I've been hooked on a lot of TV recently. Fortunately with DVR it is things that I actually want to watch. The one thing that has absolutely dominated my interest as far as the boob tube goes is on of all places ESPN. Their original production of the Jonathan Mahler's The Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City.
This miniseries will hit home for a lot of people particularly those that lived in the area and/or where Yankee fans at that time focusing on the 1977 drive for the championship. I by no stretch of the imagination was a die hard Yankee fan but my family being originally from NYC and living with in 10 minutes of the city all did pretty much bleed blue and white pin stripes. I was a casual fan at best going along with what every one else was at that time with in my house hold. To all of us kids Reggie Jackson was the hero of the hour. The guy that we all looked up to. I couldn't even tell you why we just did (this was actually greatly encouraged by the our surroundings too which is very odd as I do not come from the most embracing back groud). Maybe because we all wanted to hit home runs who knows but he was the guy. In what was a tumultuous time in this country I can now see through this movie why so many families of Yankees fans hung to that team so much at a time when I was way to young to notice the other things that where going on. It was there hope there living outlet to beat the crap that was going on. My family was only about 10 years living outside of NYC and a lot of the issues that are mentioned in the film bankruptcy, crime, pollution and corruption are what drove them out in the first place.
The movie runs through varied sup plots of that same year Son of Sam, The Great Black Out, The Looting and a brutal mayor race. It captures the intense night life that continued even with all the madness going on a night life that I can distinctly remember some of my younger uncles and aunts being a part of.
The driving force of the film is the characters Billy Martin (John Turturro), George Steinbrenner(Oliver Platt) and Reggie Jackson(Daniel Sunjata)(and I would say the sleeper is Thurman Munson(Erik Jensen) I won't even get into the saint hood that man carried in my neighborhood. Not since the assassination of the Kennedys do I think a whole town mourned and that included Mets fans) The 3 main characters do a wonderful job of portraying humanity having you sympathise with them one moment and wanting to club them the next. Well except for Steinbrenner no self respecting New Yorker let alone Yankee fan would ever sympathise with George no matter how bad it got :).
That being said a lot has to go to the technical aspects that have gone into the movie. Once again much in the same vain as Grindhouse or Sky Captain we get to see the true power of CGI used for good. John Turturro as Billy Martin truly looking like he is stepping out to the mound on your 18 inch Magnavox that desperately needs the rabbit ears adjusted while Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto calls the action. The splicing and editing of old and new footage is incredible and the use of almost a hidden camera type shot in closed door conversations is great as well.
I hope when it comes time for this series to receive it's accolades that the folks behind the scenes are not forgotten about as they are a major contributing factor as to what is so great about it.
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