Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid and Clancy Brown in the Gary Fleder movie ‘The Express’

The 1983 Robert C. Gallagher book Ernie Davis, The Elmira Express: The Story of a Heisman Trophy Winner tells the story of multiple firsts in the impressive college career and illness shortened life of national champion, Heisman Trophy winner and Syracuse University football player Ernie Davis. We look at the Charles Leavitt screenplay for the Gary Fleder movie The Express (2008) that came from that book.

(From left, Rob Brown as Ernie Davis and Charles S. Dutton as Willie ‘Pop’ Davis in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The story of Ernie Davis begins with Davis growing up first in Pennsylvania and, in later in Elmira, New York. It is in Elmira that a young Ernie Davis first plays runningback in an organized youth football league. A number of years later, Ben Schwartzwalder of Syracuse University recruits Davis with the support of the graduating Jim Brown, who would go on to excel with the Cleveland Browns. Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid and Darrin Dewitt Henson would portray Ernie Davis as an adult, Ben Schwartzwalder and Jim Brown.

(Coaches from left, Dennis Quaid as Ben Schwartzwalder and Clancy Brown as Roy Simmons in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The sport of college football, a legacy of racism in Dallas, Texas made tangible through threats, and the effort to play The University of Texas at the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas for the 1959 championship on January 1, 1960 unfolds in the telling of The Express. An injured leg and biased officiating interject, as does further insult at the recognition banquet following the game. The outcome of both the game and the follow-up indicates something uplifting in the face of ugliness.

(From left, Rob Brown as Ernie Davis, Omar Benson Miller as Jack Buckley, Nicole Beharie as Sarah Ward and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Marie Davis in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

The story of Davis getting drafted by the Cleveland Browns, then of the National Football League (NFL), leads to the revelation of a life threatening disease during preseason efforts to get into condition for the coming season. The formal revelation by then owner Art Modell that the disease would keep Davis from formally fulfilling his professional dream happened matter-of-factly in the middle of practice. The formal announcement of the outcome was addressed with more class. Davis‘ recruiting of Floyd Little to Syracuse mirrors his own recruitment there with the aid of Jim Brown. Saul Rubinek and Chadwick Boseman portrayed Modell and Little, respectively.

(From left, Dennis Quaid as Ben Schwartzwalder and Darrin Dewitt Henson as Jim Brown in the Gary Fleder movie The Express).

As presented in passing in the movie, former United States President John F. Kennedy offered praise for Davis after the football player as a player and citizen following Davis‘ death. The tribute gave dignity to the sympathetic portrayal of Ernie Davis. I give The Express as directed by Gary Fleder 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, September 2, 2023

Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and Season Two of ‘Justified’

We first introduced you to the FX television series Justified (2010-2015) with our look into the first season in July. Brad Paisley reprises the closing thought of You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive in bringing the second 13-episode season of this addictive elegy of dysfunctional hillbillies feuding over crime, mining rights for the mountain, and a fleeting sense of a way of life in a community seemingly committed to a violent end. Throw in a sliding moral sense of interpersonal intimacy and trust that complicate definitions of family and friendship, and you have a sense for what season one and season two of Justified have had to offer.

(Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks, Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, Nick Searcy as Art Mullen, Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder, Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson and Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy from the television series Justified).

Central to the dysfunctional and blurred lines of friendship and family remains the complicated relationship of almost brothers, almost friends, and almost always murky yet tenuous bond between Boyd Crowder and US Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens. A gunfight at the end of season one cemented the tenuous bond and truce of sorts, which in part contributed to the end of the love interest of Givens Ava Crowder. Ava accepts Boyd into her home, where a complicated family history from the first season of Justified transpired, and led to a complicated transition of feelings between Boyd and Ava explored through the show’s second season. Additionally explored was a backstory for US Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks and her brother, as well as background introduced for Marshal Tim Gutterson.

(William Ragsdale as Gary Hawkins and Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins in the television series Justified).

The complicated love triangle between Raylan, the glue to many story lines in Justified, explored the romantic ties and questionable entanglements with the law and each other for Gary Hawkins and Raylan’s ex-wife Winona Hawkins. Winona married Gary before the first season began, yet comes to a place where she questions the emotional priorities of Gary, as she had with Raylan before him. True to the series name, much of these questions are justified, as our the questions Winona also levels at herself through the season. Shenanigans ensue that touch characters Wynn Duffy and US Marshal Art Mullen. The nature of the enlightened perspectives of Duffy and Mullen, while expressed in different circles and levels of justification for sure, offer plenty of interesting fodder for those interested in considering the gray areas of personal ethics that Justified takes pleasure in questioning. Particularly for me, these last two questions seem particularly relevant heading into the next season, as is the question of where Raylan and the Hawkins’ are headed.

(Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens, left, and Linda Gehringer as Helen Givens in the television series Justified).

Further glue arises in the relationship of Raylan’s father and aunt, respectively Arlo Givens and Helen Givens. Wishing to hold back spoilers, I offer plenty in saying that either Arlo or Helen take a frightful turn during season two of Justified. The story of these two intersect with Boyd and Ava Crowder, whose story lines echo one another in enough ways to stir some questions.

(Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett, left, and Brad William Henke as Coover Bennett in the television series Justified).

The intersection of Boyd and Ava to Arlo and Helen brings season two of Justified to the central story line, which arguably should have come up earlier in the best way to pitch this season. First, who are the Bennetts? Second, what is their concern with Loretta McReady and her father? Finally, where does this leave us as far as the larger drama of the season?

(Joseph Lyle Taylor as Doyle Bennett, left, and Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett in the television series Justified).

Mags Bennett is the matriarch of the Bennett family. The Bennetts and the Givens family have some degree of a feud occurring that dates back generations in Harlan, Kentucky. Doyle Bennett is a police sheriff and arguably the most intelligent of the three sons introduced during the second season of Justified. The other two are Dickie Bennett and Coover Bennett, who lean more towards the criminal enterprise portion of the family business. Of the three sons, Mags favors one child over the other two. Dickie is the screw-up brother while Coover is the brother lacking common sense yet purported to have an aptitude for cultivating marijuana.

(Kaitlyn Dever as Loretta McCready in the television series Justified).

The story of the Bennetts overlaps with Loretta McCready, a 14-year-old girl who faces interpersonal criminal behavior at the hands of members of the Bennett clan. Through the season, Mags warms to Loretta as the daughter she never had. Whether fate plays a fickle or steady hand for the Bennetts regarding the McCready family and Loretta as Loretta struggles to understand the fate of her father through the course of the second season of Justified is plenty of reason to watch the series. I personally am impressed with the second season. My overall grade for season two of Justified is 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, September 14, 2019