Cool Runnings, Migration, and Me – Literature and Immigration

My Experience

I first watched Cool Runnings when I was younger, during a time in my life when my access to television was very limited. When I moved to the Bronx, NY in 2010, my family was still using one of those large, box-style televisions with the antenna, and for almost an entire year we relied on VHS tapes alone, before we finally upgraded to DVD’s. Cool Runnings was one of a small group of movies we had available, which meant that I watched it on excessive repeat. Even though I was still a kid, I was old enough to understand the jokes, just not old enough to understand the deeper meaning of the story. At the time, it just felt like a funny sports movie that I liked watching because they were from the Caribbean. But, as I’ve rewatched over the years while growing up, I’ve started to reflect more on my own identity as an immigrant from St. Kitts living in the US. Rewatching Cool Runnings as a college student now, hits very differently. Instead of just seeing an underdog international story, I now feel a sort of emotional connection to the characters’ journey of leaving the familiar and stepping into a space where they feel like outsiders. There were moments where I laughed, but also moments where I felt understood in a way that I never thought of when I was younger. The movie now reminds me of my own family’s migration story and the feelings that come with adjusting to a new environment.

Classyfing My Experience

The main experience I had while watching Cool Runnings is connection, tied in closely with empathy. I felt a strong connection to each character because, even though their story is not exactly identical to mine, the core of their migration journey felt famaliar. I found their confusion, frustration, and determination the most relatable and identifiable traits. Watching the team navigate this along with judgement and doubt made me empathize with the lack of cultural understanding displayed at times throughout the movie. This empathy I felt also led to my realization of the identification I feel with this film. Many of the emotions displayed throughout the film after their migration, are feelings I too, have experienced. I also experienced a form of wonder, especially because of the way the movie displays success. Instead of winning gold medals, success becomes about dignity and pride, representing where you came from. I imagine others may have experienced similar feelings of connection and empathy when watching stories of outsiders trying to prove themselves in new spaces. This experience became a recognition of a shared struggle.

The Features Prompting My Experience

Several features of the movie have prompted this experience for me. One major feature is the contrast between Jamaica and the world of bobsledding, in other words, cultural displacement. The movie repeatedly puts emphasis on how out of place the team seems, because of their lack of winter and snow experience. This displays the feeling many immigrants experience when they enter a space or environment that feels completely foreign. The most obvious display of this throughout the movie, is the airport scene. In this scene, they have just landed in Canada in below zero weather. The humor of the scene downplays the reality and struggles that they are now, and will be facing ahead.

Another important feature is the diversity of Derice, Sanka, Junior, and Yul as characters. They each have a very distinct personality and differing motivations, but are still united by determination. This moment comes full circle in one of the last scenes where they carry the bobsled across the finish line by hand, after crashing. Although they might’ve lost the race, the scene still felt like a victory. Humor, as before mentioned, is also significant in the story. It makes the story accessible and appealing, and lightens up the more difficult and emotional scenes. This balance makes it much more relatable to my own experiences.

Determining The Narrative Technology

The narrative technology behind Cool Runnings, empathy generator, seems to be the first one that fits the film best. By placing Caribbean characters in a traditionally white, European dominated sport, we are intentionally placed with feelings of displacement, which is what made me feel connection in the first place. With this, the film also displays an opportunity to observe and pivot into positive emotion. Within the pivot to positivity, humor is placed. It is used to relieve the heaviness and seriousness of the emotion-heavy scenes of defeat and the more downing scenes. By creating a story where the characters are constantly underestimated and judged, we can’t help but feel these feelings with them as the story goes on. This builds empathy and makes us feel like we can sense failure and defeat coming, as it repeatedly has so far. But instead the story pivots defeat into humor and pride, as mentioned earlier when the team carries the bobsled across the finish line themselves after their big crash during their Olympic debut. Instead of leaving the audience in disappointment as expected, the narrative is shifted into positive emotions of dignity and possibly even pride. Through these technologies, the film is meant to be a story of migration that shows growth and adaptation, and not just loss.