‘The Express’ breaks through the line of football cliches

By Sally Kline
Examiner Movie Critic 10/10/08

Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) faces off against college football hero Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) in the drama based on the true story of the running back who smashed barriers on and off the field. — Universal Studios WASHINGTON – Though it may be called “The Express,” it moves like a local. But even if this biopic about the first African-American Heisman Trophy winner plays like a long, slow ride, it retells an inspiring true story with enough gridiron action to make for some middling diversion.

Journeyman genre director Gary Fleder (“Runaway Jury,” “Don’t Say a Word”) and screenwriter Charles Leavitt (“Blood Diamond”) adapt the book “Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express” by Robert Gallagher. As they tick through the standard motifs of the football flick, “Express” crossbreeds the racial breakthrough theme of “Remember the Titans” with the tragic denouement of the male tearjerking classic “Brian’s Song.”

Set mostly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it recounts how the protagonist from humble beginnings in Elmira, Pa., helped knock down the color barrier in collegiate life and sports to become a civil rights role model. Ernie Davis followed in the footsteps of and then surpassed the record of his mentor, pro legend Jim Brown (Darrin DeWitt Henson), who started the integration of Syracuse University as a running back just before him.

(Sidebar to D.C.-area residents: Davis is officially considered to be the first black Washington Redskin. But before Davis ever got to suit up here, the team’s notorious segregationist owner then, George Preston Marshall, immediately traded him to the Cleveland Browns.)

The Elmira Express, as he was nicknamed, is rendered respectably and respectfully by the lesser-known actor Rob Brown (“Finding Forrester”). Brown plays the hero as a reserved, straight-arrow personality. That may be partially why he seems to lack the sparkling star quality to invigorate a major Hollywood motion picture.

Dennis Quaid fills the bill well enough as Davis’ Syracuse coach, Ben Schwartzwalder, a reactionary whose backward thinking evolves thanks to his relationship with his principled player Davis. Charles S. Dutton plays Davis’ heroically hardworking grandfather. And the fine young character actor Omar Benson Miller, of last month’s “Miracle of St. Anna,” plays the faithful teammate.

The supporting cast adds dimension to the genre clichés — the scrimmage montages, the locker-room conflict and, of course, the Big Game pinnacle. That entails the dramatic 1959 Cotton Bowl showdown against the University of Texas in a still brashly bigoted Dallas.

But fairly early on in the proceedings, when Davis begins getting mysterious nosebleeds, you just know “The Express” won’t stop at a pleasant destination.

Quick Info
“The Express”
3 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton
Director: Gary Fleder
Rated PG for thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and brief sensuality
Running Time: 129 minutes

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