“Blue pawns” – the dilemma facing a college basketball coach
How do you succeed with a sports film that stands out significantly from the rest?
A team in the role of an underdog receives additional help from a talented player or coach to climb from the bottom to the top, winning the championship in the most difficult and completely unrealistic way, and the results achieved look more than strange. It's a plot we can find in dozens of sports movies. Even in some of the best of them. Precisely because of the fact that "Blue Chips", or "Sini Pionki" translated into Bulgarian, stands out, is one of the quality films that talk about sports. The difference comes mainly from the attempt to make the results of the encounters relatively fair and look real to people who understand the game.
Blue Pawns tells the story of a college basketball coach who is forced to compromise his principles in order to keep his most important players in order for the team to be competitive.
Pete Bell, played by Nick Nolte, is the coach of the Western University team that is having a nightmare season. After a decade of consistent triumphs, his team is about to finish with a negative win-loss ratio. This will happen for the first time under his leadership, and the reason is nowhere else than the lack of talent and quality in the Dolphins' players. That is why the prospect of attracting new competitors seems like the only possible option for saving the campaign. In the role of the three additions Neon, Butch McRae and Ricky Rowe are famous names from the National Basketball Association such as Shaquille O'Neal, Anfernie Hardaway and Matt Nover. Extremely popular at the time, the 1990s, they bring even more of a sense of authenticity to the film.
Each of them really likes the university and wants to help the basketball team with their skills, but two want to get something under the table that goes against Coach Bell's principles. However, he is facing his toughest season and should think that the cars and money that Western University can provide are worth it, and in fact, this is the price that must be paid to save the season of " The dolphins".
Perhaps the best decision made by writer Ron Shelton and director William Friedkin is to focus on the action outside the gym and not so much on the team's results. It's this focus on something different, on action that is more often than not hidden from the average basketball fan, that sets Blue Pawns apart from so many movies coming out at the time. At the end of it, there is great opposition, but the game of basketball remains on the sidelines to highlight a far more serious problem.
Those expecting to see Shaq play beautifully will be disappointed. Yes, the NBA star has quite a few scenes to show off everything we've seen in real life, but his lack of acting skills is seriously showing. Far more impressive is Nick Nolte, who brings an energy close to madness. It doesn't take long to figure out that Coach Bell is modeled after Indiana Pacers' Bobby Knight, who also makes a brief appearance in the film.
Blue Pawns is filled with subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor that would appeal to a lot of people, and it's certainly not too corny or over the top. Even at the conclusion of the film, an amusing parody of the events that would happen to the characters based on reality appears.
As for the pure game moments, they are extremely well done and capture the feel of college games. The presence of NBA stars raises the intensity level on the court. Shaq and Penny Hardaway are definitely electrifying with the ball in their hands.
Overall, Blue Pawns would appeal a lot to basketball fans and not so much to people who are indifferent to the sport. By abstracting from all the game moments, all the scenes showing matches, this film tells a story that does not require much understanding of what is happening on the floor. The theme of dealing with the consequences of one's actions is absolutely universal, and combined with the sports moments, it becomes something very enjoyable to watch on the big screen.