For the record, I don’t consider this to be much of a spoiler.  Its’ history, it can be found here.  The Titanic sunk, Vince Papale made the team, get over it.

Think back, if you will, to a time when society was a lot less understanding and a lot more controversial.  A time when whites and blacks couldn’t share the same restaurant, let alone the same hotel.  That’s the setting for the movie, The Express, about a man named Ernie Davis who transforms a school (Syracuse) and captivates the nation by defying the racial barriers that so often restricted African Americans in society.

The story of running back Ernie Davis is one that I had not known previous to watching the film, and I’m not entirely sure that many people can say they are aware of how significant Davis is in college football history.  Without spoiling the whole story for you, I think it’s worth noting that it’s gripping enough to keep you interested for two hours.  Hell, I know I was.  The story was good enough to save some of the shortcomings of the film and still keep my interest.

Lets take a look at some of the issues with the film.  First: the race card.  The racial story lines in the film are huge, almost too overwhelming at times.  I felt like there were points in the film where it was focused more on the fact that a black player was playing rather than that he was dominating on his way to winning a Heisman Trophy.  If that was the goal of the director then he did a hell of a job making West Virginia and Texas look like a bunch of insensitive racist hicks.  Some of the camera shots were a bit strange during games and there were times when I felt like the producers were just messing around to see how many effects they could shove into one shot.  It’s sweltering hot in Texas, I understand that.  That doesn’t mean you need to make it look like a heat wave hit the whole screen on every shot.  I’m also not sure if it was the goal of the director to make Jim Brown look like a huge prick, but he did a pretty good job of it for most of the movie.  They don’t bother elaborating on why there’s such a tension between Brown and head coach Dennis Quaid Ben Schwartzwalder, which is a little discouraging considering I was looking for a reason to hate Quaid’s character.  Speaking of Quaid, lets talk about his performance.

Dennis Quaid failed again.  I was hoping he wouldn’t suck in Day After Tomorrow and…he sucked.  I was hoping he wouldn’t suck in The Rookie and…he sucked.  I was hoping he wouldn’t suck in The Express and…he fell right on the edge of sucking.  All Quaid did was play an overanxious head coach with 99 problems and a rusted piece of rebar shoved up his ass.  Thankfully for the movie, the actor who played Ernie Davis (Rod Brown) was impossible not to like.  And it was nice to have an inspirational sports movie with a main character that you didn’t get pissed off at for at least a portion of the movie for being a poon tang.  Ernie Davis was kick ass the entire time.  He didn’t get all soft and emo like Vince Papale did in Invincible and he didn’t start reading Moby Dick like Jake Taylor in Major League (though I’m skeptical that Major League falls into the “inspirational sports movie” category).  All Davis did was let the chip on his shoulder get bigger and bigger and smash everyone in his wake for two hours.  That’s my kind of main character.  You might also be asking yourself “Hey, do I recognize that lineman Jack Buckley from another movie?  Wasn’t he in that award winning awesome movie Get Rich or Die Tryin?”  Yes, yes he was.  You’ll sleep easier knowing that.

The movie has its’ share of corny ass lines.  “The war you’re gonna fight isn’t gonna be on the field.”  Yep, sure thing Jim Brown.  You got it buddy.  But then again, what inspirational sports movie isn’t loaded with cliche’ statements like that?  Overall, I thought the movie was pretty good.  To put it in the best terms possible, it’s a movie I’d watch if it was on TV and it’s a movie I’d probably go see in the theater but it’s not a movie I’d rush to buy on DVD when it came out nor is it a movie I’d see more than once in a theater.  Got all that?  Good.  So go see it when it comes out.  Tell me what you think.  It’s an inspirational film, it’s supposed to tug at your emotions.  More importantly, it’s a film that will teach you a thing or two about a guy who doesn’t get as much notoriety as he probably should get.  The Elmira Express.