Where to watch Blue Chips
4 Stars
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.
Nick Nolte first gained acclaim and fame during the late 1970s and the mid-1980s, but he did his most impactful work onscreen during the 1990s. A brief glimpse at his extensive IMDB page reveals a performer fearlessly jumping from one opposed project to another. In 1994, Nolte portrayed a hard-charging college basketball coach and a struggling actor with a precious daughter in a musical; that’s range. Blue Chips is one of the 1990’s most overlooked films.
Ron Shelton’s razor-sharp script is vivid and literate, with characters in turmoil over a crisis of consciousness. Friedkin shoots the action nicely so players and geography are clear, and he films his dramatic moments like a crime thriller. I appreciated Blue Chips’ fantastic editing, sound design, writing, and especially the uniformly strong performances from the cast. The final scene is a take-it-or-leave-it moment, but there is no denying that Shelton’s words coming from Nolte’s mouth under the direction of Friedkin are a dynamic and compulsively watchable affair.
Directed by: William Friedkin
Written by: Ron Shelton
Starring: Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell, J.T. Walsh