Blue Chips (1994) review

Dir. William Friedkin

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Blue Chips opens with Pete Bell (Nick Nolte) chewing out his players in the locker-room at halftime. The head coach of the Western University Dolphins in Los Angeles, Bell is about to endure his first losing season, and just like that, the memories of two national titles and consistent success has ostensibly evaporated from the minds of alumni donors and “friends of the program.” All Bell has are his ethics in a world that practically begs college football coaches to cheat the recruiting process in some way. Just like coaches feel the pressure, “blue chip” prospects and renowned high school athletes know the alternative game too, and thus feel empowered to try and sweeten the deal that comes with their scholarship.

When the season is over, Bell and his team look into major two prospects, Butch McRae (played by former Orlando Magic player Penny Hardaway), who comes from a crowded family in Chicago, and Ricky Roe (Matt Nover), who comes from a small community in Indiana where college is an afterthought. Both men want a little something extra if they’re going to play at Western, given its slumping program. McRae would like his mother (Alfre Woodard) to have a decent job and a house with an actual lawn. Roe, on the other hand, knows his worth a little too well at this juncture: “I’m a white, blue chip prospect and I think that should be worth about $30,000. In one of those athletic bags,” he tells Bell.

Bell is clearly uncomfortable even contemplating cheating, but seeing the college’s head of alumni department (J. T. Walsh) successfully put linebackers and wide receivers on the payroll while grilling Bell about his team’s recent downturn only produces more anxiety. He also finds unfathomable, raw talent in a streetballer named Neon Boudeaux (NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal), and enlists in his ex-wife, Jenny (Mary McDonnell), whom he clearly still cares about, to tutor Neon in efforts to raise his SAT scores to permit him into college. By the time the season is underway, Bell finds himself riding an uneasy wave, one that only gets rockier when a local journalist (Ed O’Neill), who has been intensely critical of Bell and Western’s program, starts sniffing around in all the right places.

Blue Chips is a rock-solid drama, put into motion by two eminently creative minds. Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) latches onto the world of sports very well, directing a movie that flows evenly between human drama and various interpersonal relationships, making for an experience just as gripping as one about a big basketball game. Ron Shelton hits another screenwriting home-run with Blue Chips, using a time-tested sports formula only to enrich it with fascinating characters and gripping situational drama, the likes of which engaging enough to hold its own.

Like he did with the world of minor league baseball in Bull Durham and the fluctuating dynamics of pickup basketball in White Men Can’t Jump, Shelton finds the human center of NCAA basketball. He shows the perverted, contradictory side of the sport; one that traps coaches into dangerously compromising their program by offering recruiting incentives yet forces them to find other work if their team isn’t performing. But while Shelton keeps the institutional drama close to the film, he keeps his characters even closer. A big part of that is in the performers. Nolte gives a textured, empathetic performance as a coach fearful of losing it all while working to undermine his and his program’s credibility at the same time. Shaq is also an amiable screen-presence, and Shelton doesn’t make him a victim of the “dumb as rocks athlete getting a big scholarship” stereotype as he cleverly subverts that notion very quickly. Mary McDonnell is the one likely to go under the radar, but she too has some very touching moments, including her first scene with Nolte, which Friedkin’s directing and Shelton’s romantic writing choreograph like a delightful piece of music.

Nolte, in particular, is consistently impressive throughout. A noteworthy juxtaposition of his character’s integrity and ideals is shown early, when he rips his entire team at halftime for their lousy performance. The outburst is capped off with him violent spilling the water-cooler and leaving a good portion of the locker-room in shambles. After he does his part to recruit the aforementioned prospects, and they lead him to the big win he absolutely needed, you get the feeling that when Bell is addressing the locker-room, he’d rather be screaming like he was in the beginning of the film. At least he’d know he lost fair and square. His feelings and mindset are all summarized in one line that could reasonably define the entire film: “I’ve become what I despise.”

Cameos from professional players and coaches are ubiquitous in Blue Chips, but few (outside of Larry Bird’s) are played up to be more than the use of familiar faces for context. Jerry Tarkanian makes an appearance, as does Rick Pitino, former Kentucky Wildcats coach who, more than twenty years after this film, would go on to be ousted from Louisville’s program for engaging in a similar kind of “pay to play” politics that would undermine his and the school’s credibility. Fun fact: Penny Hardaway had such an impact on Shaq during the making of this film that Shaq, who played for the Orlando Magic, encouraged the team’s personnel to draft Hardaway with the third overall pick in the NBA draft. The rest is history.

Shelton has made a career of subverting sports films without really knowing it. He takes the familiar brushstrokes and conventions of the genre yet paints something completely and unexpectedly vivid and layered out of all the recognizable components. Paired with a vet like Friedkin, who brings spice and conviction to every project, no matter how “out there,” Shelton and company make Blue Chips a big winner for all involved.

Starring: Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell, Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Matt Nover, Alfre Woodard, J. T. Walsh, and Ed O’Neill. Directed by: William Friedkin.