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Even though the story of Syracuse running back–and the first African American Heisman Trophy winner–Ernie Davis has never been told on the big screen before, it’s hard to watch the new biopic The Express without feeling a certain sense of déjà vu.  Just take a look at the plot elements for a second.  A ’60s-era black athlete encountering prejudice in a white-dominated sport?  Wasn’t that movie called Glory Road?  A gruff coach whose views on life and the game are changed forever thanks to one great player?  Sounds a lot like Hoosiers.  A football legend-in-the-making whose career is tragically cut short by cancer?  Oh man, that Brian’s Song gets me every time!

Of course, it’s not The Express’ fault that we’ve seen aspects of its story told in other movies.  After all, it’s not like the filmmakers could completely change the details of Davis’ life in the name of making the film version more “original.”  Besides, a clichéd sports movie can still be a good sports movie if its got the right combination of strong performances, a compelling personal story and tense game play.  And luckily for The Express, it’s got all three.  As Davis, Finding Forrester’s Rob Brown cuts a charismatic figure on and off the football field, while Dennis Quaid lends his usual authority to the role of Syracuse’s famous coach, Ben Schwartzwalder.  (The other notable performance comes from Darrin DeWitt Henson as Syracuse veteran Jim Brown; although he doesn’t really resemble the football legend, Henson does capture the sheer force of Brown’s personality.)  Their relationship forms the heart of The Express, lending the movie an emotional weight that guides it through some of its rougher patches, most notably a subplot involving a lame romance between Davis and Sarah Ward (Nicole Beharie), which may or may not be an invention on behalf of the screenwriters.

Football is a notoriously difficult sport to capture realistically on film.  That’s why the best pigskin flicks-including Peter Berg’s Friday Night Lights and Oliver Stone’s underrated Any Given Sunday-elevate it to something resembling gladiatorial combat.  Director Gary Fleder takes a more traditional approach to The Express’ game sequences, relying on lots of fast cutting and tight close-ups of the scoreboard to generate excitement.  This approach doesn’t always work, but it does here, mainly because the film already has us rooting for Davis to triumph in the face of all the doubters, including those on his own team.  And that’s the final piece of the puzzle that puts The Express above run-of-the-mill sports movies like The Longshots and Invincible.  Davis’ real-life story is too important, too inspiring to not capture our attention.  Despite its flaws, at least The Express does its best to honor this groundbreaking player’s memory.

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