[NFBNJ] Fwd: Cool Runnings!

Thu Aug 5 11:10:08 UTC 2021

From: Steve Cook
Date: Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 5:55 AM
Subject: Cool Runnings!

Hi New Jersey Federation Family!

Come join the National Federation of the Blind of SC for movie night on
Friday, August 6, 2021, at 8:00 PM Eastern for audio described movie night!

In honor of the Summer Olympics, we will be showing the movie Cool
Runnings! Below is more information about the movie.

Plot

In November 1987, Jamaican sprinter Derice Bannock trains to qualify for
the 100 metres in the 1988 Summer Olympics. He fails to qualify when fellow
runner Junior Bevil accidentally stumbles, knocking himself, Derice, and
Yul Brenner down.

Derice vents his frustrations to Barrington Coolidge, the President of the
Jamaica Olympic Association. He spots a photograph in Coolidge’s office,
featuring his late father Ben, standing next to a fellow Olympic gold medal
winner. Coolidge identifies the man as disgraced American bobsled medallist
Irv Blitzer, who was disqualified for cheating in the 1972 Winter Olympics.
Derice realises he could participate in the 1988 Winter Olympics by forming
a bobsled team, recruiting his friend Sanka Coffie, a pushcart derby
champion.

Blitzer, working in Jamaica as a bookie, at first refuses to help Derice,
until learning he is Ben Bannock’s son. A recruitment drive fails, but the
arrival of Junior and Yul allows Derice to form the required four-man
bobsled team. The team train with Blitzer, though Coolidge refuses to fund
the $20,000 needed to participate in the Olympics, believing the
inexperienced team will bring shame to Jamaica. The team find various ways
to raise the money, ranging from singing on the street to arm wrestling.
Junior, who avoids telling his father about the team, sells his car to
finance the trip to Canada.

In Calgary, Blitzer registers the team, receiving an old bobsled from his
former teammate Roger. The Jamaicans struggle to drive the bobsled and
adapt to the cold, though exercise and hard work eventually pay off. Derice
begins to copy the techniques of the Swiss team. Sanka, Junior, and Yul get
into a bar fight with the snobbish East German team, and are reprimanded by
Derice.

The team successfully qualifies for 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 cheating scandal. That night, the team are informed that they
have been reinstated. On the night the Olympics formally open, Junior’s
father arrives to retrieve his son, but Junior stands by his commitment to
compete, earning Yul’s respect.

The team’s first day on the track is abysmal, finishing in last place.
Sanka realises Derice is copying the Swiss team’s methods, and encourages
the team to 'bobsled Jamaican'. They improve on the second day, finishing
in eighth place. During their final race, one of the bobsled’s blades
detaches, causing it to flip over and crash. Determined to finish the race,
the Jamaicans pick up their bobsled and carry it across the finish line,
earning the applause of the other teams and the spectators. An epilogue
explains the team would return home as heroes, then return to the 1992
Winter Olympics to participate as equals.

Cast

John Candy as Irving "Irv" Blitzer

Leon Robinson (credited as Leon) as Derice Bannock

Doug E. Doug as Sanka Coffie

Rawle D. Lewis as Junior Bevil

Malik Yoba as Yul Brenner

Raymond J. Barry as Kurt Hemphill

Peter Outerbridge as Josef Grool

Paul Coeur as Roger

Larry Gilman as Larry

Charles Hyatt as Whitby Bevil

Winston Stona as Barrington Coolidge

Bertina Macauley as Joy Bannock

Kristoffer Cooper as Winston

Bob Del Torre as USA team Driver

Martin Hub as Czech Bobsled Driver

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 at the Jamaican parishes of Discovery Bay and Kingston.[1] Dawn
Steel was on the set every day in Calgary and Jamaica. According to
Robinson, "(Steel) worked on the second unit for a while, and she said
'Never again. I never want to direct.'"[3]

Differences between real life and film

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Organization

The Jamaicans were disqualified temporarily by the International Olympic
Committee (IOC), but it was not an appeal by the coach that led the IOC to
reverse this decision. The IOC received several appeals to reverse their
decision, including one from Prince Albert of Monaco.[21]

Competition

While the Jamaicans did crash their bobsled on their third out of four
scheduled runs, the film implied the team was a medal contender, having run
a world record pace prior to the crash. In reality, they were in 24th place
(out of 26) after their first run was completed in 58.04. Their second run
was completed in 59.37, which was the next-to-worst time (25th). On the
third run, they had the worst time (1:03.19, good for 26th place), due to
the crash, which was almost five seconds behind the 25th fastest run. Of
the 103 runs that were completed in the four-man competition, nobody else
posted a time over one minute. So after three runs, the Jamaicans were in
26th (last) place with a cumulative time of 3:00.60 after three runs. This
placed them 3.23 seconds behind Portugal for 25th place, and 10.19 seconds
behind the Soviet team that was in third-place heading into the final run.
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 bring home a medal.[22]

Crash

In the film, the crash happens on the third and final run and is depicted
to have been caused by a mechanical failure in the front left blade of the
sled. As the driver steers, a nut and bolt on the control column work
loose, eventually causing a loss of control as the bobsleigh comes out of a
turn and subsequently crashes.

