Search - The Express [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Good sports film with an inspirational hero

J. D. Best, author | Arizona | 08/17/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a well-acted sports drama with an inspirational story. Both Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid do an exceptional job, and all the secondary players are highly professional.



I read two complaints in the Amazon reviews. The first is historical inaccuracies. To me they seem restrained for Hollywood, and inconsequential to the story and theme. (Although moving the West Virginia game from a home game to an away game probably was unfair to West Virginia.) Dramatic license often gets stretched too far, but the ones mentioned in these reviews don't corrupt the story. The second complaint seems is that the Schwartzwalder character gets preference over the Davis character. Rather than being sent to the back of the script, Davis is elevated as a heroic character through the slow conversion of Schwartzwalder--who is a metaphor for the nation.



This is a sports film to own. Like Hoosiers, The Express is not just another story about a long-shot struggle toward victory. As a period movie, it will never appear dated, and it entertains as it gives us a glimpse of a transitional, but stormy, period in our history.

"

Past interference

mateo52 | State College, Pa. | 07/18/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."