Cool Runnings

''Cool Runnings'' is a 1993 American sports comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Lynn Siefert, Tommy Swerdlow, and Michael Goldberg, and a story by Siefert and Michael Ritchie. It is loosely based on the debut of the Jamaican national bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and stars Leon, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba and John Candy. In the film, former Olympian Irving Blitzer (Candy) coaches a novice four-man bobsleigh team from Jamaica, led by sprinter Derice Bannock (Leon).

The film was originally envisaged as a sports drama, and Jeremiah S. Chechik and Brian Gibson were attached to direct before dropping out, leading to Turteltaub being hired. Leon was cast in 1989, followed by Doug and Yoba a year later. Lewis, who had little acting experience prior to the film and was first sought as a dialect coach, joined in November 1992. Principal photography began in February 1993 and lasted until that March, with filming locations including Kingston, Discovery Bay, and Calgary. ''Cool Runnings'' is Candy's final film released in his lifetime. Its score was composed by Hans Zimmer.

''Cool Runnings'' was theatrically released in the United States on October 1, 1993, by Buena Vista Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its humor, tone, and cast performances. The film grossed $154.9 million worldwide and its theme song, a cover of " I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff, reached number 18 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Plot

In November 1987, Jamaican sprinter Derice Bannock trains to qualify for the 100-meter dash in the forthcoming Summer Olympics in Seoul. He fails to advance in the trials when fellow runner Junior Bevil accidentally stumbles and falls, knocking down Derice and another competitor, Yul Brenner.

Derice petitions for the race to be rerun, but committee leader Barrington Coolidge denies the request, though he feels pity for Derice. He invites him to try again in four years or to try out for one of the only two other sports Jamaica competes in: boxing and cycling. Derice spots a photograph in Coolidge's office, which shows his late father, Ben, standing next to a fellow Olympic gold medalist. Coolidge identifies the man as Irving "Irv" Blitzer, a former bobsled champion who was disqualified for cheating in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo and now works as a bookie close to Derice's home. Derice realizes he could enter the upcoming Winter Olympics in Calgary by forming a bobsled team, recruiting his friend Sanka Coffie, a pushcart derby champion.

Derice and Sanka track down Blitzer, who initially refuses to help Derice but reluctantly agrees to coach the team after learning that he is Ben's son. A recruitment drive fails when only Derice and Sanka stay until the end of a preliminary meeting, but Junior and Yul arrive late, allowing Blitzer to form a four-man team. Junior, like Derice, cannot wait another four years to enter the Olympics, and Yul wants to get off the island. The team trains with Blitzer, though Coolidge refuses to provide the $20,000 needed to participate in the Olympics, believing the team's inexperience will bring disgrace to Jamaica. Derice tries and fails to find sponsors, and he, Sanka, and Yul have little success with a range of fund-raising ventures (Yul arm wrestles challengers, Sanka horribly sings in the street, and Derice runs a kissing booth, until being caught by his wife Joy). Ultimately, Junior sells his car to finance the trip.

Upon reaching Calgary, Blitzer registers the team and borrows a rundown bobsled from Roger, one of his past teammates. The Jamaicans struggle to adapt to the cold and race conditions but improve through exercise and hard work. Derice begins to copy the techniques of the very efficient Swiss team. The East German team and their captain, Josef Groole – the current bobsled world record holder – constantly heckle the Jamaicans during tryouts. Eventually, all the team members except Derice get into a bar fight with the East Germans, and Derice reprimands them severely afterward.

After weeks of training, the team successfully makes the finals, only to be disqualified by the Olympic committee as retribution for Blitzer's prior cheating scandal. Blitzer confronts Kurt Hemphill, his former coach, now a judge in the committee, asking him not to punish the Jamaicans, as they had nothing to do with his past actions. The team is reinstated, and Junior rebuffs his father's attempt to bring him home, firmly stating his intent to remain in Calgary and represent Jamaica.

The team's first day on the track is a disaster, and they finish in last place. Sanka disapproves of Derice copying the Swiss team's methods and encourages them to find their own competition style. They significantly improve on the second day, finishing in eighth place. During their final race, a loose screw causes one of the bobsled's blades to detach, resulting in it flipping over and crashing. Determined to finish the race, the team picks up their bobsled and carries it across the finish line, earning the applause of the other teams and the spectators, including Junior's father, despite their loss. An epilogue explains that the team returned to Jamaica as heroes, and returned to the Winter Olympics four years later to participate as equals.