In reality, the crash happened in the third out of four runs, and it was
deemed that driver inexperience, excess speed, and regressing the turn too
high caused the sled to become unstable and top-heavy seconds prior to it
toppling onto its left side. The team did not start the fourth and final
run.

Real TV footage of the actual crash was used in the film but was heavily
edited to fit in with the film's version of the crash. Both the run and the
high speed crash were disorienting: team member Nelson Chris Stokes "felt a
bump" when they tipped but did not realize they had turned over until he
started to smell his helmet (which was fiberglass) friction-burning on the
ice, "which is something that stays with you for many years afterward."[23]

After the crash, the film depicted the Jamaicans carrying their sled on
their shoulders to the finish to a slow-building standing ovation. In
reality, they did not carry the sled but walked next to it. When the sled
tipped, they were doing 130 km/h (81 mph), and their helmets scraped
against the wall for 600 m (2,000 ft) until they came to a stop.[24] They
also received somewhat sporadic applause, less than the crescendo response
in the movie,[25] but the real bobsled driver Dudley Stokes cites the
spectator applause as the reason the run turned from tragedy to triumph for
him.[24]

Four-man sled vs two-man sled

The film also gives the impression that the Jamaicans were the only team
from Central America and the Caribbean. This was the case in the four-man
sled competition, which the movie focuses on. However, in the two-man
competition there was also a bobsled team from Netherlands Antilles which
finished 29th (one place ahead of Jamaica's two-man sled team) and two
teams from United States Virgin Islands which finished 35th and 38th.[26]

The film focuses entirely on the four-man bobsled team, which crashed their
sled and finished last out of the 26 teams, as all 25 other teams were able
to complete all four runs. It ignores the fact that two members of the team
(Dudley Stokes and Michael White) also competed in the two-man sled
competition and successfully completed all four runs, finishing in 30th
place out of 38 teams that finished all runs, with three other teams which
did not finish. The remaining members of the four man sled team were Devon
Harris and Chris Stokes (Dudley's younger brother).[27] In fact the whole
formation of the bob-sleigh project as depicted in the film is incorrect.
The film depicts them as forming the team as a four-man bobsleigh team
right from the start. In reality, they started the project intending to
compete in the two-man bobsleigh event only. They only decided to compete
in the four-man event after having already completed the two-man event in
Calgary.[21]

Other differences

In the movie, the weather is depicted as bitterly cold with a temperature
of −25 °C (−13 °F). Actual temperatures in Calgary during the Games were
well above normal, including some daytime highs above 16 °C (61 °F).[28]

Federation Center

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8032543777?pwd=QTVQd2RzN3l6QnNmZ0FmSnp6NG8vQT09

Meeting ID: 803 254 3777 Passcode: 124578

One tap mobile +19292056099,,8032543777# US (New York)

Steve Cook

District 2 State Board Member of the National Federation of the Blind of SC

President of the Columbia chapter of the National Federation of the Blind
of SC

1st Vice President of the Computer Science & Technology Division of the
National Federation of the Blind of SC

The National Federation of the Blind of SC owns and operates Rocky Bottom
Retreat & Conference Center.  Below is a link to read more about Rocky
Bottom and to make a reservation for a mountain retreat!

Rocky Bottom Retreat & Conference Center <http://rockybottomofsc.com/>

Please join the National Federation of the Blind of SC on Face Book at any
of the below links!

National Federation of the Blind of SC on Face Book
<https://m.facebook.com/NatFedofSouthCarolina/>

Computer Science & Technology Division of the National Federation of the
Blind of SC
<https://m.facebook.com/Computer-Science-Technology-Division-of-the-NFB-of-SC-343263089815304/>

Rocky Bottom Retreat & Conference Center
<https://m.facebook.com/RockyBottomofSC/>

South Carolina Association of Blind Students
<https://m.facebook.com/Scabs1944/?refid=46&__xts__%5B0%5D=12.%7B%22unit_id_click_type%22%3A%22graph_search_results_item_tapped%22%2C%22click_type%22%3A%22result%22%2C%22module_id%22%3A1%2C%22result_id%22%3A103680927718372%2C%22session_id%22%3A%22dde06b014c19c1fa49889d82a62edcda%22%2C%22module_role%22%3A%22ENTITY_PAGES%22%2C%22unit_id%22%3A%22browse_rl%3Aaed5eb18-5eed-4148-8ec7-5150ce26bf7b%22%2C%22browse_result_type%22%3A%22browse_type_page%22%2C%22unit_id_result_id%22%3A103680927718372%2C%22module_result_position%22%3A0%7D>

South Carolina Parents of Blind Children
<https://m.facebook.com/groups/375092969314880?_rdr>

You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams.

-- 

Warmly,
Linda Melendez, President
National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey
732-421-7063
Email: president at nfbnj.org
*Website: **www.nfbnj.org* <http://www.nfbnj.org/>
*Facebook: **https://m.facebook.com/NFB-NJ-353099574776238*
<https://m.facebook.com/NFB-NJ-353099574776238>
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*YouTube: **NFBNJTransformDreams*
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKEDbjGsCYHMlwd4gqpBPjg>

*Live the life you want.*
*The National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey is a community of
members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s
blind. Everyday we work together to help blind people live the lives they
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