The Express is a movie about a man named Ernie Davis, who was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, college football’s most prestigious award. When Ernie was younger he was faced with the threat of racism growing up in a town named Uniontown, Pennsylvania. His mother, Marie Davis, was finally able to take him in and he was relocated to Elmira, New York. When Ernie relocated to Elmira he joined a Small Fry Football League. Even though he was troubled with the fear of racism, he still worked hard and eventually became the best player out on the football field.
Many years later the coach of Syracuse University, Ben Schwartzwalder, is looking for a running back to replace All-American Jim Brown. While the troubles grow, coach Ben finally looks at Ernie as a top prospect and decides to have a meeting with Ernie. Coach Ben signs Ernie and gives him the number 44 (Brown’s old number) and begins practice very quickly. As soon the veterans on the team see what number Ernie has received, they respond very harshly to him and go at him hard in practice, but Ernie responds very quickly by going hard at the other players.
For the first season Ernie is placed on the bench while his team struggles, especially when they lose to a low ranked Holy Cross team. Then at the start of the 1959 college football season, Schwartzwalder tells his team that he expects to win Syracuse’s first national championship. As the season progresses, Ernie leads his team to wins over tough ranked Kansas, Pittsburgh, Penn State University, and up-and-coming West Virginia Mountaineers. When the team gets to West Virginia and is in the locker room coach Ben tells his teams that they are going up against a very hostile crowd and doesn’t know how they will react when they see Ernie out on the field. As the game progresses, Syracuse controls the game most of the time . But 
Coach Ben tries to pull Ernie out of the game when they got close to the goal line because of the fear of how the crowd would react when Ernie scores, but Ernie refuses to go out of the game and scores the touchdown and Ernie and Coach Ben have a rough confrontation.
Coach Ben tries to pull Ernie out of the game when they got close to the goal line because of the fear of how the crowd would react when Ernie scores, but Ernie refuses to go out of the game and scores the touchdown and Ernie and Coach Ben have a rough confrontation.After Syracuse goes on to defeat UCLA, the team closes out the season ranked number one and undefeated in the season. The team is stuck with two choices: either play the University of Georgia in the Orange Bowl in Miami, FL, or play the University of Texas in the Cotton Bowl. So the team decides to play the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl. As the team travels to Texas they see the signs of Jim Crow laws. During the Cotton Bowl game on January 1, 1960, Ernie is sent to the locker room after a leg injury. His team led 15-0 at halftime, but then at the end of the third quarter the Texas Longhorns gain all of the momentum when they narrow the score 15-14. Then at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Ernie reemerges and down the stretch scores a crucial touchdown and makes and very important stop on defense and gives the University of Syracuse its first ever national championship and Ernie is named the Cotton Bowl’s Most Valuable Player.
A couple of years later the story picks up when Ernie receives the 1961 Heisman Trophy and get to meet President John F. Kennedy, who congratulates him on his accomplishments.
Ernie gets signed by the Cleveland Browns when Ernie finds out that the Washington Redskins refuse to sign an African American.
Then Ernie gets disturbed with a series of nosebleeds, and while practicing for the All-American football game, he loses consciousness. He is also told during practice that he will not be able to play in the upcoming season because of his medical conditions and soon finds out that he has leukemia. During a press conference he announces that he has leukemia and promises to fight the disease. The coach decided to let Ernie suit up and come out onto the field while being applauded by the fans before the game against the Chicago Bears.
The movie closes out with a written narration that tells us that Ernie soon died on May 18, 1963. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral and that the tradition of wearing number 44 was continued by Floyd Little.This is a movie that I will recommend to anyone because it gives us a little history lesson about the hardships that African Americans faced while playing sports. The one reason that I liked the movie was because it shows the really tough times of what went on while an African American was playing sports. But the one thing that I didn’t like about the movie was that it did have some foul language. So overall I would say that this is a very good movie that I would say you need to see very soon.
