Blue Chips (1994)

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

Director:

William Friedkin

Writer:

Ron Shelton

Stars:

Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell, J.T. Walsh

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.

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Plot Keywords:

college | college basketball | basketball | recruitment | basketball movie | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Basta vincere

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Gross:

$22,355,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The crew, including Shaquille O'Neal stayed at the Howard Johnson in Lafayette, Indiana for two weeks during filming.

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Goofs

After the losing season at the start of the movie, Coach Bell travels to see Butch play a high school game. The college season outlasts the high school season by weeks to months. There is no chance that Butch's team is playing a home game after the college's regular season is over. There is a small chance that the coach could have gone to a State Tournament game to see Butch play, but even those tournaments are over before the college season ends. In addition, most high school players have signed a letter of intent early in their senior year making a recruiting trip in the early spring unrealistic. It is understandable from a pacing perspective why the film was shot this way. The coach has another losing season and decides not to let it happen again and goes after the Blue Chip players to be better next year. In the real world, he would have been making the recruiting trips (or his assistant coaches would have) much earlier, during the season and not after it.

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Quotes

Pete Bell: There's two words I never thought I would say: I quit!

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Connections

Featured in Hollywood's Top Ten: Shootin' Hoops (2011)

User Reviews

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.