The Express (Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid) – Beware: this is a true story. Otherwise, you might just say you saw this film before and it’s nothing new. But the truth has a way of making an overdone story line compelling. This is the story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American football player to seriously contend for college football’s top award, the Heisman Trophy. Growing up with his grandparents in my neck of the woods in Western Pennsylvania (in Uniontown, actually) in the 1940s, Davis moves to Elmyra, New York, in the ’50s when his mother gets on her feet. He quickly grows into a mature young man as well as a sports star and is heavily recruited by colleges across the country. But he ends up at Syracuse in the early ’60s, mostly because he is recruited not only personality-challenged Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Quaid) but also by the Orangemen’s star halfback, Jimmy (now just Jim) Brown. Brown, many would argue, should have won the Heisman himself and went on to one of the most storied careers in the NFL. The brash, outspoken Brown convinces the much more laid-back Davis to attend Syracuse. Schwatzwalder is a disciplinarian with a reputation for producing excellent players. But he is also a product of his times, one where black players were tolerated but not welcome, particularly in rival institutions like West Virginia and in some bowl locations, like the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The story is told well; avoids being overly maudlin; and like the recent football film, Invincible, is child-friendly. In this year when an African American has been nominated for the biggest prize of them all, the American presidency, the story of Ernie Davis tells us just how far we have come as a nation. It’s for football fans, of course, but it is also a warm but bittersweet story.