Blu-Ray Review: True Story, Good Performance Give Speed to ‘The Express’

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Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – There’s nothing surprising about “The Express”. It’s a true story that hits all of the beats that you would expect it to for an inspirational sports movie. A big game, a bad injury, and the will to overcome extreme adversity - these are the staples of the genre.

Of course, this means that success or failure for a film like “The Express” comes down to execution. Gary Fleder’s film is far from perfect - it goes on about half an hour too long and has a miscast lead - but the true story is powerful and the always-great Dennis Quaid adds gravity to the ensemble.

The Express was released by Universal Home Video on January 20th, 2009.
Photo credit: Universal

“The Express” tells the story of Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), the first African-American to win one of the most coveted and remarkable prizes in all of sports, the Heisman Trophy. Davis won the award in 1961, but he started playing for the Syracuse Orangemen in 1958. Before that, he was already a name because of his high school accomplishments when the schools came calling.

The Express was released by Universal Home Video on January 20th, 2009. Photo credit: Universal

Jim Brown (Darrin Dewitt Henson) had just graduated from Syracuse University in 1957, when Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) and the team behind the school asked him to convince Ernie and his family that Syracuse was the place for him. Davis decided to give it a shot and quickly discovered that racism was prevalent not only on the road but at his own school. Even his coach told him he couldn’t date white girls on campus because he was afraid he would be hurt or run off if it was discovered.

Davis had such talent that he was placed on the Varsity team in his freshman year even though he couldn’t play just so his presence would improve the rest of the team during practice. “The Express” primarily deals with Davis’ sophomore year, one in which the Orangemen went undefeated and got all the way to the Cotton Bowl.

But it wasn’t easy. Davis dealt with shocking racism, both on and off the field. He would take cheap hits and refs wouldn’t call it. He and the other two African-Americans on the team couldn’t even stay in the same hotel for the Cotton Bowl because it was “color-restrictive”. Davis was a daring young man who made it all the way to the NFL, where fate dealt him the cruelest of blows.

“The Express” tells a story that all good football fans will love to hear, but it never needed to be 130 minutes long. The final act, after the Cotton Bowl, drags its way over the goal line. There’s a fantastic 105-110 minute film somewhere in “The Express”.

And I’m sorry to say it, but Brown simply isn’t very good. He too often mistakes “blank-faced” for “thinking”. He doesn’t have the natural presence that I believe any athlete good enough to win the Heisman must have had.

The Express was released by Universal Home Video on January 20th, 2009. Photo credit: Universal

On the other side of the cinematic playing field, Quaid is quite good here, as he almost always is in nearly every film he chooses. Even in bad material, Quaid is usually believable and he finds a gruff, underplayed tone for Schwartzwalder that’s completely believable. His work and the inherent drama of the story will get many audiences over the flaws of “The Express”.

It also helps that the film was released by Universal, one of the leaders in the Blu-Ray format. The video and audio aren’t particularly notable but are also never distracting. When I focused on the video and audio, I thought they were good, but it’s not a title to use to show off your system. Pick up The Bourne Trilogy released this week if you want to do that.

And the special features are notable and impressive, perfectly adding to the film without feeling superfluous. Fleder pops up for an interesting commentary track and “The Making of The Express” is a better-than-average featurette about the making of the film. Other featurettes include “Making History: The Story of Ernie Davis,” “Inside the Playbook: Shooting the Football Games,” and “From Hollywood to Syracuse: The Legacy of Ernie Davis”.

Fleder also comments on deleted scenes and BD-Live users can access both “My Scenes” and a download center that allows access to additional content, trailers, and more. Also exclusive to Blu-Ray is “50th Anniversary Of The 1959 Syracuse National Championship, a feature utilizing rare archival footage and interviews with players, coaches and fans, to illustrate how Ernie Davis and his team won Syracuse University their only football national championship in 1959.

“The Express” may not be perfect and is not the rental or purchase for viewers looking for something unpredictable, but there’s something comforting about sports movies that are done well and Fleder’s film is one.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com