First role in a theatrical feature film of actor Harold Russell since his dual Oscar (Academy Award) winning performance in Los mejores años de nuestras vidas (1946). The interval between the two pictures was about thirty-four years.
In the film, Max's Bar features a "Superman" pinball machine depicting Christopher Reeve as Superman. The film's director Richard Donner had previously directed Superman: el film (1978) and also did uncredited directorial work on the Superman II (1980) which debuted the same 1980 year as Reencuentro con la vida (1980).
Director Richard Donner persuaded double-amputee actor Harold Russell to take a sabbatical from his work as head of the US President's "Commission for Affirmative Action on Hiring the Handicapped" to appear in the key supporting role of Wings in this film.
Though this film premiered in the USA on December 1980, the film was predominantly released during 1981 which was the International Year of Disabled Persons. The film features characters with disabilities but as described during the time the film was released as "handicapped citizens".
Richard Donner: Uncredited, on a window reflection, as a man who closes the ambulance which takes Roary to the hospital after his suicide attempt.