The Ernie Davis Story

“The Express” the Ernie Davis story is a documentary and biography about non-other than Ernie Davis. This film was written by Charles Leavitt and directed by Gary Fleder; however, prior to this storying becoming a movie it was originally a book which was written by Robert Gallagher. The setting of the movie mainly takes place in New York. More specifically it takes place at Syracuse University. The time period for this movie is during the 1940s when racism and discrimination are at their highest points. According to the website “boxofficemojo” the total gross domestic for this film was $9,793,406 with the release date of October 10, 2008. “The Express” is an exceptional movie that everyone should watch especially the younger generations,

A plot is the main events that are devised and developed by the writer. In this particular film we will look at the plot and why the storyline makes this movie an exceptional movie. This flick focuses on Ernie Davis and his head coach Ben Schwartzwalder. It focuses on the two as individuals and their relationship. Basically as the story line goes it starts with a little Ernie standing in front of a downtown business window that has a television set playing a MLB game. While standing and watching this game he asks his Pops who the black man playing baseball is. Pops reply’s with that’s Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the major league. Right then and there Jackie Robinson became Ernie Davis’s role model. As a child Davis started playing football and started making headlines as a young man. Scouts started lining up to talk to Davis during his senior year of high school. Coach Schwartzwalder and former player, Jim Brown went to Davis’s hometown to recruit him to play for Syracuse. As the documentary continues the audience gets the understanding that racism is present in colleges. Not very many college have allowed black players to play for their team no matter how much potential that individual has and what they will bring to the team. At the first practice of the season Ernie and another teammate butt heads hardcore and they end up getting into an altercation on the

The director shows just how much of an impact this has on Ernie when he is seen outside in the rain hitting the dummies just to release his anger. In the next scene we see Ernie on the ground crying. The game against West Virginia was a terrible yet a good experience for everyone on the team including coach. West Virginia played by different rules, they were one of the most racist’s teams ever. Not only was the team racist but also the fans. During this game Ernie does not fully listen to coach and is pulled to the sideline and benched. Where he then stands up to his coach and makes him think about how the rules down in West Virginia may just be like his rules on the field. Davis basically calls his coach a racist by not letting him play and proving to the world that just because his skin color is different does not mean his talents are any different than someone else’s. At the end of the West Virginia game Ernie experiences his first ever random nose bleed in the locker room, which signifies a very important event later on in the movie. At the end of the season Syracuse was offered to play in to bowls and of course they as a team chose to play against the number one ranking team, Texas, in the Cotton Bowl. Playing against Texas the team as a whole experienced racism and discrimination first hand when the hotel they are staying at does not