A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country.
Written by
JD-2
Plot Synopsis:
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The film was intended to be a straight drama, but during production Paramount Pictures executives demanded that Richard Pryor do comedic scenes as well.
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Richard Pryor was two years older than Olivia Cole, who portrayed his mother Jesse.
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Richard Pryor agreed to star in the picture if he was given director approval.
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The May 29, 1981 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that the screenplay of the movie was completely rewritten to suit Richard Pryor's style of comedy. Reportedly, Screenwriter Robert Boris greatly enlarged Margot Kidder's role as Toni Donovan as well.
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The film was released seven years after its source novel was published.
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The characters Paolo and Tommy Morelli are not featured in the ending credits, with no billing for the actors who portrayed them.
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Publicity for this picture stated that the movie's title design was designed by Deborah Ross, who went unbilled in the movie's credits.
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Richard Pryor became attached to this movie after the President of Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson, sent the movie screenplay and an attachment offer to Pryor.
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The December 14, 1981 edition of "New York Magazine" reported that executives at Paramount Pictures had deleted during the movie's post-production a large amount of the interracial love scenes between Richard Pryor and Margot Kidder regardless of the complaints made by both Kidder and Director Michael Pressman.
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The picture's Charity World Premiere, according to the March 10, 1982 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter", was scheduled to be held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with proceeds going to benefit the Foundation for Burn Research, and the Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, California. The latter was the medical facility where Richard Pryor had been treated for burns after his serious accident in June 1980, which nearly cost Pryor his life.
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The role of Eddie Keller was originally intended for a white actor in his twenties.
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Some movie posters for the film featured a long blurb that read: "The Army is doing it to him in the daytime. His wife isn't doing it to him at night. And his girlfriend charges him by the hour. Richard Pryor keeps getting caught with his pants down."
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Scenes at the Vietnamese prison camp were shot in Valencia, California, at the Indian Dunes at 28700 Henry Mayo Drive.
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One of two cinema movies that starred Richard Pryor that were released in 1982. The other being The Toy (1982).
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The first of two movies scored by Patrick Williams that featured two of comedy's top superstars. Richard Pryor in this movie, and subsequently, Best Defense (1984), starring Eddie Murphy, which was filming during the time this movie was released, and released by the same studio as this movie. Murphy got off to hot start with 48 Hrs. (1982), which was released by Paramount Pictures during Christmastime 1982, at the same time as Pryor's comedy, The Toy (1982) was released by Columbia Pictures. Murphy's movie became a blockbuster, and Pryor was a solid performer during this time frame with Murphy gaining great critical accolades from critics, and being touted as the heir to Pryor's comedic throne. Murphy and Pryor worked together on Harlem Nights (1989), on which Murphy wrote and directed for Paramount Pictures, which was one of his final movies on-screen before his health seriously started to deteriorate, and would be notable in Another You (1991), co-starring the late Gene Wilder.
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Richard Pryor and Margot Kidder also appeared in Superman III (1983) but did not share any scenes together.
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This film was not the first dramatic role for Richard Pryor, who had co-starred in Wild in the Streets (1968), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Some Call It Loving (1973), Hit! (1973), The Mack (1973) and Blue Collar (1978).
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First produced cinema movie screenplay of Screenwriter Robert Boris since Electra Glide in Blue (1973). Boris co-wrote the screenplay with James Kirkwood Jr.
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Debut produced cinema movie screenplay of actor, playwright, and the film's source novelist James Kirkwood Jr., who wrote the screenplay with Robert Boris.
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According to the April 12, 1982 edition of "Daily Variety", pre-production was escalated and fast-tracked, so production and post-production could be completed much earlier, due to a prior pending possible DGA (Directors Guild of America) strike commencing on July 1, 1981.
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The first of two movies scored by Patrick Williams starring Richard Pryor in 1982. The other being The Toy (1982).
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Character-actor Peter Jason plays an antagonist who bullies Richard Pryor in a bar. That same year, he played a bartender who insulted up-in-coming African American comic-actor Eddie Murphy (who holds Richard Pryor as a mentor) in 48 Hrs. (1982).
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This motion picture's closing credits declare: "Made in Hollywood, U.S.A."
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In the bank robbery scene you can clearly count 12 service stripes on Eddie's sleeve. Each stripe represents 3 years of service so that would make him having being in the Army for 36 years and only reaching the rank of Corporal.
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If the idea was to set up the protagonist, Eddie Keller, to be killed during the trade, why the gangsters bring any money?

This becomes even more unclear as the gangsters specifically state and plan on murdering him in advance of the actual meeting, rendering the need to bring any payment due to him irrelevant.
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