According to Wikipedia, "while speaking at the University of Southern California, Jon Voight discovered the version of the film that had been shown to the students wasn't the theatrical version but instead (Director Hal) Ashby's original cut (which was considered lost). This was brought to the attention of Warner Home Video who released the Ashby Director Cut on DVD on June 30, 2009".
Only movie to co-star real-life father, mother, and daughter: Jon Voight, Marcheline Bertrand and Angelina Jolie. Voight's brother Chip Taylor is credited as "story consultant". Subsequently, Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie would appear together (as father and daughter) in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and Micheline Bertrand and Angelina Jolie both be executive producers on Trudell (2005)
Jon Voight once said of this film: "When I showed Burt Young the script, he wasn't sure. He wanted to work with me, but he couldn't quite figure it out. So I started acting out the scenes in his living room, and he started laughing and wound up saying he'd sell his house to do it."
Filming wrapped on November 21, 1980, the same day of the fire at the MGM Grand Las Vegas which claimed eighty-four lives. In a bizarre case of foreshadowing, when Hal Ashby first entered the hotel during production, he told the Production Designer: "That's funny. There are no exits."