Of course, Football season is amongst us from being a Nebraska fan to a Kansas City Chiefs fan and part time Dallas Cowboys fan (don't ask me, it's literally being tired of Jerry). And deep down I love the game of football and there's a lot of college football teams I despise but deep down I don't have a whole lot of hatred when it comes to any of the NFL rivalry teams on the opposite sides of the ball. Of all Football films you can find on the internet or find them on your streaming service. The Express is one of those films that puts you in a great mood about the greatness of football but is also an extraordinarily story about one man's story of strength and determination but also showing what it truly means to win one of the greatest trophies in College Football history.
The story centers on Ernie Davis (Reb Brown), the first African American athlete to with the Heisman Trophy. Born into poverty, Davis overcomes many obstacles to get into Syracuse University's football program. Under the guidance of Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), Davis becomes one of the school's best players, even surpassing legendary NFL player Jim Brown's achievements.
I think I've watched this movie while back when there was in actual video store still standing somewhere in late 2000's to beginning of 2010's and keep in mind if you look at a small town in any state of the United States you can most certainly see a small rental store in your local area, although I doubt there many now but maybe there's still left standing. Anyway, getting back to the Life of Ernie Davis, I honestly didn't know a whole lot about Davis or Dennis Quaid's character Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder moreover how great of a football program Syracuse used to have back in the mid-fifties, almost reminiscent of Nebraska football back in the mid-90's. The thing that really struct me about the movie is that it's a prototype to the Jackie Robinson's 42 movie, and the thing that makes me surprised is that it didn't do so well as 42, I mean this was a great and entertaining movie about the first ever African-American to win the Heisman Trophy and more importantly sticks it to the Texas Longhorns on their own home turf and this is coming from a Nebraska fan growing up in the nineties and if you were a kid in Nebraska being raised as a fan for Nebraska football you're trained to hate your opposing rivals and Texas was one of those college football teams that you would despise from beginning to the very end and in fact one of my earliest memories was attending a Nebraska and Texas game furthermore we lost that game and the last memory I will always remember is Texas player planting the flag on the N, in the middle of the field. So, there is a reason why I rank this movie, The Express, as one of the greatest football movies of all time because Texas lost in the National Championship. Now I can understand that people didn't show up for this movie because this resembles Remember the Titans but, this was really a prototype for 42 and this would be five years after the Express's release Hollywood was like "well maybe the time is now to release a movie about Jackie Robinson". And truly Ernie Davis life story has the best elements of accomplishing the impossible and yet a twist of fate tragic happens but then you pass you knowledge to another Running back legend and to be honest re-watching this film again it has amazing college football score from Mark Isham, moreover through the course of the you root for Ernie Davis and then you feel for him at the very end but then you relish of how great of a football player, Davis was and guys like Davis were a two-way player when it came to fifties football and to be honest that's a different type of player that you'd never see in today's football. The other thing in what makes this movie fantastic is that you have a great list of supporting actors surrounding Reb Brown's performance, actors like Dennis Quaid and really when it comes to sports movies I would most certainly cast Quaid in any sports movie and he would deliver a great performance, he could of played Barry Switzer and I would suggest Dennis Quaid if it was a biopic about Brian Bosworth. More importantly you have a great actor in Charles S. Dutton most infamous for Rudy and he's great in the movie and the same goes with Clancy Brown as one of the assistant coaches who helps Quaid's character train Ernie Davis and even he does a great job as well and the most important part of making a sports movie like this is that you surround your unknown star with some well accomplished actors moreover is always the most important part when making a movie like this. For all football fans out there from College football fans to NFL football fans hell, even Fantasy football fans I would highly recommend watching The Express, because it's one of those unknown and underappreciated football films that needs to be seen to a wider audience, for more important reasons the story of Ernie Davis is one of the most extraordinary college football stories that you appreciate from beginning to the very end and I'll say it again, for me what makes this one of the greatest football movies in my opinion is simply Texas getting beat in the National Championship for which I could imagine any Oklahoma fans watching this movie and hearing Texas getting beat in the big game especially at the Cotton Bowl in the state of Texas. Even Oklahoma fans would consider this the greatest football movie of all time.
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