Have you heard of Ernie Davis? If you have, you'll love "The Express," a classic sports biopic of the Syracuse running back who in 1961 became the first African American to win a Heisman Trophy.

And if you haven't -- well, you'll love "The Express," too, if only because Davis's story is so worthy of attention and respect. Born in 1939, Davis was reared by his grandfather in a Pennsylvania coal town until he moved to Elmira, N.Y., to live with his mother and stepfather. He quickly emerged as an athletic prodigy, and in 1959 he was recruited by Syracuse University, filling a space recently vacated by Jim Brown, who went on to become a superstar Cleveland Browns running back. (He even inherited Brown's jersey number, 44 -- but no pressure!)

Rob Brown portrays Davis with sympathy and restraint, but it's Dennis Quaid as Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder who provides "The Express" with its most fascinating figure. Schwartzwalder became a reluctant pioneer for civil rights as his integrated team withstood epithets, bottles and death threats while playing in the Deep South. Director Gary Fleder portrays the two men's complicated dynamic with observant humor and subtlety, for the most part avoiding the most bathetic sports-movie cliches.

But of course the best parts of "The Express" (whose title derives from Davis's nickname the Elmira Express) are the football games, reenacted in the movie with pulverizing accuracy. The two centerpiece games, with West Virginia and the University of Texas, bristle not only with physical action but also historical and political symbolism. "The Express" finesses a cinematic hat trick: It's entertaining, deeply moving and genuinely important.

-- Ann Hornaday (Oct. 10, 2008)

Contains thematic content, violence, racist profanity and brief sensuality.