Cast

Production

According to Leon, "there were script problems. It wasn't funny enough, the key elements were lacking, and it just wasn't working. It was meant to happen when it happened." Leon, Doug and Yoba confirmed in an interview with ''Empire'' that it was originally meant to have been a sports drama film. The film's working title was ''Blue Maaga''. Before Jon Turteltaub was officially hired, Jeremiah S. Chechik was slated to direct until he moved on to do '' Benny & Joon'' (1993) instead. Brian Gibson was also considered to direct, but he dropped out to do '' What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993) instead. Turteltaub used the actual ABC sports footage from the 1988 Olympics and incorporated it into the film. Turteltaub fought with Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg about the characters' accents, as Turteltaub wished for them to be more authentic to real Jamaican accents, and Katzenberg had concerns about American audiences being able to understand the characters. Ultimately, Katzenberg threatened to replace Turteltaub if he did not comply, and Turteltaub informed the cast that he was "going to get fired if heydon’t sound like Sebastian the Crab." This marked a pivot in the film's production, as the goal changed from attempting to authentically depict Jamaican culture to Americanizing the film for audience appeal.

Casting

According to Leon, "The script has been following me around for 3 years." He signed on when Gibson was the director at the time. Leon told ''The Seattle Times'', "I was signed more than a year before we actually started." Doug got involved with the film in 1990: "I found ''Cool Runnings'' three years ago, when my agent had it on his desk. I knew about the actual event it's based on, the Jamaican bobsled team that went to the '88 Olympics, and even though it's based pretty loosely I thought it made a great yarn." At the time of Doug's audition, Chechik was attached as the director. Doug told '' The Baltimore Sun'': "I got the offer to play Sanka, the guy I'd wanted to play from the very beginning."

Lewis had very little experience and was not even allowed to audition at first. He told ''The Seattle Times'', "I was hired to read lines to auditioning actors for just one day. That turned into three weeks. At first they told me they were looking for names, big stars, so I wouldn't be considered, but then they asked me to do a screen test." He also told ''The Baltimore Sun'', "I came in to this film at first to coach the players in the authentic accents." Lewis was officially hired in November 1992. When asked by ''Empire'' how he got involved with the film, Yoba was introduced to the casting director, Jackie Brown, by "a gentleman by the name of Jamal Joseph." At the time of Yoba's official casting, Gibson was still slated to direct. Yoba later told ''Entertainment Weekly'' that he wrote the Jamaican bobsled song for his audition. Lewis claimed that the executives at Disney wanted Kurt Russell for the role of Coach Blitzer; however, John Candy personally insisted on portraying the coach and agreed to take a pay cut to do the movie. According to Yoba, Scott Glenn was also considered for the role. Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeffrey Wright, and Eriq La Salle were each considered for a role as one of the four Jamaican bobsledders.

Filming locations

The film was shot in Calgary and Jamaica in February and March 1993. The cast and crew filmed in Calgary first to take advantage of the snow. Then they filmed in Jamaica at Discovery Bay and Kingston. Dawn Steel was on the set every day in Calgary and Jamaica. According to Leon, "(Steel) worked on the second unit for a while, and she said 'Never again. I never want to direct.

Music

A soundtrack album with 11 tracks was released by Sony in 1993 on cassette and compact disc (Columbia Chaos OK 57553).

In some European countries, the soundtrack album was released by Sony with a 12th (bonus) track being "Rise Above It" performed by Lock Stock and Barrel (Columbia 474840 2).

Reception

Box office

''Cool Runnings'' debuted at number 3 at the US box office with a gross of $7,046,648 in its opening weekend from 1,387 theaters behind the also debuting '' Malice'' in first place and the second week of '' The Good Son''. The following weekend it expanded to 1,803 theaters and moved up to second place grossing $9,568,699 over the 4-day Columbus Day weekend behind the opening '' Demolition Man''. The film had total domestic earnings of $68,856,263 in the United States and Canada, and $86,000,000 internationally for a total of $154,856,263 worldwide. The film was popular in Germany (with a gross over $12 million), Japan (over $7 million) and the United Kingdom (over $8 million). The film grossed $416,771 in Jamaica.

