The Bronx is Burning: The Complete Series (review)

New York Yankees fans, who have not experienced World Series victory since 2000, will want to add ESPN's eight-part television series The Bronx is Burning to their DVD collection, reminding them of seasons past when they finished ahead of the Boston Red Sox. The series focuses on the 1977 baseball season in which the Yankees club, under the ownership of George Steinbrenner, garnered its first world championship after fifteen years in the baseball wilderness. On the other hand, Yankees detractors will love the dysfunctional nature of Steinbrenner's team. But viewers seeking the sociological insights into New York City provided by Jonathan Mahler's book, Ladies and Gentleman, The Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City (2005), upon which the series is based, will be disappointed. ESPN is not the History Channel.

The Bronx is Burning presents a baseball soap opera in which Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt) clashes with his temperamental manager Billy Martin (John Turturro) on how to handle the club's new superstar Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata). Yankees' general manager Gabe Paul (Kevin Conway) attempts to maintain some semblance of order on a club torn asunder by three massive egos. Martin resents the money lavished upon Jackson as a free agent, who in the eyes of the manager lacks the self-discipline and work ethic that characterized the Yankees dynasty of the 1950s and early 1960s. As a young player, the combative Martin compensated for a lack of talent with a ferocious will to win. The more cerebral Jackson, however, represented a time in which players enjoyed greater freedom and compensation. Nevertheless, his ego was every bit as large as that of his manager. On June 18, when Martin removed Jackson from the field for what the manager perceived as the outfielder's failure to hustle on a base hit to right field, the two men clashed in the Fenway Park dugout before a national television audience. Presiding over the Martin-Jackson saga was the Yankees owner and patriarch, Steinbrenner, who clearly favored his slugging free agent over the mercurial Martin. Steinbrenner's preference for terminating Martin, who led the Yankees to a pennant in 1976 before losing to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, was tempered by the manager's support from Yankees fans as well as players, who often resented Jackson. For example, a Jackson interview with Sport Magazine, in which the slugger described himself as the straw that stirred the Yankees, antagonized team captain Thurman Munson (Erik Jensen). The soap opera concludes with Martin reluctantly agreeing to Steinbrenner's demand that he bat Jackson fourth in the Yankees lineup. The team begins to jell, and the Yankees defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1977 World Series.

The performances in the series are generally strong. Sunjata captures the intelligence and moodiness of Jackson as a misunderstood superstar, but his chiseled body lacks the bulk of Jackson's frame. The heart and soul of the film is Turturro's interpretation of Martin as a man pursued by demons which leave him alienated and alone. Even achieving a world championship leaves Martin insecure and estranged from his family. Instead, he seeks solace in alcohol and female companionship. In fact, in the film's rendering of the Martin and Jackson egos, the aging manager seems to do better with the ladies than the celebrated player. A more questionable performance is provided by Platt. Platt is suitably bombastic and vain as the Yankees owner, with his bright-checkered jackets and constant combing of his hair. Yet in his bluster, Platt often comes off as whining, and one is left to speculate as to how this guy could ever be a successful businessman. Jensen as Munson is adequately gruff and rumpled, and Conway as Paul is solid as a sane man seeking to maintain some order within the madness of the Yankees clubhouse. Other key members of the 1977 Yankees, such as Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles, and Catfish Hunter...