Morality Takes A Slam-dunk
The Age
Thursday December 1, 1994
BLUE CHIPS (M, CIC, drama).
THE settings may be as different as chalk and cheese, but Blue Chips and The Exorcist, both directed by William Friedkin, vividly explore a crisis of faith. Both can be viewed as examples of selling out to the devil, either spiritually, as in the case of The Exorcist, or selling out one's morals to a corrupt basketball recruiting system. A feverish energy drives this gritty character drama, hooking attention with dynamic scenes, bolstered by skilled direction, kinetic camerawork and some terrific performances.
Although the visual focus is on the game of basketball, this is not just a film about a sport; the politics both on and off court carry conviction and interest, representative of universal ideas about the value and erosion of personal integrity in modern times.
The pageantry and ritual is less sinister, with Friedkin exchanging exorcism mantras for cheerleader hoo-hah, but the stakes are equally intense, focusing on the struggle of a boorish but honest Western University coach, Pete Bell (Nick Nolte) on the brink of personal and professional burnout, who succumbs to bribing star players to join the university's basketball team.
There's a certain Faustian quality about Bell's selling out to a modern-day Lucifer - the ringleader of a Friends of the Program, called Happy (J.T. Walsh) - with Bell forced to surrender integrity and swallow dignity. But on a wider scale, the film looks at the erosion of sporting ethics and ingrained personal corruption, from the bottom rung wide-eyed student ``negotiating" a $30,000 cash deal, to a well-oiled collegian erasing laundering his tracks.
Adding another level of richness to this absorbing drama is the low key but effective way Friedkin explores home truths about the dysfunctional relationships and expectations between the media and the sport; how the pursuit of money has spawned a new breed of sporting heroes. In the last 15 minutes these issues are decanted into powerful cinema. Friedkin pressure-cooks personal emotions and game tensions into a geniunely moving denouement.
SIDEKICKS (PG, FoxVideo, family action).
THIS entertaining bubblegum martial arts fable is a blatant PR vehicle for Chuck Norris, the subject of wholesome hero worship by a weedy teen Barry (Jonathan Brandis) who daydreams that he is Norris's sidekick. It is an old chestnut, but the notion that pipedreams will come true has mawkish appeal. The film unashamedly exploits Norris's tough guy image with a series of contrived dream vignettes through the ages, in which Norris as hero (what else?) rescues damsels in distress.
Norris is a heroic, larger-than-life father figure in Barry's imagination, a hurdle both he and his mousy, workaholic father, Jerry (Beau Bridges) must counter. This is predictably resolved in a series of genial father-son exchanges that act as second fiddle to the film's centre piece, a karate team tournament in which Norris and co. break bricks, trade lightning punches and leg kicks.
Director Aaron Norris (Chuck's brother) steam cleans the competition scenes of menace; the clash between Norris and Joe Piscopo (as arch karate rival Kelly Stone) bears the hallmark hokiness and theatrics of World Championship Wrestling. But it's a pleasant, sanitised change from macho martial arts displays, delivering an uplifting, lighthearted message.
FEARLESS (M, Warner Bros., drama).
THE Dead Poet's Society credo, carpe diem (seize the day) soars to lofty heights in Peter Weir's Fearless, a spiritual opus in which a successful architect, Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) suffers a near fatal experience during a plane crash, emerging from the wreckage spiritually reborn and freed of old fears.
Klein's journey - charted in three stages: emotional death, resurrection and renewal - details changes in his values, particularly the notion that in losing a fear of death, Klein has a more intense and selfish need to embrace life - an idea explored more dynamically and tragically in the Andre Gide novella, The Immoralist.
Driven by a sense of invincibility, Klein cuts himself off from family and friends, seeking kinship with a grief-stricken air crash survivor, Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez), who has been emotionally immobilised by the death of her child. Weir takes these threads and weaves them into a long, pulp drama, saying very little in a highly stylised way.
Although the film's powerful theme is embracing and rising above one's fears, Weir sinks its spiritual discourse in a morass of cliched B- grade sentiment, highlighted by weak co-lead performances from Isabella Rosellini as Klein's wife, Laura, Perez and John Turturro (Barton Fink) as Klein's shrink.
Evocative camerawork lends the film an emotional, lyrical intensity; but Weir's ambitious direction lacks cohesion and conviction. Bridges convinces as Klein but his performance is eclipsed by Tom Hulce, whose cameo as a money-hungry lawyer, Brillstein, adds deserved light comic relief.
THE CHASE (M, Palace Entertainment, action-comedy).
CHARLIE SHEEN rotates two facial expressions in this offbeat, hip road hostage movie, punctuated with satiric, black humor and featuring an electic cameo cast that includes Henry Rollins, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Cary Elwes, Ray Wise and Josh Mostel.
Its appeal is based on the cynical, venomous views by writer/director Adam Rifkin's of live-eye crime refracted through hyped media reports; an aspect that has acquired a hip topicality - as demonstrated by the O.J.Simpson case.
Sheen's performance as fugitive Jack Hammond is limited to some stunt driving and bickering with brattish hostage Natalie Voss (Kristy Swanson) - although this vehicle is in need of a cut and polish, there's enough media and police sideline antics to keep interest high.
Memorable cameos include: Henry Rollins as hero cop Officer Dobbs, gushing to a live-eye crew about his love of his work; Cary Elwe's as smooth newsreader Steve Horsegroovy; and Ray Wise, wheeling out his trademark slick smile and varnished upswept coiffure as the ``Donald Trump of California", Dalton Voss.
The script runs out of steam close to the end but it's worth watching the credits to catch a bizarre outtake of Sheen, dressed as a clown, sending up Robert Duvall's character in Apocalypse Now. What this has to do with the film's plot is a mystery, but it prompts laughs.
MAVERICK (PG, Warner Bros., action romance).
A MEDIOCRE effort from the -Lethal Weapon dynamic duo, Richard Donner and Mel Gibson, this corny Wild West tale is not one of Gibson's or Jodie Foster's best films. But their uninspired pairing as debonair gambler and kittenish con artist does hold a strange fascination.
Fetching costumes and fancy horse stunts feature prominently in its formulaic, hackneyed plot. That's of no major concern, as the prime objective seems to be having fun - which Foster, Gibson, and director Donner do. Whether the viewer shares their experience is questionable: the drawn-out Wild West mayhem and hi-jinks score few limp laughs.
© 1994 The Age