Trailer
Plot summary
Ernie Davis grows up in Pennsylvania with his mother's family, then moves to Elmira, New York, after his mother remarries and can afford to raise him. He joins a Small Fry football league there and becomes a running back. At Syracuse University, coach Ben Schwartzwalder needs someone to take the place of the graduating Jim Brown, so he watches film of Davis playing for Elmira Free Academy and brings Brown along on a recruiting visit to the family. Davis commits to Syracuse. With the civil rights movement gaining ground, he runs into prejudice on campus, from townspeople and from opposing players, and sometimes from his own teammates. He pushes Schwartzwalder to stand up for his players.
Cast
- Justin Jonesas Young Will
- Elizabeth Shiversas Elizabeth Davis
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Express (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film shows Browns owner Art Modell handing Jim Brown his first jersey, but Modell had not even bought the team until four years after Brown joined it; the real Redskins-Browns trade behind that scene was actually arranged by coach Paul Brown without Modell's involvement.
- To recreate 1959 Syracuse, months of research went into rebuilding on film stadiums that no longer exist, such as Archbold Stadium, while buildings that were not yet on the Syracuse University campus, such as the Carrier Dome, had to be digitally removed from shots.
