suns along the Mohawk

– a scene from “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (HBO 2013) filmed at N. Church & Front Streets in the Stockade –

  You may recall our post MAGF memories, which told about an HBO film crew coming to the Stockade on May 11, 2012 to film the movie “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” in and around 17 Front Street.  That Stockade home, where Gov. Yates once lived, was used to depict the Georgetown home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan II.  The movie did not appear on HBO until late last year. Go here for its HBO homepage. It tells the story of Muhammad Ali’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after he was indicted for refusing on religious grounds to fight in the Vietnam War (and was stripped of his Heavyweight Champion title).

 The dvd of Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight has finally arrived at the Schenectady County Public Library, and I watched it this week.  I think the movie was well worth my time, with the legal issues and the likely interactions in the Court chambers presented realistically.  (Having lived a couple decades in both Washington, D.C. and the Schenectady Stockade, I can say without fear of contradiction that the most unrealistic part of the movie was making it look like it’s easy to find a parking space in Georgetown or the Stockade.) Naturally, I wanted to see how the Stockade scenes were presented in the movie.  There were two scenes in and around 17 Front Street.  One of them is shown at the top of this page, and appears at about 72 minutes into the movie, when Mrs. Harlan wanders out at  night across the street from her “home”.  The other comes at 34 minutes into the movie, and starts with a scene of characters coming to the house for Sunday dinner.  Here’s one screen-shot from that scene:

– a scene from the movie showing the façades of 15 and 17 Front St. –

If you can, see the movie for its depiction of two issues (the Vietnam War and treatment of Blacks) that were an important part of that era and, of course, to learn more about two fascinating American heroes, Muhammad Ali and the second Justice Harlan. And, to see a little slice of the Stockade.

  p.s. That red Chevy Impala parked on N. Church Street got star treatment in my webposting about the movie shoot in May 2012.  It was humorous to see cars made during my youth referred to as “vintage” in a flyer about the movie shoot posted by the production crew. My friends and I now occasionally refer to ourselves as vintage.