The Express (2008)

There has been well-documented commentary about the producers of The Express having taken liberties with some of the facts. While this is true, none of those liberties really obscure or confuse the Ernie Davis story. If you want to see a more factual presentation of the Ernie Davis story, check out the 30-minute documentary about Davis in ESPN's SportCentury series. It is very well done, too. You'll find that in this feature film, there is not much significant straying from fact.

This was an excellent film. In the theater where I saw the film, the audience was so into the movie, particularly the football action, that some folks actually cheered when Davis would make a good run or score a touchdown. The director and actors did a great job of hooking the viewer into the intensity of the games. Great story without getting too hung up on the national politics of the time. Highly recommended.

Being a football fan I am ashamed to say I didn't know this story before seeing the film. I did have some knowledge of this tragedy, but I didn't know the full story. This is a gripping biography about a young man who never got the chance to reap the rewards for his hard work and perseverance through a time when this county didn't see blacks as people. It's hard to believe this was only 60 years ago! It's really appalling how we treated certain people in those days and it's only been in the last 20 years when we have even begun to put this practice in the garbage where it belongs.

The film follows the life of football running back Ernie Davis who has such an inspiring, but ultimately sad story of how he overcame many hard ships to become an incredible running back and model sportsman. The film has a great balance of football heroics and compelling drama and should keep any movie fan interested during its two hour running time.

Excellent performances and realistic action make this a winner from start to finish! I would love to see a film about Barry Sanders that was handled this well. Although Sander's story isn't nearly this sad, it's really one that should be told, you don't have to win the Superbowl to be a winner!.....Hollywood are you listening?

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The Express is the story of Syracuse running back Ernie Davis. Davis followed the great Jim Brown and played for Syracuse in the late 1950s. Davis might have been even better that Jim Brown. Davis led his team to a national championship and became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.

This is a another feel-good racism sports movie along the lines of Meet the Titans or Glory Road. I say "feel-good" because the harsh realities of American racism in the late 1950s are explored and covered, but racism's true graphic and intense nature is never displayed.

Ernie Davis was always an optimistic man. He was one of a few minorities on campus and on the team, yet he was always kind to everyone. This movie made even better because most people haven't heard of Davis. He died tragically at the age of 23 from lukemia. He is truly a man that deserves to be honored in a movie like this.

The football scenes are top notch. Dennis Quaid is great as the Orangemen coach. The period settings really capture the feel of the time this movie was based in. On a downside, after watching the film, I still don't feel I know who Ernie Davis was, other than a man who battled racism. I wish the movie could have explored his personal life more.

I'm only 36 and thankful I've grown up in a time and location where racism has not been a part of my life. This movie pays homage to a man who broke the color barrier when it wasn't easy and made it possible for a man who is also African American to become president of the United States.

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Gary Fleder's "The Express" just adds to the ever-increasing list of sports movies centred around a hero overcoming adversary. The producers successfully managed to combine the true story of athletic achievement and overcoming racism to create a melodramatic movie that we've all seen before.

Although "The Express" doesn't stand out and is entirely predictable, it definitely appeals to the masses. Ernie Davis played by Rob Brown, is shown as a promising football player while growing up who goes on to play for Syracuse University and eventually gets drafted by the Cleveland Browns. During his time at Syracuse, Davis leads his team to win the school's first national football championship and becomes the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.

All of the actors portrayed their characters as likeable and charismatic although almost all of their roles can be found in every other dramatic sport film. Ernie's white teammates are rude and intolerant of Ernie and start a number of locker room fights while Dennis Quaid's character is the harsh coach with a good heart who sticks with Davis until the very end. Although the numerous shots of football games along with fast paced music keep the audience's attention, the storyline is extremely predictable and difficult to get invested in.

"The Express" has excellent cinematography with plenty of scenes of the real football games that Ernie Davis was playing in along with re-enacted footage that will leave you gaping at the screen. However, cinematography can only go so far in telling the story and what the director, Gary Fleder, excelled at in the technicalities of filming, he fell short at with portraying Ernie Davis' story in a way that moved viewers. The concept of Davis becoming a star in an environment where he was constantly facing discrimination is undoubtedly a powerful one. This coupled with Davis' diagnosis of leukaemia alone has the potential of an extremely powerful film. However, viewers never got to see how Ernie evolved as a person and how he felt about not being able to join his team at hotels and restaurants because of the colour of his skin. Ernie's diagnosis was also not focused on until around the last 20 minutes of the movie and even then, the tone of the movie didn't match the direction that the story was heading in, one where Davis died at only 23 years old.

Scenes that focused on the racism prevalent in Davis' life were mostly inaccurate. It was definitely something that Davis and the Syracuse team had to deal with but the screaming southern Texans that were shown at the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic were a product of dramatic licence. One of the first games shown was between Syracuse and West Virginia University during which West Virginia team members and referees both acted with obvious bias against the Orangemen. Film Journal International critic Frank Lovece commented on the scene by saying that it "veers remarkably toward outright slander." In reality, the Syracuse coach, Ben Schwartzwalder, was revered at WVU and the Syracuse quarterback Dick Easterly said that the scene was completely fictitious. The pivotal Cotton Bowl scene was also inaccurate with its representation of the racial tension in the stadium. Bobby Lackey who was quarterback of the University of Texas team said, "...they were making up stories to try and sell more movie tickets."

Not only were the football games inaccurate but it can also be argued that the entire movie did not accurately represent Ernie Davis' life at all. John Brown, Davis' friend, teammate, and roommate was asked whether or not the film was a genuine portrayal of Ernie and Brown said, "...in short, no."

"The Express" is a well made Hollywood take on how Ernie Davis went on to become an inspiration to thousands and is perfect for those who won't mind watching yet another adaptation of every football movie in existence.

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The Express is a film with numerable historical inaccuracies, fictionalized recitations, composite characterizations and tangential embellishments not unlike Rudy, Remember the Titans, Hoosiers, Glory Road, Brian's Song, and in all probability any other sports oriented film based on true events and people. Yet, not one of the aforementioned presumptive deficiencies serve to mitigate my personal contention it remains a worthwhile movie for any real fan of college sports and manages to effectively convey the spirit of socio-cultural dictates of the represented era . It is an absolutely enjoyable drama based on the life Ernie Davis, not a documentary of the life of Ernie Davis.

Davis was not a trailblazer nor was he alone in absorbing the ignorant, racist invectives and missiles launched in the direction of blacks from nearly every nook and cranny of an America gradually but at glacial-like pace being moved in the direction of a more pluralistic society. From most accounts and most assuredly based on the depiction in this movie, he was an impressive individual and athlete who by virtue of his athleticism ascended to the status of role model and hero for legions of people but tragically was afflicted with leukemia and died at the much too tender age of 23.

Portrayed with subtle intensity by Rob Brown and continually juxtaposed with his college coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid, in a role where significantly more complexity was exhibited than he is typically given credit), it matters little if his spectacular 87 yard touchdown catch/run occurred in the 1st quarter or was transposed to the 4th quarter in the movie for dramatic impact. In either case, the value of his performance in the 1959 Cotton Bowl was incalculable as it related to the uplift of a marginalized, suppressed black populous in Dallas, Texas specifically and the nation, in general. Unfortunately, unlike a near to contemporaneous role model from another sport, Roy Campenella, whose career was also derailed by a debilitating disease, Davis never had the opportunity to demonstrate his athletic brilliance in the brighter lights of professional sports and stills remains an unknown quantity for far too many.

Flawed or not, this film is a genuine and timely attempt to address that obscurity.

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