Critical response

''Cool Runnings'' received positive reviews, including one from Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' which referred to the film as "a sweet-natured, high-spirited comedy, that rare movie that plays effectively to all ages. Even rarer, it celebrates genuine sportsmanship, placing the emphasis back on how the game is played in the face of the winning-is-everything philosophy that permeates every aspect of contemporary life."

Richard Harrington of ''The Washington Post'' wrote "a wholesome, engaging, frequently hilarious, ultimately inspirational film."

''Cool Runnings'' has received a rating of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews. The site's consensus states "''Cool Runnings'' rises above its formulaic sports-movie themes with charming performances, light humor, and uplifting tone." On Metacritic, it has a score of 60% based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.

Accolades

American Film Institute recognition
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - Nominated
* AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated

Historical differences

Competition

Jamaica was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for late entry into the competition, but pressure from several appeals, including from Prince Albert of Monaco (who competed in the event himself), led to the reversal of the decision, as opposed to an appeal by their coach.

Despite being presented as a medal contender and record setters in the film, Jamaica crashed on their third and penultimate scheduled run and struggled consistently in the competition: out of 26 contestants, they finished 24th, 25th, and 26th, with times of 58.04 seconds (24th), 59.37 seconds (25th), and 1:03 minutes (26th), becoming the only four-man team in the competition to post a time over one minute. They finished 26th overall, with a cumulative time of just over 3 minutes after three runs. If they had taken part in the final run, they would have had to complete a world-record shattering time under 48.00 seconds to win a medal.

The film implies Jamaica as the only country from a tropical climate to compete in bobsleigh at the Olympics; while they were the only Caribbean country to feature in the four-man competition, Netherlands Antilles and two teams from the U.S. Virgin Islands competed in the 38-team two-man competition, who finished 29th, 35th, and 38th, respectively. Two members of the Jamaican team ( Dudley Stokes and Michael White) also competed in the two-man sled competition, completing all four runs and finishing in 30th place; Stokes and White were set to compete in two-man bobsleigh event only, with the four-man team entered to compete after the two-man event had already been completed.

Crash

In the film, the team crashes due to mechanical and structural failures in the front left blade of their bobsled on their third and final run.
In reality, the crash occurred on their penultimate run and was deemed to occur due to driver inexperience, excess speed, and regressing the turn too high, which caused the sled to become unstable and top-heavy, leading it to topple onto its left side.

Real footage of the crash was used in the film but was heavily edited, and none of the characters suffered injuries; Stokes described the run and the crash as "disorienting", failing to recall the incident and only realizing they crashed after his fiberglass helmet sustained friction-burn on the ice. The team reached speeds of and their helmets scraped against the wall for until they came to a stop. The film depicts the team carrying the sled to the finish line to a slow-building standing ovation: in reality, the team walked next to it and received some sporadic applause.

Home media

On November 11, 1994, the film was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States. On August 24, 1999, the film was released on DVD by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States in Region 1. On September 1, 2000, the film was released on VHS by Walt Disney Studios in the United Kingdom. On January 22, 2001, the film was released on DVD by Walt Disney Studios in the United Kingdom in Region 2. On March 28, 2017, the film was released on region free Blu-ray as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive title. The film was made available for streaming on Disney+ on January 1, 2020.

See also

* Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics
* Jamaica national bobsleigh team
* List of comedy films of the 1990s
* Jamaica at the 1988 Winter Olympics
* '' Eddie the Eagle''

References

External links

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1993 films
1993 children's films
1993 comedy films
1990s English-language films
1990s sports comedy films
American films based on actual events
American sports comedy films
Bobsleigh films
Bobsleigh in Jamaica
Films about the 1988 Winter Olympics
Films directed by Jon Turteltaub
Films produced by Dawn Steel
Films scored by Hans Zimmer
Films set in 1987
Films set in 1988
Films set in Calgary
Films set in Jamaica
Films shot in Alberta
Films shot in Jamaica
Films with screenplays by Tommy Swerdlow
Sports comedy films based on actual events
Walt Disney Pictures films
1990s American films
English-language sports comedy films