Director Norman Jewison said of Denzel Washington in his autobiography titled 'This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me', "The camera loved Washington, he was intelligent, rebellious, totally confident, and spectacularly talented. He was so confident, he often thought he knew more than the director, but he watched and learned. He never believed the film was going to work, until after he saw it finished. He didn't stop being above it all, until he saw the film with an audience, and realized it worked".
Denzel Washington insisted on wearing glasses for his character and also for one sequence, a skull cap. Norman Jewison obliged.
This picture dealt with racism and racial themes, including what Norman Jewison calls "black racism" (racial discrimination by blacks against blacks). Jewison had previously examined the subject matter of racism in his earlier picture, In the Heat of the Night (1967). That movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning five Oscars, including the prestigious Best Picture. A Soldier's Story (1984) was also Oscar nominated for Best Picture, but didn't win.
Only actors Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington, and William Allen Young appeared in both this film and its original Negro Ensemble Company off-Broadway theater production in New York City.