With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934 and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen. The scene where a soldier grabs a strand of barbed wire and then is blown up by an artillery shell, leaving only his hands still grabbing the barbed wire, was told to director Lewis Milestone by a former German soldier working as an extra, who saw that happen during a French attack on his position during the war. Milestone used it in the film.
Made for the then considerable sum of $1.25 million. The fact that production began only a few months after the 1929 stock-market crash puts into perspective the enormous gamble taken by Universal Pictures in making this film.
Nazi rabble rousers stormed screenings of the film in Germany, often releasing rats or stink bombs into the theaters, as the wounds of defeat in the First World War still ran deep. This led to the film ultimately being banned by the Nazi party. It wouldn't receive proper screenings in Germany until 1956, though it did play to packed houses in 1930 in neighboring Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands with special trains and buses being laid on to transport Germans to screenings.
The iconic final shot was filmed during the editing process. All the actors had left, so that is actually Lewis Milestone's hand that is seen in the final shot.
Around 2000 extras were utilized in the film, many of them Germans--including former soldiers--who had moved to the US after World War I.