Customer Reviews

The Bronx Is Burning: World Championship (Limited Edition)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One Saturday afternoon with nothing on TV, I flipped to a channel that was having a marathon of this show. Three hours later my husband came home, said, "What are we watching?" and sat down beside me. Three hours after that, we only managed to tear ourselves away because a storm was coming and we had to unplug the TV. It was that good!

The series portrays the Yankees' tumultuous 1977 season against the background of the events in NYC that summer. Although the Yankees were loaded with colorful, over-the-top characters, the main focus is on the "relationship" between George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt) and Billy Martin (John Turturro). In a better world, George and Billy would've gone to couples counseling and learned to compromise for the good of the team, but in reality they crashed like a baseball-themed Hindenburg--repeatedly, and spectacularly. At the same time, the Son of Sam was terrorizing the city, an ungodly heat wave had everyone sweltering, a mayoral campaign was heating up, and a thunderstorm elsewhere on the power grid caused a blackout of the city. All the events seem to mirror each other, and all are recreated with authenticity. It's obvious that the producers researched the events and people well, and original news footage is mixed in to give a "you are there" feel.

As far as the acting, everyone does a good job, but Turturro and Platt especially stand out. Turturro seems to have a knack for taking abrasive characters and making them sympathetic--he did the same thing with Howard Cosell in "Monday Night Mayhem." And Platt is hilarious as Steinbrenner; he has the voice and mannerisms down pat. Daniel Sunjata makes a good Reggie Jackson, even though he doesn't really look or sound that much like the real Reggie. The rest of the cast also works well. Nice additional features are the interviews at the end of each episode--not just with Yankee players, but cops involved in the Son of Sam investigation, electric company workers, etc.

It'd probably be good to have a little baseball background to watch this, but you wouldn't need much; my husband has no interest in baseball and he enjoyed it just as much as I did. It would be good for couples to watch together, because whichever one wasn't interested in sports would probably be interested in the background events and vice versa. So even if you buy it for yourself, your significant other will probably be glad you did.

It's going, it's going, it is OUTTA HERE! The Bronx Is Burning turns its attention on a very specific time in New York City history and the result is a major league hit. There are even moments of (Forrest Gump/Zelig)-esque wizardry where documentary footage is kluged with new footage - it's never convincing enough to pass for real, but it's fun. Even without this techno-trickery the series succeeds in transporting viewers to a turbulent time in NYC history when a lot of things were going wrong all at once. The long overdue resurgence of baseball's legendary franchise, The Yankees, was just what the doctor ordered to help an ailing city feel better about itself.

The only missteps arise from sections devoted to Son of Sam and the Mayoral race; we're never quite certain how relevant these dramas are, or their relationship to the central story. The actual interviews of participants, by contrast, work very well. Interviews with Yankee players - including Jackson, sports writers, and Steinbrenner himself, add authority to the story and give a visceral sense of the sustained dysfunction that characterized the team that year. Only Martin is missing from these interviews - even in history he is trivialized.

The drama here arises from a tough drive to the World Series, but the action, and the fun, come from an ongoing battle between three myopic egos that never manage to put their differences aside. It is a battle of titans and they share the blame equally - indeed - given the situation it's a miracle the team made the playoffs. Steinbrenner - the owner - is a grandiose, bombastic micro-manager. Martin - a brilliant player and manager - demonstrates levels of passive aggression and self-destruction so profound they could be record setting. Jackson embodies the sports super-star celebrity nincompoop - he seems to have been invented to illustrate the phrase - "a legend in his own mind."

Turturro is amazing as Martin - Martin is a complex man, part megalomaniac, part hapless victim, part creep - Turturro expresses this entire range effortlessly. Daniel Sanjata has his hands full as Jackson - in many ways Jackson is a larger than life figure - just ask him. But Sanjata not only looks like Jackson, he manages to express Jackson's clueless narcissism faultlessly. But the real star turn of this terrific series is Oliver Platt as George Steinbrenner. Platt's portrayal of Steinbrenner is more like Steinbrenner than Steinbrenner ever was on his best day. Every minute Platt is on screen is a pleasure to watch. The Bronx Is Burning is an absolutely splendid piece of entertainment.

