User reviews

This was a very well acted movie. Dennis Quaid did a great job of playing the coach and Rob Brown was the perfect choice for Ernie Davis. The ratings this movie has received so far are not in line with the quality of this film. This movie in no way presented a political point of view. The only thing political was what happened in real life. This was the recognition given to Ernie by the president of the time. (which was JFK) Other than this movie was more inspirational. It showed the character of Ernie Davis and the faith he had in his own abilities, his coach, family and his God. Ernie Davis has reshaped College sports. Due to his ability to cope with hatred and racism in a positive way. The game of college sports has vastly become more professional. The talent of teams today is far greater than the past. Ernie opened the door foe all races in sports; thus increasing the abilities of the teams. I highly recommend this film.

Enjoyed the movie but for purist there were many factual inaccuracies. Syracuse did not play Boston College in 1959. The West Virginia game in which WV and their fans are portrayed as very racist was played in Syracuse not Morganton. In the Texas game of that year the score was never 15-14. There are others but that suffices. When a description is "based" on a true story it means not everything is necessarily true. Remember that as one videographer told me, "we are artists and entertainers and not historians!"

When studios turn back the clock in movies, they expose the excessive baggage which accompanied our bigoted and ignorant past. Audiences living in the present decade can observe all of the social ills of those bygone eras. Social problems in America have all but been buried, yet irritatingly they surface when our society is reminded not every American has learned the lessons of the past. Thus it is with this superior movie called " The Express." The great Ernie Davis is played by Rob Brown as an adult and Justin Martin in his youth. Both actors do a incredible job. Dennis Quaid plays Ben Schwartzwalder, the inspirational coach who does an exceptional job. The icon Jim Brown is played by Darren Henson and Charles Dutton is William Davis Sr. Although the film traces the life of Ernie Davis, it only highlights the major events, tragedies and triumphs of the all star player at Saracues University. The movie is inspirational on many levels and touches the viewer with the most dramatic obstacles such as racism and segregation. Indeed a personal meeting with the late great John F. Kennedy is sure to evoke positive memories. Throughout the entire movie one is offered a blunt eye-view of our most brutal social affliction and one can only hope our great nation will one day make it obsolete. Easilly recommended to all audiences. ****

The Express was one of the best sports movies I have seen. It tells the story of Ernie Davis, who was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy and his relationship with his coach, Ben Schwarzwalder.

It is set in the late 50's where there was still a great deal of prejudice against African Americans, even in the northern states where segregation was not overt. Ernie's optimism and willingness to be the best football player he can be, not just the best African American football player was portrayed perfectly by Rob Brown. He was inspiring and you couldn't help rooting for him to succeed.

Ben was a crusty, set in his ways coach, who couldn't see beyond winning the game. Ernie helped him see that a football team is made up of individuals who have to pull together to achieve their goals. Dennis Quaid is an excellent actor, who can say so much with just a smile or a raised eyebrow. He is so natural, it is as if he isn't acting at all. Dennis & Rob have a very good chemistry, and they made every scene believable.

The Express was similar to the Rookie, another great film that Dennis Quaid starred in. Both films had just the right amount of drama, set off with little bits of comedy to relieve the tension.

At the showing I attended, the audience was very moved by the film because when it was over, there was much applause, something you don't hear much in movies these days.

You don't have to be a football fan to love this movie. I highly recommend it.

'The Express', though based on Ernie Davis's life, is given a very Hollywood treatment. The story is uplifting and even inspiring to some, especially how Davis chooses to fight racism, not with violence, but with American football. Yet, the film itself is sugarcoated and has the deja-vu feel. For example, it is easy to predict which team will win (as is the case with most sports film). However, the last 20 minutes were handled well. Those scenes could have easily been melodramatic but the director chooses to play it down here. The background score is very intrusive at times. I thought the issue of racism was well tackled. This isn't 'just another movie about racism' because the conflicts are well depicted and dealt with (like one would think it would be in the 50s). Dennis Quaid definitely moves a step forward from his usual average acting. It's impressive to see him get under the skin of the character rather than play the usual formula. Rob Brown does a fine job and holds his own. Overall, 'The Express' tells an important story about a man who made a difference in American history even though his name is not known to everyone.

It's a shame that this film went to such trouble to get details like uniforms and campus settings accurate and then played so loosely with the facts. A prime example is when the 1959 Syracuse team won the national championship by defeating Texas in the Cotton Bowl, an event portrayed as if the Orange had never experienced such a rabid segregationist setting. In fact, they had played in the same Cotton Bowl three years earlier, losing to TCU 28-27. And for that game they had Jim Brown, an African-American, on the team so the problems they encountered (segregated hotels etc.) would not have been unexpected nor unprepared for. The actual game is totally mixed up, that is to say the first SU TD was the 87-yard Schwedes to Davis pass, not the last, as shown. And, as Schwartzwalder was always quick to point out, Texas was never within fewer than two scores of overtaking the Orange -- not as close as 15-14 as shown in the film. One could go on and on, but to someone unfamiliar with the facts, it is an inspiring story that should complement other films about the civil rights era.

