The Express

2008 "He changed our country... one yard at a time."
7.2| 2h10m| PG| en
Details

Follow the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

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Reviews

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!
TeenzTen An action-packed slog
Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Jordan Diekman "The Express" one of the most iconic football movies ever, but it is rarely talked about with movies like "Rudy", "Remember the Titans", or "Radio." Don't get me wrong all those are great movies, everyone loves them, but when I mention the football movie "The Express." I get responses like," What is that about?" or "Was it any good?" To these questions, I just tell them this movie is simply a masterpiece all the way from the acting to the time this movie took place. John Davis's film "The Express" is a true story that dives into the life of Ernest Davis.The ever so good performance in the movie is by Rob Brown. He had the task of playing the great college running back Ernie Davis. The way he played the character was phenomenal. The way he would captivate the audience with his moves on the football field. He had that look about him, he looked like a well-dressed and well- respected black man. When things got heated in the movie and teams would start to beat up on him made, it seems like you were watching the exact fight. Throughout the movie as Ernie gets older, the audience can definitely see the transformation. In the beginning he was a spry young athlete then Rob Brown was able to look older and act older as well. There was another great performance in the movie. He played the part of coach Ben Schwartzwalder of the University of Syracuse was Dennis Quaid. I have always been a big fan of Dennis Quaid and in this movie he certainly didn't disappoint. He played the hard-nosed stubborn coach that has a soft side. The audience could definitely see it in the movie. On the outside he was a rugged older man with a soft spot to his new talented running back Ernie Davis.The story of Ernie Davis is about the fight to equality. It's about an African American man trying to play football when everyone else around him is white. The movie started out by talking about Ernie Davis's childhood. This gives us vital details about him that carry over when they move to his older ages. He gets recruited to play football and the University of Syracuse where they had a star of their own named Jim Brown. The first year Ernie is eligible to play the movie does a great job leaving the audience in suspense while they play their games. He goes on to defy all odds and the movie throws out an unexpected twist that makes the audience feel sorry for someone like Ernie Davis."The Express" is a movie that isn't as talked about as some of the other great football movies. When really this movie is up there as being the best football movie of all time. This movie is the jack of all trades. It has the high and excited moments but then it goes down and makes you realize how bad the country was during the segregation era. Then this movie pulls the tear jerk-er card out and makes everyone feel so bad for him. The story of Ernie Davis is one that everybody should be aware of.
SnoopyStyle Ernie Davis is 10 years old in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He stutters but runs really fast. He lives with his grandfather Pops (Charles S. Dutton). His mother Marie Davis returns telling him that she's remarried. They move to the white town of Elmira, NY. Years later, Syracuse University football head coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) is looking to replace Jim Brown who has just signed with the Browns. With Jim Brown's help, he signs the wide-eyed Davis (Rob Brown) who would go on to become the first negro to win the Heisman Trophy.This is a functional biopic taking on all the familiar ideas. It is beautifully shot. Rob Brown has a wide-opened personality with his bright-eye performance. The biggest problem for me is that the movie recruits the audience with a more interesting character in Jim Brown. I can't help but think that Jim Brown has the more compelling story. There isn't anything wrong but there isn't necessarily anything new. It's a workmanlike effort.
mario_colic Before I saw this movie I only knew that its about American football. So I did not expect much except nice moves, plays...etcBut this movie is much more than that. It shows how was it for African American person in America back then. However, it doesn't succeddes to transfer experience from those times to viewers as much as director wanted, but it certainly shows that football was mostly much more than a game.Acting was good, Dennis Quaid made great performance as head coach. Plot had no major errors, although it may seem that it was moving too fast at the end. On the other hand, more than 2 hours are enough, so its acceptable.All in all...I give it a 8...great effort, good movie, certainly worth watching.
JoeytheBrit Even though I knew absolutely nothing about Ernie Davis, the tragic young hero of this biopic, as I watched this film the suspicion that I was watching one of those largely fictionalised accounts that typifies the kind of biopics Hollywood churned out in its golden age kept growing with each predictable emotional peak and plot twist. A quick scan of some of the comments on the film's message board quickly confirmed those suspicions.Chronological impossibilities aside, this film could have easily been made in the 30s or 40s. Ernie Davis - and every other black character in this film - is filled with a kind of pious nobility that set them apart from most white characters in the film - apart from those insightful enough (such as gruff old coach Burgess Meredith, erm, Jon Voight - no, Samuel L. Jackson… Gene Hackman? Dennis Quaid!) to see the boy's football talent (but not his uniqueness as an individual) . The whites in this film are blindly racist West Virginians or gung-ho jocks or wise-cracking sports reporters. Everything is black and white, you might say.The film's well-made, the acting is good (especially Rob Brown as Davis), and there's no doubting the sincerity of the writers or the source material. But by following conventional biopic story lines and blatantly distorting certain incidents and situations in order to make a 'better' film, the makers severely dilute its impact and bring into question every aspect, thus making it unreliable as a 'true story.' It might also perhaps have been wiser to finish the film after Syracuse's victory over Texas at the Rose Bowl, with titles to inform the viewer of Davis's winning of the Heisman Trophy and the illness that cruelly cut short his life, rather than continuing another half-an-hour after its emotional and inspirational peak.