'Express' runs the ball well
GARY FLEDER'S "The Express," which hits theaters in October, is really two compelling movies in one. It's a great history lesson, offering kids a look at the real-life exploits of Ernie Davis, the trailblazing Syracuse University running back who in 1961 became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. But it's also a great drama about how both the athletes and coaches of that era were profoundly transformed by the civil rights movement, which initially had a far greater effect on society than on the football field.
It's also a genuine comeback for Fleder, who hasn't made a feature in five years (he's been directing TV pilots), and he finally seems poised to recapture the promise of his early career work on such films as "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" and "Kiss the Girls." Before Fleder began work on the film, he knew he had to have one key figure on board: Jim Brown, who was a star running back at Syracuse in the 1950s, helped recruit Davis (after Brown left to play in the NFL) and later become an action film star and civil rights activist. Fleder didn't simply want Brown's take on Davis, who died in 1963; he wanted to hear what the former football star thought of Ben Schwartzwalder, the legendary Syracuse coach who wasn't so enthralled by the civil rights fervor that was starting to sweep the nation.
"I wasn't crazy about the original script," Fleder told me over lunch recently. "I loved the genre and I thought Ernie was an intriguing character, but it didn't have any real conflict." Fleder started doing his own research, reading a lengthy Sports Illustrated article by William Nack that dealt with Davis, Brown and racism in college sports in the '60s. He also watched Spike Lee's documentary "Jim Brown All-American," which offered more insight into the era. Finally he called Brown, who lives here in L.A., and set up a meeting.
"Jim was skeptical," Fleder recalls. "He thought the first script was a little thin. It was superficial and cloying and didn't give enough dimension to the story. But when he started talking about his own experiences, especially his conflicts with Schwartzwalder and how he was told he couldn't date white girls, I started to see a lot more drama there. Jim told me something really amazing that put things in perspective. He said, 'You have to realize, in the civil rights movement, there had to be radicals and peacemakers, radicals like Malcolm X and peacemakers like Martin Luther King. At Syracuse, I was the radical and Ernie was the peacemaker, the guy everyone loved. But you needed both of us to make real changes."
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