The Express Movie Review

When the civil rights struggle of the 1950's and 1960's meets college football makes its way to film, The Express is the result. Even though it covers a heavy topic, and is important to American history and sociology, The Express lacks emotional depth to make the audience care if they are not already interested in the story of the first black Heisman trophy winner Ernie Davis. Quite simply put, The Express is an adequate story told adequately.

African American Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), an exceptional football player, enters college football at Syracuse University in at a time when being black was reason enough to keep you from playing. As enlightened as self interest could make him, Davis' coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) does his best to bring out the best of Davis' skill. His teammates both love and hate him. Jack Buckley (Omar Benson Miller) is firmly on the love side. The Southern football teams and their fans just hate him. Even though Davis does not want to make race an issue when he plays football, he can't seem to avoid the issue.

There were no exceptional performances in The Express. Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid, Omar Benson Miller and all the rest of the actors offer the audience nothing more than just good enough. Every actor in The Express gave a B- performance. When dealing with such a heavy subject, it is impossible to give an average performance and still lift the mass of the story.

Not a single scene's visuals took my breath away or offered anything out of the ordinary. Much of the movie is football, with a side of football, served with a bowl of grid iron, with an appetizer of pig skin. For those not interested in watching 1/16^th of a football game 20 times will find their eyes glazing over during numerous football scenes.

The Express is full of awkward bridges through time that detract from the overall storytelling. Flash backs are common and unnecessary. Transitions between themes, time, and characters are choppy. The story flow is as smooth as a race boat in the ocean near the shore. Story whiplash does nothing except cause audience injury.

I don't have any deep technical or philosophical complaints or serious problems with The Express. In fact, I have almost nothing to say about it. I suspect it will be quickly forgotten, sent off to the land of obscurity where most sufficient movies lay to rest.