The Defense Department had banned virtually all media coverage of deceased vets returning home since the 1991 Gulf War until April 2009. But the military offered advice and assistance, providing Taking Chance's film crew with a rarely viewed, but painstakingly accurate account of the care and protocol bestowed upon the nation's fallen warriors.
When Lieutenant Colonel Strobl and Private First Class Phelps leave the hangar in Minneapolis there is a large Kalitta Air Charter airplane in the background. In 2007, Congress passed a law that military members were no longer to be returned to their families as cargo in the cargo hold of airliners as with Chance Phelps. The remains are now flown by Kalitta on their fleet of small jets.
Pfc Phelps Ribbons: high to low, top left. Purple Heart, combat action, good conduct, National defense, global war on terrorism, sea service deployment Lt Col: Navy MC commendation, combat action, Navy unit citation, National defense w/ one bronze star, SW Asia, sea service, Kuwait Desert Shield, Saudi Desert Storm
This film, like Bernard and Doris (2006) and Kenneth Branagh's version of As You Like It (2006), bypassed movie theaters in the U.S., and went straight to HBO, even though it was not actually made for television.
This is the second movie Kevin Bacon has played a U.S. Marine. He played a JAG Marine officer in A Few Good Men (1992).