Season Hubley once said of her role in this movie that it was "the most emotionally harrowing experience of [her] career."
Ramrod's apartment and the police station were the only sets created for the movie, everything else was shot on location.
In 1983, Dawn Steel and Martin Scorsese were at a Paramount dinner function when a disagreement allegedly broke out between them. Scorsese apparently said the Academy didn't have the guts to nominate the best movie of the year, which was this movie. About 24 years later, Scorsese won a Best Director Oscar for Les Infiltrés (2006).