A poster for this film was made by Pablo Picasso, and it was only one of two movie posters he made. He did it because he was a fan of Yugoslav films and, according to people who were involved in the production, he did not ask for money for the poster--all he wanted was a case of Yugoslavia's finest wines.
This is the most expensive Yugoslav movie ever made.
When a railway bridge was to be blown up, director Veljko Bulajic wanted it to look as real as possible, and thought that it would serve as a tourist attraction after the shoot. A full-scale replica railway bridge was built in Jablanica and blown up, but the smoke from the blast prevented any visible and usable shots. The bridge was then repaired, re-built for a second time and blown up again, with the same result. Finally, to capture the bridge being blown up, a small-scale miniature model was used.
This movie was originally released at 175 minutes but was reduced by its US distributors to 102 minutes.
This movie's massive budget was personally approved by then Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. It was the first of the Yugoslav World War II film productions to be sponsored by the Yugoslav government and with funds provided by 58 Yugoslav state companies.