WRITERS: John Ridley and David O. Russell.
PRODUCERS: Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt and Edward L. McDonnell.
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Alan Glazer
CO-PRODUCERS: John Ridley, Kim Roth and Douglas Segal.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Kelley Smith-Wait, Gregory Goodman and Bruce Berman.
ORIGINAL MUSIC: Carter Burwell and Richard Wolf (arangements and incidental music).
DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.
BOX OFFICE OPENING: $15.8 million (USA)
BOX OFFICE RESULT: $60.6 million (USA)
BUDGET: $75 million (USA)
- In the scene when they torture Mark Wahlberg's character with electric shocks, they shocked him for real. He said he wanted to get into the role, and since they had all the equipment there, they hooked him up and gave him a shock.
- In the original posters for the film, David O. Russell gets full writing credit, although the story is based on a draft written by John Ridley. It wasn't until Ridley took legal action that he received a "story by" credit.
- The scene where milk is dumped in the village was shot twice because the extras had not been told to start drinking the 'milk' after it was dumped, so the set had to be cleaned up and reshot.
- In the celebratory scene in the tent back at base camp, several soldiers are seen to be drinking what appears to be mouthwash. During the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia's Islamic-based ban on alcohol forced many soldiers to become more ingenious in obtaining their favorite vices. In this case, they asked loved ones to send them vodka with added blue food coloring in mouthwash bottles.
- This film was banned in Iraq.
- Tony Wiethoff was originally cast for the part of Cut Troy's Cuff Soldier but left the set due to disagreements with director Russell's scenes of torture on US soldiers.
- Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, who plays an Iraqi defector that sells Major Gates cars stolen from Kuwait, was in real life tortured and kicked in the eye by Saddam's forces, forcing him to go blind in one eye. Like many advistors and extras in the film, he is an actual refugee from Iraq.
- The propaganda leaflet with pictograms held by the officer with the megaphone is a copy of an actual leaflet used during the Gulf War to encourage Iraqi soldiers to surrender.
- At the beginning of the film there's a disclaimer explaining that the strange look of the film was intended by the director. The vibrant color is due to the fact that they used "Ektrachrome" slide transparency film instead of standard film stock, and the "bleach bypass" process actually gave the prints a much deeper black. The silver halide is completely opaque, thus a 'true' black. Leaving all of that silver on the prints resulted in a much higher cost for distribution however.
Troy: They do not work during the day!
Walter: Yeah, they kinda work.
Conrad: Make infected pockets full of bile, sir.
Archie: That's right, Conrad, that's what they do.
Troy: Stop speaking right now, Conrad!
Adriana: Yeah look at me, I've got my clothes on -- I'm dressed.
Chief Elgin: Hold on, we can help these people first, and then we can be on our way.