My husband and I saw EXPRESS yesterday and truly enjoyed this movie. We love movies based on true stories and also enjoy sports so this was a winning combination! We found this movie to be truly captivating and beautifully told. The acting was superb.....everyone did a fantastic job of making it all very real. We didn't know anything about Ernie Davis and feel so privileged to know his story. Of course we knew Jim Brown, but Ernie never even had a chance to show his real talents to the world via the Cleveland Browns. What a gifted young man he was and all the difficulties he had to face made him even more special. As far as the people who don't appreciate WV being shown in that light, my husband was in the Army in 1960-1963, and whether it was WV, NC, SC, or any other state in that vicinity that is exactly how it was and he experienced that type of hate first hand. Thank you for bring us such a meaningful film. We hope it is a huge success.

Loosely based on the life of the first black football player to win the Heisman Trophy, this follows a chap named Ernie Davis -- a name most viewers are unlikely to be familiar with -- throughout his school years. When he reaches Syracuse College, he finds he is one of two black players on his team. His coach is played by Dennis Quaid. The period was just far enough back in time that there were very few black football players, and in some states, blacks could not stay in the same hotels or attend social functions with whites. All of this is dealt with in a forthright manner, although some facts have been slightly altered to punch home the drama of the era. Quaid's coach is a gruff old man with a heart of gold, a role Quaid likely will be playing more and more often as he ages. You may not recognize many of the actors in this, but they are uniformly excellent. Worth a watch, even if you dislike football.

The Express was a wonderful sports movie with lots of drama. It had a ton of emotion and great feelings in it. Me watching the movie I felt like a fan. This movie will make you love sports even if you don't. It was inspirational in so many ways. The whole movie keeps you entertained and on the edge of your seat at the end. Each one of the football games were fun and exciting to watch. When their wasn't football in the movie the director found ways to keep the movie good and interesting. This movie had emotion. love, heart, tears, and inspiring moments. Their are many different scenes in this movie that are sad to watch and upsetting for the viewers. The thing that makes it so upsetting for us to watch is the thing they do to blacks in this movie. I think that everyone should see this movie just to see how life was. The life the blacks lived in this movie wasn't good. I think this movie will teach people to respect everyone no matter who it is. This movie was one of the best movies of the year. It was the best sports movie of the year and ever. It will honestly have you on your feet. It was such a great movie and was so inspiring and should be seen by everyone. It was great for kids, teens, adults, and even grandparents. It was so exciting and fun to watch all around. Their weren't any flaws pretty much. The movie has so many different messages that were great. The thing that is mostly the best part of the movie is that Ernie is the most unselfish person on and off the field in this movie. He shows everyone how to be a better person. The coach played by Dennis Quaid did a great job and was a good person and coach as well. The movie was based on a true story also. Overall this is one feel good movie. It is the must see sports movie. Go see it and have a fun time cheering and clapping.

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.

Really I think more like a 6.5 or 6.75 is a more appropriate rating. But it DEFINITELY deserves higher than the 5.4 it has now on this site! Wow, I was surprised to see such a low score. The movie is not the best movie ever, but it is good. The acting is stellar. The story is inspirational. It's a feel-good movie and it's family-friendly to boot, which warrants some kind of kudos in my book. I think the plot could have been fleshed out a little more, and perhaps a better writer or director (I have no idea who wrote or directed this by the way) could have brought more drama and impact to the script. But even with a mediocre script, it's a memorable movie. My criteria is this: if I'm thinking about the movie after I walk out of the theater, it's a winner. This story touched me and it was delivered in a way that hit that "special" place in my heart, and I'm not a pansy. So I say, give it a try. You won't be bored, you might not be thrilled, but you will smile and feel all tingly inside, and isn't that just about enough? I think so. See it.

Sending off the film in a monologue which encapsulates his entire story, lead character Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) concedes to the fact that he doesn't quite know how to end his story; it's a desirable lack of focus for a man who doesn't necessarily want to tell a structurally sound story, but a powerful and important message about his struggle instead. Yet this sometimes off balanced narrative unwittingly carries through onto this, the big screen adaptation of young Ernie Davis' story, and the movie as a result is worse off, no matter how faithful it may adhere to the source material which borrows largely from the main character's real life biography. The Express for all intents and purposes retains the important elements of Davis' short but inspiring tale, backing up the movie's hard hitting themes with solid heart, soul and passion; yet lumbered with a force-fed implementation that sacrifices the stories emotional integrity for mawkish melodrama, the feature too often looses its footing when it really counts. Nevertheless, with some fitting performances, stark photography and an endlessly inspiring story of unity, social injustice and change, The Express still manages to overcome its weaker moments to make a greater whole.