This was one of the best series I have seen in a long long time. I am NOT a yankees fan at all (its the mets for me), however, i was very impressed with the history of the team portrayed in this mini-series. The acting was excellent; the mingling of the "real-life" footage with the tv show made this show even more credible. You can actually get chills watching the scenes of the baseball games when they go back & forth with the real games and the acted ones - Besides loving the show, I looked forward each week to the "back-story" even more. Although I do love baseball, what makes this series so interesting, is all the other stories going on, other than baseball. I hope this series gets nominated for an emmy and certainly the actors deserve nominations as well! I only wish it wasn't over! Excellent, excellent, excellent!

ESPN really came thru with this show and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. One of the best sports miniseries I have ever seen.

"The Bronx is Burning" is ESPN's mini-series about the 1977 New York Yankees, when owner George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt), brought in Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata) to play for manager Billy Martin (John Turturro). Martin wanted Bobby Grich to play shortstop, not to mention wanting to bat Chris Chambliss clean-up instead of Jackson. The headlines are talking about how many games the Yankees are behind the Orioles and/or Red Sox as the summer gets hotter, but most of the drama is off the field. Will George fire Billy? Will Billy bat Reggie cleanup? Will Reggie ever stop saying things to the press that tick off his teammates? The answer is that in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, Reggie Jackson will hit three home runs, on three swings, off of three different pitchers.

The point going into this mini-series is that we know how it ends, or, at least, that the Yankees win the World Series, because there is still the aftermath of the victory, with Martin still tormented by his demons and the bit before the final credits where we find out what happened to the main characters in this little drama. The title "The Bronx is Burning" comes from what Howard Cosell said during the ABC telecast of Game Two of the 1977 World Series, where a large fire was raging out of control near Yankee Stadium. Jonathan Mahler used Cosell's words as the title of his book, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City." There are points where the series wants to be about more than the Yankees, focusing on the New York Police Department's pursuit of the Son of Sam killer, the blackout that saw widespread looting in the city, and the financial problems that would see Ed Koch end up as mayor of the city. But time and time again we come back to Steinbrenner, Jackson, and Martin, and it is always Martin who stands out, thanks to John Turturro.

Watching Turturro's performance as Martin I was reminded, of all things, of Robert Duvall's performance as Augustus McRae in "Lonesome Dove," because I knew I was once again watching a character actor at the top of his game. I know the Emmy nominations are a long way off, but Turturro has to be the one to beat for Best Actor in a Mini-Series. Platt's performance seems less and less like a caricature of Steinbrenner in each episode and Sunjata never seems to really nail Reggie, but Turturro is the one to watch. You can just see the tumblers of Billy Martin's mind turning every time you look at Turturro's eyes. I also thought highly of Joe Grifasi's performance as Yogi Berra, especially in his scenes with Turturro. Grifasi captures Berra as the calming influence on the Yankee's bench without ever resorting to his famous Yogiisms. I was skeptical of Christopher McDonald being cast as Joe DiMaggio, but was certainly impressed by the results.

In the first half of the mini-series The Son of Sam and the race for mayor New York City are big concerns, but by the time David Berkowitz is caught everything other than baseball gets out of the way. I would have preferred to spend that time looking at more of the Yankees besides Jackson. I mean, come on, should we really have more of Fran Healy (Loren Dean) than Thurman Munson (Erik Jensen)? Only if the focus in on Reggie, because Healy was the only Yankee with whom Jackson was on speaking terms. Healy does have a big moment, when he counsels Reggie to take begin benched for Game 5 of ALCS, but Munson was the heart of the Yankees during that period and there should be more of him. I hate to think that Mickey Rivers (Leonard Robinson) always trying to hit his teammates up for money to cover gambling debts should be the most memorable thing we get out of "The Bronx ix Burning" after all the stuff about Reggie Jackson (or should I say, "Reg-gie" Jackson?) on a team that has "Catfish" Hunter (Jason Kosow)?

