November 20, 2008
'The Express' DVD to note WVU scene is fiction
By The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The DVD version of the sports movie "The Express'' will tell viewers that it contains fictionalized scenes, including one depicting West Virginia University that sparked complaints from the governor and other state residents.

Mountaineer fans are shown shouting racial slurs and throwing trash at Syracuse University's football team and its star player, Ernie Davis, during a 1959 home game.

The film celebrates Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. But Syracuse didn't play at Morgantown that year. Veterans from both teams say the incident never happened.

Universal Pictures has now told Gov. Joe Manchin that the DVD will include a statement to that effect.

The screenwriter recently told Manchin that WVU wasn't even in his version of the script.

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Nature Boy (10:57pm 11-21-2008)
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Studies show that WV natives become more entrenched in their unfounded beliefs when these beliefs are attacked...revealing an ingrained fear of thoughtfulness, and willing ignorance. All I want to show is the futility of your blind support of wvu...but you guys fail to see how they've poisoned your thinking. I pity you as I pitied Nero...and advise that you guys just keep playing your fiddles as wvu burns your state down. I'm sure Heather, Joe, Drunken Boy, Racist Bill, and Mike Garrison appreciate your support.


pride of wv? (9:55pm 11-21-2008)
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as soon as somebody complains about that scene i guess


truth in film (6:25pm 11-21-2008)
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When are they going to publish a disclaimer about "We are Marshall"? That stirring scene when the crowd chanted outside of the window was fiction, too.


Just a thought (5:59pm 11-21-2008)
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Just because that particular scene could not have happened (because the game was not played there that year) doesn't improve the national reputation of the WVU fans, which existed well before the movie was released. We have worked hard for that reputation, and we earned it, fair and square, movie or no movie. And no disclaimer can take that away from us.

The fact that the scene seemed plausible to moviegoers should be disconcerting to WVU fans.