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 | basketball | athlete | college sports | college basketball | 

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Taglines:

If You're Going To Win At Any Cost, Be Prepared To Pay The Price

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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 USA:

$22,355,000

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

Nick Nolte wrote a two hundred-page novel about Pete Bell to tap into the character's psyche.

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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

[Slick talking about Neon]
Slick: I'm not going to bullshit you Pete. He ain't no brain surgeon all right. He took the SAT recently and scored a 520 out of a possible 1600.
Pete Bell: 520? You get 400 for just spelling your name correctly.
Slick: That's it, he messed up on his name.

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: Four Weddings and a Funeral/The Cement Garden/Above the Rim/Raining Stones/The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1994)

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Soundtracks

All Along the Watchtower
by Bob Dylan
Performed by Jimi Hendrix
Courtesy of Elber B.V.

User Reviews

Most Underrated Sports Movie Ever!

I'm not a big sports movie guy, so I went into this not really expecting much other than killing 90 some minutes. I loved it! To see the struggle of a school and coach as they attempt to create a legit winning team in an environment of corruption was interesting. Then when they join that corruption it becomes exciting, you just know it's gonna blowup some time. Nick Nolte carries this film throughout it's entirety, and amazingly the real life players do a great job of acting and the rest of the cast is perfect. I love how they took real players and coaches and brought them into this film, it fits perfectly. The last 35 minutes of this film is brilliant. I've seen many people here talk of how bad this film is, I wonder if they just don't care about sports that much like myself, or have some underlying bias about admitting the corruption exists and always has in much of college sports. I don't care for sports! But I loved this film. The ratings this film gets on here really ticks me off, what is it, a 5.5 star average? I've learned one thing on here and other review sites, if you let others judge for you, you'll miss a lot of good movies.