I wonder if there were concerns with staying away from some of the other players because they went on to write books. You have Graig Nettles, who wrote "Balls," and Sparky Lyle's "The Bronx Zoo" (the latter is about the 1978 season, but it Lyle does touch on the previous year when he was the American League Cy Young Award winner). Granted, Reggie Jackson was the most colorful person on the team, but both Nettles (Alex Crammer) and Lyle were considerable characters in their own right and apparently nobody even plays Lyle in the series (they could glue on the mustache).

In the end, I round up on "The Bronx ix Burning" not only because of Turturro's masterful performance, but also because of the extras ESPN provides. The "Backstory" provided at the end of each episode when it aired on ESPN as well as all the things to check out at the show's website (e.g., "Go Back to 1977"), embrace the fact that this is a dramatization of what happened, and they are only capturing part of the story. This 3-disc DVD also loads the bases when it comes to extras.

Being a true baseball fan (redsox fan), i couldn't help but to watch this mini -series because i was only 8 years old in 1977 and i remember just seeing pictures of those games on the front page of the newspaper that i picked up (on peoples front lawns) walking to school and hearing people talkin about it. It was a classic time and baseball and broadcasting will never be that classic again. I think the show was very... very... GOOD... VERY TOP NOTCH STUFF and i will buy it on DVD. I hope ESPN does more series like this !!!

It is a terrific, hot weather mini-series by ESPN. New York City was having a very bad summer. Oppressive heat, power blackouts, followed by looting & fires. 1977 was the summer of the Son of Sam murders & the mayor's race was under way. The incumbent was losing badly.
Oh yeah, The Yankees. I love baseball & have always found George Steinbrenner to be disagreeable. His portrayal as the venal, greedy, ignorant owner of the Yankees is right on. It is a battle of the giant egos. His vs manager Billy Martin vs Reggie Jackson. It was described as a love triangle. Any two of them against the other. The acting is excellent. Real documentary footage is inserted expertly. There is also an insider, behind the scenes, look at baseball & the dirty business it can be. At least the way the Yankees operated (yet very sucessful I must admit). This is the perfect adjunct to the excellent pennant races that are now going on in both leagues. After each episode there is a brief back story with interviews that are most enjoyable.

Not a big baseball fan but always preferred the Yankees. This miniseries should be a time capsule for a time that many have only heard or read about. I was a kid in '77 but remember the blackout and Son of Sam and Billy Martin's famous tirade against Reggie Jackson. The inner workings of this team is what's fascinating. It's capture is so true of the time that it feels more like 1977 than I remember. Steinbrenner's portrayal is on point. He certainly hasn't changed his M.O. and at times his over-weening ego was very humorous to watch. All the actors work effortlessly to convincingly portray the real people on the Yankees of '77. That's what makes the series for me - true to life portrayals. Very cool.

I enjoyed all the different angles in which they covered all the important events of the time-not only baseball-nice touch.

As a diehard Red Sox fan, I found it difficult to make myself sit down and watch a movie about the dreaded Yankees. However, I found this to be a great series to watch.

Let's start with the obvious. It was a tumultous summer in the Bronx. The Yankees were losing, the Son of Sam was on the loose, and the economy was on the brink of a depression. This film focuses mainly on the Yankees (as it should have), but also touches upon the other important events going on outside of Yankee stadium. I wish they could have dedicated a little more on the outside events, because even though the Yankees win a World Series title, the other events gripped the country just as much. And the mix of actual news footage, mixed in with the film footage was very fluid. Sometimes it was only the grainy film look that could allow you to tell which was real and which was the movie.

The acting was terrific from top to bottom. Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me)as Reggie Jackson and John Tuturro as Billy Martin were definitely a great combo. I may not totally agree with the choice of Oliver Platt as Steinbrenner, but he is adequate in the role. All of the other supporting cast members did great as well. Look and see who you will recognize.

As sacreligious as it will be to purchase this, I plan on doing so. ESPN did a great job with this story. And any BASEBALL fan will love it too.