Told through the eyes of up and coming black American football sensation Ernie Davis, The Express delivers a two punch game that fights on two fields which turn out to be one in the same. Ostensibly the feature is about Ernie's battle to the top of the game back in its earliest days when to be black was looked upon as something of a weakness or automatic disqualification from being taken seriously. On this purely face value level, the movie does well; it has the building structure and bubbling tension needed to create the necessary highs and lows of a typical, engrossing sports movie. Watching Ernie is like watching a legend, and that's exactly what it should be like. Sure enough the man is more or less untouchable in the movie's first two thirds, but showing his weaknesses on field would be superfluous at best. Instead the script leaves much of Davis' conflict and hardship to be faced off the pitch, even when he's playing on it. At its heart, The Express is a moral tale of people coming together and letting parts of themselves go that maybe they hadn't thought through quite thoroughly enough; at its core, The Express is about racial discrimination. Counterbalancing the much more visceral aspects of the feature with this emotive, heart felt drama; the movie achieves both a sense of wonder and relevancy that still rings true to this day.

Despite the script's well intentioned spirit however, all does not go well when it is finally given transition to the big screen. Director Gary Fleder and composer Mark Isham too often inject the feature with an overbearing, sometimes sickening level of sugar coated melodrama. From the sweeping strings of Isham's sentimentally ridden compositions to Fleder's insistence on emphasising start contrasts between the stories dark and light moments, The Express sometimes boils down to mere caricature that belittles the ideas that the script is trying to get across. Thankfully though, all is not lost in either of their abilities; Isham does far better when scoring for the movie's faster moving segments and Fleder gets some hard hitting and poignant performances out of his main cast. The movie's central performances from Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid are nothing of any remarkable significance, but they serve their purposes well and do justice to the characters that they are playing; sure enough Quaid can be his withdrawn, wooden self from time to time, but his presence is a fine mixture of warm and cold, enough to make the relationship between the two main characters compelling to watch develop.

As engrossing as this can all be though, it's oft hard to swallow some of what the movie tries so hard to press upon you; it's a film that tries to raise questions whilst simultaneously answering without being too cynical, and for the most part, does that well enough, even if it is all a little too dependant on sucrose for its own good. So while watching The Express can feel a little like getting force-fed an over-sized, over-iced and over-baked cake to chow down on for two hours, the end result is at least in itself, satisfying. Telling a story of perseverance against the most uncomfortable of challenges whilst at the same time incorporating themes of friendship, family and even a little football into the mix, The Express is a movie that is more about the substance beneath rather than the sometimes troublesome crust that encompasses. It takes a long time to get there, and arguably ends far too late, but for anyone looking for an uplifting and inspiring tale of one man changing the course of history forever, then The Express should do well enough.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)

"The Express" is a Biography - Drama movie in which we watch the life story of Ernie Davis the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy along with the respect of everyone.

I really liked this movie because it is based on the life a very important rugby player who was what Jackie Robinson was for baseball and Jesse Owens for track and field. He was a fighter and he was respected from everyone. The direction which was made by Gary Fleder was good and he presented very well the life of Ernie Davis from his early years and the difficulties he faced when he was a kid to the matches he played in order to win the Heisman Trophy. Finally, I have to say that I liked the interpretations of both Rob Brown who played as Ernie Davis and Dennis Quaid who played as the coach Ben Schwartzwalder. I strongly recommend everyone to watch this movie because it's a life lesson for everyone and if you do so and you like this movie then I suggest you to watch the movies "42" of 2013 (Jackie Robinson) and "Race" of 2016 (Jesse Owens).

"The Express" tells the story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American winner of football's Heisman Trophy.

This could have been known as a factual, historically truthful movie IF the makers had not taken unnecessary racial shot at West Virginia University while producing the film.

The movie includes a scene in which Mountaineer fans hurl racial slurs and trash at Davis and his Syracuse University teammates during a 1959 game in Morgantown.

West Virginia was never mentioned in the original Charles Levitt script, nor did WVU play Syracuse during this historical time frame. Thus the film falsely depicts the West Virginia and WVU.

Levitt says the script he gave Universal Pictures did not mention WV or West Virginia University. He had said that the scene was supposed to depict a 1958 game at Tar Heels Stadium in North Carolina - a choice that also displayed artistic license.

