the confrontation? The bets, the role of Tony, the video? Happy as a particular type? Authoritarian and corrupt?
7.Jenny, her work? Relationship with Tony, Neon, looking them in the eye, the rejection? Not part of the happy ending?
8.The players getting what they wanted, spoilt, wealth, the girls, the house? Neon and the gifts?
9.Ed, his questions, research?
10.The drama of the film, the training, the recruiting, the underlying issues of payment, winning matches, the detail of the matches, the spirit of the matches?
11.The press conference and the truth? The confrontation? The final integrity – and the hope for the future? Pete as a character, going through this ordeal, having to make decisions, having to be authentic? His relationship with the players? His speech?
