Cool runnings - being there is everything

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Movie
German title Cool runnings - being there is everything
Original title Cool runnings
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1993
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Jon Turteltaub
script Lynn Siefert ,
, Tommy Swerdlow
Michael Ritchie (story),
Michael Goldberg
production Jeffrey Bydalek ,
Susan B. Landau ,
Christopher Meledandri
music Nick Glennie-Smith ,
Hans Zimmer
camera Phedon Papamichael
cut Bruce Green
occupation

Cool Runnings is an American comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub from 1993 . In the United States, the film opened in theaters on October 1, 1993. The official cinema release in Germany was on February 10, 1994.

The Disney production loosely based on the story of the first Jamaican bobsleigh team , which at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary was launched.

action

Derice Bannock is one of the best short distance runners in Jamaica and dreams of nothing more than qualifying for the Olympic Games in Seoul . In the decisive race, however, his competitor Junior Bevil falls and brings down both Derice and the burly Yul Brenner.

Disappointed by the failed qualification , Derice learns in the office of the Jamaican Olympic Committee that a former successful bobsledder lives on the island. The ambitious Derice wants to continue to compete in the Olympic Games, if not the Summer Games then the Winter Games in Calgary. Together with his best friend, the soapbox champion Sanka, he visits Irving “Irv” Blitzer, a former Olympic bobsleigh champion. Although they hardly know anything about this winter sport, they want to persuade them to train them in bobsleigh. Irv had previously tried to persuade Ben Bannock, Derice's father, who was also a very successful short-distance runner, to go bobsleigh. After a lot of persuasion, the "sled god" decides to become the coach of the first Jamaican bobsleigh team.

When there was a public call for a four-man bobsleigh team, Irv pissed off all interested parties by showing films of serious bobsleigh accidents (“When bobsleigh bobsleigh bones don't break - they splinter!”). After the light was switched on again after the film was shown, the previously full room was emptied except for Derice and Sanka. When Irv asks them to give up, Yul and Junior appear, who still have big differences with each other, but both absolutely want to go to the Olympic Games. Ultimately, the three runners and Sanka get together.

Under the supervision of Irv, the four begin their training without ever having sat in a bob. The first attempts to drive down the hill in a bob-like cart with rollers fail miserably, so that the five become the mockery of the whole island. Because the chairman of the Jamaican Olympic Committee does not want to provide financial means for the team, as he fears it will be embarrassed, they try to get the money for the trip to the games through donations and various fundraising campaigns. After numerous failures, Junior, who comes from a wealthy family, sells his car to make the dream of the Olympics come true for everyone.

Finally, the friends reach Calgary and have to assert themselves against the tough competition, which the team from the tropical island only smiles at. The press attacks the newcomers, and Irv only succeeds with difficulty in buying an old training bobsleigh from an old teammate for little money. Despite the anger that the comrades have, such as with other athletes or Junior's father, they get along better and better with the unfamiliar environment. Even if the regulations are tightened , they cannot be slowed down and barely qualify for the games. A symbolic baptism of their old vehicle in "Cool Runnings" is intended to underline their team spirit. The group unexpectedly learns of their disqualification through a messenger . Irv suspects that the constant rule changes have nothing to do with him and his mistakes in the past (he was once disqualified for cheating, weights in the bob) and nothing to do with his boys. However, the coach managed to reverse the decision by giving a fiery speech to the sports council.

In the first race, however, the team is unusually nervous, and with the worst time they landed in 28th place on the first day of the race. This is also due to the fact that Derice is based on the Swiss bobsleigh riders. Only when his colleagues convince him to go back to their Jamaican roots can they put their advantage, the starting speed, into practice. The critics, who feel confirmed by the result of the first run, have to correct themselves on the second day of the race, when the guys shine with an excellent run and thus trigger a real hype. They are well on their way again in the decisive race and everyone is expecting an attack on the fastest time. At top speed, however, a screw on the decrepit bob loosens, which loosens part of the steering. He tips over in a curve and the sensation with him. To the applause of the competitors, officials and spectators on the slopes, the boys take their battered bob on their shoulders and proudly carry it to the finish. The first man who starts to clap when the Jamaicans carry their bobsleigh to the finish is the initially very condescending Josef Grool and belongs to the GDR bobsleigh team .

background

  • The film is loosely based on a true story. In fact, a Jamaican bobsleigh team qualified for the first time at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Although she only played a very small supporting role, she demonstrated the basic Olympic idea of ​​“being there is everything”. However, the characters in the film are all fictional. An American coach (the coaches changed during the course), who was convinced that runners made good bobsledders, recruited four soldiers from the Jamaican Army to form this bobsleigh team for this purpose .
  • The title of the film refers to a phrase in patois , which means something like "have a good trip".
  • The production of the film cost about 15 million US dollars . At the box office, Cool Runnings grossed around 155 million US dollars worldwide.

Awards

Hans Zimmer won the BMI Award in the film music category in 1994 . The film received the golden screen in Germany in 1995 .

Reviews

"Despite its light weight, you can always feel that it is about the struggle of the third world for respect."

- Stuttgart newspaper

"Rousing and technically excellent sports film, which, with its blunt naivety, does not, however, make too great demands on the audience."

- Lexicon of international film

Adaptation

The German television program Real Cool Running - Von Kenya auf's Eis adapted the concept of the film and was broadcast on VOX in 2014 . Here the gold medal winner Anni Friesinger tries to prepare four Kenyan world-class runners in ten weeks for a 100-kilometer ice skating marathon on the Weißensee in Austria .

Web links

Wikiquote: Cool Runnings - Being there is everything  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Rasta / Patois Dictionary
  2. ↑ Box office / business for cool runnings - being there is everything
  3. ↑ Awards for Cool Runnings - Being there is everything
  4. ↑ Cool Runnings - Being there is everything. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ imfernsehen GmbH & Co. KG: Real Cool Runnings. Retrieved October 4, 2017 .