'The Express'

Unlike genres such as “Horror,” “Action,” or even “Adult,” “Sports” does not command an aisle all its own at the movie store. Nevertheless, the sports film constitutes a distinctive genre complete with all the requisite conventions and clichés. “The Express” is a fine exemplar of this class of movies—not for its quality, but for its representativeness. Director Gary Fleder and writer Charles Leavitt rehash, but do not reinvigorate, a set of generic devices that will be familiar to almost any viewer who has taken in a sports film in the last 30 years. For better or worse—and with respect to creative innovation, I would argue worse—you know what you’re getting with “The Express:” an uplifting sports film through and through.

“The Express” tells the true story of Ernie Davis (played by Rob Brown), the first black football player to win college football’s most prestigious award, the Heisman Trophy. Davis hailed from Elmira, a small mining town in Pennsylvania—hence his real nickname, “The Elmira Express”—and followed in the footsteps of NFL hall-of-famer Jim Brown at Syracuse. Davis not only won the Heisman in 1961; he also led Syracuse to its only national championship in 1959 under Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, played by Dennis Quaid. His success story quickly turned into a tragedy: after being taken first overall in the NFL draft, Davis was diagnosed with leukemia before he ever played an NFL down. He died shortly thereafter at the age of 23.

In addition to his on-field performance, Davis was an admirable student and an even better person off the field—a sort of cross between Florida’s Tim Tebow (last year’s Heisman winner), and Jackie Robinson. Although his story is well-known among baby boomers, the legend of Davis is largely unknown to younger sports fans. If nothing else, “The Express” should familiarize another generation with Davis’s accomplishments. The problem, however, is that the film seems all too comfortable simply to remind us that Ernie Davis was quite a fellow—and in this respect it accomplishes little more than a well-written magazine piece.

Fleder and Leavitt conspire to consolidate a vast range of sports movie tropes into a single film. The broad template is that of a single hero facing adversity armed with talent and determination; uplifting triumph inevitably follows. The makers of “The Express” iterate this sequence not only in the overarching narrative, but in smaller, similarly predictable subplots that seem to start and end every 20 minutes. To their credit, Fleder and Leavitt do an admirable job of situating Davis’s plight within the context of a racially fraught era and the accompanying civil rights movement. Yet even this element feels derivative—with its ethic of racial harmony by virtue of athletic success, “The Express” calls to mind “Remember the Titans” more than it ought to.

Still, despite its staleness, fan of the sports movie will find plenty to like in “The Express.” Rob Brown has a warm smile that exudes the genuine amiability that was the hallmark of the real Ernie Davis. More importantly, given the wealth of football action scenes, he’s a fluid runner and convincing halfback. The on-field action becomes increasingly well-choreographed and edited as the film progresses, as if Fleder himself was in the process of learning how to stage and film a football play. The early sequences of Davis on-field are cut at a furious and ultimately disorienting pace, with the camera so close to the action as to obscure individuals. Thankfully, Fleder slows down a bit and zooms out during the climactic on-field sequences later in the film. Football fans will be pleased as well with the accuracy of the football terminology and the true-to-life feel of the action.

In its essentials, “The Express” is a movie we’ve seen before, and of a type that we’ll see again. To be sure, there are worse causes than raising awareness about Ernie Davis’s singular and inspirational story. Unfortunately, the overwhelming conventionality of “The Express” sands away this unique surface into an all too recognizable form.

—Staff writer Alec N. Halaby can be reached at halaby@fas.harvard.edu.