"It is a sad fact of my business that when a screenwriter turns a script over to a studio, the studio and the filmmakers own it," wrote Leavitt. "They can do anything they want with it - even rewrite parts of it without consulting me and without my knowledge or consent."

The Express is an excellent movie based on a true story about the life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. For those of you who haven't seen it I won't say anything else about the movie. Because The Express is one those movies you don't want to know too much about before seeing it. I'm glad I didn't know too much about it because I was very impressed with this one because the Express was definitely much better than expected. The film does a great job of making you care about Ernie and most of the other characters who may not be in it much but they make the best of their limited screen time. The whole cast turn in great performances especially Rob Brown as Ernie Davis and Dennis Quaid as his tough but sympathetic college football coach. The rest of the supporting cast are admirable in their roles too. Mostly everything in this movie worked from the intense realistic football sequences to the drama of Ernie's inspirational life. The pacing was a little slow at times but the rest of the film made up for it's one flaw. Overall The Express was so much better than expected and is a movie based on a true story that deserves to be told which is brought to life because of the exceptional performances by the cast. Well done.

I enjoyed this. Its well made, well acted and inspirational but I'll admit I have seen better sports movies and at times it did feel a little clichéd and rah, rah even though its based on a true story.

The Express is based on the life story of Ernie Davis; a Syracuse university running back who became the first African American to win the Heisman trophy in 1961. This biopic covers his entire life and there were some sections that went on a bit too long (THAT game in Texas for example -which for a non football person seemed to take forever) and the ending also seemed abrupt, just a post-note as to what happened to him. *Sigh*

Rob Brown does a great job portraying Davis though and Dennis Quaid is fine, as the coach although he ain't no Billy Bob Thornton ala 'Friday Night Lights'. There were some decent sub roles here too; Nelson Ellis (True Blood) Charles S. Dutton, and Omar Benson Miller who was very likable.

This takes place just as the civil rights movement was gaining steam and Davis faced a ton of prejudice and just full on racism which always makes me uncomfortable, how he handles himself and challenges his coach to stand up for the players is what really makes him a hero. 11/6/14

In fact, I'm not a football fan, nor even a sports fan at that---this extraordinary movie would have slipped by me except for several reasons: One of them, my friend of some 30 years or so, Coralee Burch wrote a manuscript on the life of the protagonist in this story, real life college football great Ernie Davis. The years that she struggled unsuccessfully to pitch her script are still quite vivid in my recollection because for her it was a heartfelt labor of love. Ernie Davis, the first dark skinned winner of the coveted Heisman Trophy was to her a real life hero and she related to me more than once how he was not just a great athlete but beloved by everyone that ever met him, such was the greatness of his spirit…all of that despite the crushing bigotry that Davis faced coming of age in the mid-20th Century America and the brutal treatment and abuse heaped upon him from childhood.

The second reason is the actor chosen to play Ernie Davis, Rob Brown. I first discovered Brown in his first film Finding Forrester (2000). He was selected to play the lead opposite Sean Connery in this small, beautiful gem of a film at age 16 and without any training as an actor yet held his own superbly against Connery. The minute that I saw the trailer for The Express and recognized Rob Brown I decided I would see the film, even before I realized it was the story about Ernie Davis.

A curious coincidence as well, Ernie's greatest hero was Jim Brown, who played at Syracuse before Ernie and who went on to the Cleveland Browns once again followed by Ernie. Some of you will know the name Jim Brown because he has been an actor in Hollywood for decades. When I was in High School in Hicksville in the track team I recall quite vividly one day watching Jim Brown run a long distance race on the track leaving everyone behind as if they were jogging at a track meet with his High School, Manhasset.

Although Jim was instrumental in inspiring Ernie, as it turned out Ernie had an even better football record than Jim in college and might have also matched or bettered Jim in the NFL where Jim is today considered a legendary player. It was not meant to be, however, Ernie Davis died at age 23 of Leukemia just after being drafted by the Cleveland Browns.

To this writing I've read more than two dozen criticals on this film and although most critics liked the film not one grasped the meaning of the story. It was not a film about sports or football but about the triumph of the human spirit.

I'm sorry, but I got less than halfway through the movie before giving up on it and coming here. Maybe I'll read the book, because I love stories of triumph over cultural sins, but I simply cannot watch a movie so poorly acted. To the people saying the acting is anywhere from good to superb, I'm sorry, what? Were we watching the same film? I can only assume that the accolades for the acting quality comes from people whose taste is more Hallmark Movie Channel or Lifetime Network. This movie felt very much like a made for TV movie, from the acting to the rushed story, to the awful soundtrack. I'm sorry, this movie just doesn't make the cut.