The full-length portrait of Buffalo Bill astride his horse, that appears several times in the film, is based closely on a similar portrait by the French artist Rosa Bonheur, which hangs in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.
The film was entered into competition at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival in 1976, and won the top prize, the festival's Golden Bear. However, Robert Altman declined the award in protest over the re-cutting of the film at the hands of Executive Producer Dino De Laurentiis.
"Ragtime" author E.L. Doctorow has an unbilled cameo as an advisor to President Grover Cleveland (Pat McCormick). Robert Altman was set to direct the film adaptation of Doctorow's book, but Producer Dino De Laurentiis and Altman had a falling out, and Milos Forman took over the "Ragtime" project.
Paul Newman has claimed this to be one of his favorite films of his own. The others include The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and Slap Shot (1977).
This started out as a project re-teaming Paul Newman and Director George Roy Hill after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Although Hill dropped out of the mix in the intervening years, Newman remained on-board.