"To my kid brain, the 1993 Disney biopic about the debut of the Jamaican four-man bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics wasn't just funny. It was also intensely quotable, and even informative-I had no idea that Jamaica competed in the Winter Olympics until I saw the movie. And this feel-good, slapstick, family comedy wasn't just a touchstone for me. When I was growing up in Philadelphia, it was up there with Bob Marley as a cultural marker of Jamaica for American kids."
"Three-plus decades after its release, Cool Runnings' cultural importance hasn't waned. This year, with the island back in the four-man bobsled race (and determined to top the 1994 team, which placed 14 th), there are dozens of TikToks showing non-Jamaicans pledging fealty to their own countries' Olympic teams where bobsledding is concerned. The current Jamaican team itself has gotten in on the action with an ad for Airbnb that is chock full of Cool Runnings references."
A Jamerican '90s childhood offered few popular-culture touchstones representing mixed Jamaican-American heritage. A VHS animated folktale narrated by Denzel Washington and the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings provided rare representation. Cool Runnings presented the Jamaican four-man bobsled team's 1988 Olympic debut with quotable humor and surprising information for many viewers. The film became a cultural marker alongside Bob Marley for American kids. Decades later the film's influence endures through TikToks and a Jamaican team's Airbnb ad full of references. Nostalgia persists, but critical reassessment notes poor accents, historical inaccuracies, and an overly rosy depiction of Jamaicans, even as the film remains funny.
Read at Slate Magazine
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